Hello students.
I'm Molly Spearman, South Carolina
State Superintendent of Education.
There's no issue more important
than your safety and well being.
We need you to show up to school
each day ready to learn, and
we need your help to identify and
report any suspicious activity.
The video that you're about to
watch will provide guidance and
scenarios that will help you identify and
respond to potentially dangerous words and
actions.
By working together with your teachers and
administrators, we can ensure that
every South Carolina school has a safe and
fun learning environment.
[MUSIC]
You've noticed that a friend
has begun to say and
do things that worry you.
He told you he is tired of
people persecuting him.
But the examples he gives do
not seem reasonable to you.
He has gotten into several bad fights
with other youth in his neighborhood.
And he mentioned that he has hit
his mother several times recently.
Last Tuesday, your friend mentioned that
he has spent a lot of time on the internet
reading about school shootings and
he understands why some
students carry them out.
Shortly after you arrived
at school this morning,
your friend told you that you should
not be in the cafeteria during lunch.
When you asked him why,
he said that he doesn't want
anything bad to happen to you.
Before you can ask what he means,
your friend turns and walks away.
You feel very uneasy about the way
your friend has been acting and
what he has just said.
What would you do?
Would you talk to an adult?
If so, who would you talk to and
what would you tell them?
If you don't know the answers to
these questions, now is a good
time to consider them just in case you
ever have to make this type of decision.
This resource has been developed to help
you and other students become more aware
of behaviors that could
lead to school violence.
>> No one can assure
the safety of all students and
school employees against school violence.
And, there are no guarantees that any
combination of safety measures will be
100% reliable in preventing
acts of violence.
However, alert students and
school employees have actually prevented
many otherwise imminent school shootings.
>> If your response to this
scenario was to promptly talk
to a responsible professional
such as a teacher,
school counselor, school administrator,
law enforcement officer or
other responsible adult,
you would've handled the situation well.
Your actions would allow a team of
professionals to evaluate the situation to
see if your friend needs help.
>> Bringing concerns of this type to a
responsible adult is often one of the best
ways to protect yourself,
your friend, and others.
There have been numerous
times where students and
adults exhibited what is known as
leakage by making statements or
behaving an alarming
ways prior to an attack.
>> The challenge is figuring out
whether someone who has made a threat
actually poses a threat.
So, the more information officials
have about individuals who exhibit
questionable behavior or
make questionable comments,
the greater the chances that officials can
accurately determine whether a person who
has made a threat actually poses a threat
and if the person does pose a threat,
how to manage the situation so
that no one gets hurt.
There are patterns of behaviors
that can help identify youth
who are at increased risk for a variety
of negative outcomes, including violence.
These are known as early and
imminent warning signs of
destructive youth behaviors.
>> Before we look at these warning signs,
it is extremely important to understand
that there is no reliable
profile of a school shooter.
While we often see references to
stereotypical descriptors of students
who carry out active assailant attacks
at schools, extensive research by
the United States Secret Service and
the United States Department of Education,
has determined that attempts to
use profiles are unreliable.
>> In reality, attackers have sometimes
been more different from one another
than they are alike.
>> Attempting to categorize students as
being more or less likely to pose a danger
based on attributes such as gender,
ethnicity, weight, family income levels,
popularity, and other factors common
to many students is unreliable.
>> Instead, researchers have
compiled a list of early and
imminent warning signs that,
when exhibited in groupings or
in a certain context, can help identify
youth who are at increased risk
of negative outcomes, which can,
in some cases, include violence.
>> Being aware of warning signs can help
you make difficult judgment calls if you
have concerns.
If the situation does not feel right
to you, go with your intuition and
talk to a responsible
professional about your concerns.
>> Sometimes, students as well
as adults dismiss statements and
behaviors of concern because they believe
that violence could never happen here.
In fact, this phrase is very
common after a school shooting.
Therefore, if you see or hear something
that concerns you, say something.
>> Early warning signs of
destructive youth behaviors,
which include the following,
should be viewed primarily as indicators
that a student may need help.
Early warning signs.
Not interacting with friends,
fellow students, and teachers.
Excessive feelings of isolation and
being alone.
Excessive feelings of rejection.
Being a victim of violence.
Feelings of being picked on and
persecuted.
Low school interest and
poor academic performance.
Expression of violence in writings and
drawings.
Uncontrolled anger,
patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting.
Intimidation and bullying behaviors,
a history of discipline problems.
A history of violent and
aggressive behavior
Prejudicial attitudes and
intolerance for differences, drug and
alcohol use, affiliation with gangs,
inappropriate access to,
possession of, and use of firearms,
serious threats of violence.
Imminent warning signs, on the other hand,
indicate a higher degree of risk, and
the need for even more rapid or
immediate intervention.
Imminent warning signs.
Serious physical fighting with peers or
family members,
severe destruction of property, cruelty
to animals, detailed threats of violence,
inappropriate possession and/or
use of firearms and other weapons.
Self-injurious behaviors,
or threats of suicides.
>> The research shows that it is important
to focus on the words, actions, and
other behaviors you see rather
than who the student is,
your relationship with them,
or what they look like.
This can help prevent either positive or
negative bias from affecting your
ability to detect situations that should
be brought to the attention
of a responsible adult.
>> The Federal Bureau of Investigation
recently produced a report which
highlights pre-attack behaviors of
active shooters in the United States.
The report highlights that for active
shooters under the age of 18, teachers and
fellow students were often
the most likely to see or
hear behaviors of concern
prior to the attack.
The FBI notes further,
that each attacker displayed an average
four to five concerning
behaviors before the attack.
One such concerning behavior is
an individual's inability to let go of
feelings of having been wronged.
Referred to as injustice collectors,
in the Secret Service and
Department of Education research,
these individuals may have a laser-like
sustained negative focus
on a single situation or
a number of situations in which
they perceived they were wronged.
While all people experience instances
where they feel they have been wronged by
others.
Injustice collectors tend to harbor
grievance for an extended period of time.
>> As a reminder, the presence of a single
or multiple warning signs does not
automatically indicate that a student
has an increased risk for violence.
Rather, it's an indication that
the student may be at risk and
some type of action or
intervention is needed.
Generally speaking, the greater
the number and variety of early and
imminent warning signs, the greater the
need is for prompt intervention by adults.
Consider this scenario, you are at school
and you overhear someone saying, "People
are gonna die here tomorrow." Which of
the following do you think you would do?
Shrug it off and
assume that the student doesn't mean it.
Talk to one of your friends about what
you heard and ask them what to do.
Promptly talk to a school employee or
law enforcement officer.
It is not possible to tell from this
information whether the student actually
poses a threat or not.
However, the very nature
of what has been said
implies that the student could
have an intention to kill people.
Therefore, you should promptly
talk to a school employee or
law enforcement officer.
Of course, concerning statements
expressed via social media
can have the same meaning as
those communicated in person.
>> Consider the following scenario.
You are on social media looking through
your friends' posts when you see that
one friend has posted a photograph
of themselves holding a firearm.
With the comment, "Tomorrow, they will all
pay for their crimes." What would you do?
Report the incident to
the social media site?
Ignore it and
think your friend was having a bad day?
Immediately talk to a school employee or
law enforcement officer?
As the following case shows,
ignoring this type of social media
post can be the wrong thing to do.
A student in England made repeated threats
on social media that he was going to cause
harm to one of his teachers because he
felt the teacher was picking on him.
This student went on to kill
his teacher during a class
after no one reported the post to
the school or law enforcement officials.
Whether the threat is made by text or
email, on social media or
in person, the message itself
determines what you should do.
By being more aware of early and imminent
warning signs and pre-attack behaviors and
committing to reporting such behaviors to
responsible adults, you and other students
can play an important role in preventing
or reducing the risk of school violence.
I know this is a very difficult subject,
but
please remember by working
together with your teachers and
administrators you can make your
school an even safer place.
Thanks for
watching.
