Educators Hear Tips on Averting Violence

Citing recent incidents in which officials have punished students for making violent comments, a Los Angeles Police Department psychologist said Saturday that educators need to learn the difference between a serious threat and an immature comment.

Talking to a group of 200 Los Angeles Unified School District counselors and on-campus police officers who gathered for a workshop on assessing and responding to threats, Kris Mohandie cautioned administrators about knee-jerk reactions that lead to unnecessary expulsions.

“All threats are not created equal,” he said, illustrating his point with a recent Pasadena incident that he called an overreaction.

“Sure you need to investigate,” he said, “but what people have to do is think about what is the context.”

Last week, a Pasadena high school senior was jailed after another student reportedly overheard the 18-year-old say he hated school and wanted to blow it up. The accused student, who is still in custody, says it was a joke.

Since a deadly high school shooting in Santee that left two dead and 13 injured March 5, at least 12 students in Southern California have been arrested on suspicion of making threats at school or to their classmates.

A 15-year-old Van Nuys boy who allegedly threatened on the Internet to kill at least 75 of his classmates was charged Friday with three felony counts of making terrorist threats.

A Thousand Oaks middle school student was arrested for allegedly compiling an online hit list, and an Orange County student was picked up for allegedly making a threat that prompted nearly 2,000 students to stay home.

A 16-year-old student at Landmark Christian School was arrested Thursday on suspicion of making terrorist threats after he allegedly said he was going to kill his mother and other students, Lancaster authorities said.

Saturday’s session was part of a larger effort by L.A. Unified to make schools safer. Using $4.3 million in state funds earmarked to curb school violence, the district workshops, which started this month, train counselors and on-campus officials.

“Crisis management teams” made up of those who are trained will deal with potential threats in elementary, middle and high school. Director of School Operations Willie Crittendon said he hopes to have the teams in place before June.

On Saturday, Mohandie showed films, including one of a teenage school shooter, cited historical examples of school violence dating back to 1927, and passed out a 45-page book outlining how to manage school violence. He repeatedly used the phrase “identify, assess and manage.”

“It’s a critical issue,” said counselor Linda Aragon, who volunteered for the workshop. “It’s not something to ignore.”

Factors that may lead to school violence include an unstable family, being ostracized at school and growing feelings of inadequacy, Mohandie said.

Some of those played a role in the Santee shooting, he said. The alleged gunman, Charles Andrew Williams, had his safety nets--including friends and home--taken away, leaving the boy overwhelmed, Mohandie said.

“These kids are going from a position of powerlessness to omnipotence” by picking up a gun and becoming “judge, jury and executioner,” he said.

Although Mohandie could not say how many signs it takes to determine if a student will follow through on a threat, he stressed that there are warnings and that students do not go on spontaneous shooting rampages.

In 75% of school shooting incidents, people have noticed signs such as violent threats, harassing phone calls or graphic drawings, he said. A 15-year-old in Oregon bragged of torturing animals and building bombs before opening fire in his school cafeteria in 1998. He killed two and wounded 24.

Educators should ask themselves if there is evidence to suggest that the student is moving from thought to action, Mohandie said. The more focused, fixed or urgent the person is about violence, the greater the worry.

School officials like Sharon Seman, an elementary and junior high counselor in the San Fernando Valley, are struggling to correctly evaluate students’ behavior.

“One little girl wrote a story about how she was going out to the forest, started chopping down trees and then thought about chopping up people,” Seman recalled, remembering how she was initially concerned. “. . . Fortunately, by the end of the story, she has resolved it wasn’t good to kill people.”

Seman is still concerned about a boy who relates his recurring dreams of killing people. If a student’s disturbing behavior continues and violent threats are made, a psychologist should be brought in or, in extreme cases, the student should be suspended or arrested, Mohandie said.

The most important tool in averting school violence is awareness, he said. After the Columbine shooting in Colorado, school violence nationwide plummeted, Mohandie said, but less than three years later, there has been an increase.

“That denial that it couldn’t happen here is settling back in,” he said.