School Officials Learn From the Violence of a Troubled Teen

Sounding the final mournful note in the tragic song that had become his life, 18-year-old Jason Hoffman hanged himself earlier this week in a jail cell.

You could argue that it ends things. It ends his life, and it ends the saga that unfolded last March when Hoffman went to school one morning at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon and shot five people. The five all have recovered, and maybe Hoffman’s suicide puts everything to rest.

After reading published excerpts of the forlorn suicide note Hoffman left, however, I was hoping that his death doesn’t end things. In the same way we now worry that we can’t stop all terrorists, must we also accept our inability to identify all tormented youngsters?

The question I put to education and mental health officials is whether schools can spot not just those who turn violent, but those teens who may be as psychologically or mentally unhealthy as Hoffman but who stop short of shooting other people.

“That’s a question that a lot more people should be asking, but unfortunately, I don’t think it is,” says Alan Albright, a manager in Orange County’s Behavioral Health services.

He sees good news on the front lines. The Orange County Department of Education is setting up a “crisis response network” that will put troubled students in touch with mental-health professionals.

With 28 districts and a couple hundred campuses, Albright says, Orange County schools won’t all react in the same way when confronted by troubled students.

So a school that can’t handle a student’s problem--which could range all the way from depression to grief to potentially violent tendencies--can get quick help from someone in the network.

That sounds good--if those students are spotted in time.

“If you have a normal kid who’s been acting normal, and one day comes in with a gun and does something, there’s probably no way to predict it was going to happen,” Albright says. “But whenever anyone--from a parent to a sibling to an aunt or uncle or football coach--notices that a child who traditionally has been acting OK suddenly starts to change and whose behavior is dramatic enough to indicate something is wrong, it’s kind of natural to step in and say, ‘Are you OK?’ without needing a PhD to do it.”

Rob Bachmann coordinates health and wellness programs for the county education department. “What we’re talking about is connecting with children, be it teachers, principals, school nurses or custodians,” Bachmann says.

Yes, schools are asked to do lots of things, but Bachmann says they can help spot students with significant mental-health problems too. He envisions a day when adults at school may have the same requirement to report signs of psychological problems as they now do when they see indications of physical abuse.

Are schools good at that? Is it even their job to do that?

“Since you’re asking me, a health person, I’m going to say, ‘Yes, it is,’ ” Bachmann says. “People say parents are responsible, and schools aren’t equipped to do it. School is the perfect place to get the ball rolling. We have them there, there’s a connection, we have a duty not to look the other way.”

The issue is too complex to address fully in this space. But the several professionals I talked with all said schools can and should play a role in trying to spot troubled youngsters as early as possible.

If not, in the worst cases, we’re left with words like these from Hoffman’s suicide note:

“My heart goes out to the victims. I want people to know that what happened was not the real me. . . . The person was not the true Jason Hoffman.”

In San Diego County, where Hoffman vented his violence, school officials have taken heed. Rather than dismiss Hoffman solely as a statistical aberration, civic leaders have tackled the problem of identifying troubled students, said Mark Pettis, Grossmont Union High School District spokesman.

“It’s not a question of, ‘Is it our job and can we do it?’ ” Pettis says. “It’s that it has to be done and let’s move forward. Losing them [students] is not acceptable.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.