The Secret Service released its exhaustive report on targeted school violence for 41 incidents occurring 2008-2017, in Nov. 2019. I will invest several blogs in highlighting the findings for you. You can read it in its entirety at: https://www.secretservice.gov/protection/ntac/research/
What do we know about the attackers?
FACT: In the 41 cases studied, 83% of the attackers were male, 17% female. 26% were white, 6% black, 2% Hispanic. All were students or former students at the school they attacked, though this is not always the case.
These statistics show that whites are significantly more likely to do these types of attacks than blacks or Hispanics, which are significantly lower than would be expected by the US population at large. Interpretations of this run the spectrum. See below for some further insights.
FACT: About one third indicated they were acting on grievances they had, with about 2/3 of those related to bullying by other students, and one third to grievances with staff. 15% had a desire to kill; 17% were suicidal; 4% desired fame; 5% were exhibiting psychotic symptoms.
Bullying is a major problem in schools, as young people typically do not have the emotional wherewithal to know how to deal with it. This is usually exacerbated by school administrators who ignore it and parents who raised “angels.”
FACT: Prior to the attacks. 69% showed observable and troubling “psychological” behavior, and 40% had a diagnosis of mental health issues. 57% had behavioral issues (40% of which were rebellion against authority) prior and 20% had developmental issues.
Quite often when we hear of any mass murder we find that people who knew the attacker indicated that they had given signs for some time prior, which were ignored. These may be anything from social media posts to interactions with police. Restraint should be exercised when examining social media, as people tend to be much bolder in writing than in person, but clear threats must be investigated promptly.
Kids today are over medicated to control them. It is no wonder that underlying mental issues are never dealt with, just suppressed.
FACT: 51% of these attacks were perpetrated by those who had violence reported to police but without arrest. Though there are no stats on lack of cooperation and sharing of information, clearly we have a weak link with law enforcement not sharing information, and this is a system set up by President Obama to keep minority kids out of the legal system, to make large urban crime rates look good. It is obviously an abject failure.
FACT: 71% of attackers came from a home with divorced or separated parents.
In these times of diversity and political correctness, it remains a fact that generally kids are most successfully raised in a family with a mother and a father.
So, where does it all lead? We have strayed far from the logical concept of blaming the perpetrator and holding them accountable. This notion has failed in many cases in the home, and more often, in schools, and then in our communities by self-serving politicians. Few criminals in general believe they will be caught and punished.
It is a fact that a child who is not taught to respect and obey parental authority will have a seriously troubled path when confronted with school and then civil authorities. Each party has a part to play in the equation of kids being assigned to adults who should know better and act in their best interests.
We can go back a generation or two and note when the schools started falling apart, and two things happened to start the downward cycle. God was eliminated from the schools and unions took over the teaching profession. Fifty+ years later we see the disastrous combination’s results.
Though in another blog we will deal with the weapons aspects of the attacks, let it be said now that there is no evidence that anybody but the perpetrators were culpable, and that no inanimate objects came to life to attack kids. Attempts to find a villain in firearms from this comprehensive report is futile.
There is much more to this report, and we will continue to examine it. If the 68 page report could be summarized in a few words, it would be that the vast majority of emphasis on stopping these mass murders is misdirected, politically-based, and logically unsound.