{"id":22,"date":"2009-04-20T16:36:41","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T20:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/?p=22"},"modified":"2009-04-23T12:44:07","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T16:44:07","slug":"resources-wake-up-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/resources\/warning-signs\/resources-wake-up-call\/22\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake-Up Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"captionRight\">\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-34\" title=\"15 crosses at Columbine\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/files\/2009\/04\/inline-columbine.jpg\" alt=\"15 crosses at Columbine\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" \/>An unidentified woman looks at 15 crosses posted on a hill above Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Wednesday, April 28, 1999 in remembrance of the 15 people who died during a shooting rampage at the school. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>According to a federal study, the odds that an American student will die in high school from violence are one in a million \u2013 or even less.<\/p>\n<p>While major episodes of school violence are rare, the survey concluded that signs of mental illness in the adolescents who carry out these crimes are not. It found that most school shooters have a history of suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, depression or anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, experts say, the majority of these killings are pre-meditated. They are also carried out by kids who harbor severe, specific fantasies of violence.<\/p>\n<p>What causes kids to act out a violent fantasy? According to the experts, two major factors include mental illness, and social isolation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have so-called normal violent fantasies, which are not intended to be realized because there is too much at stake,\u201d says Dr. Frank Robertz, co-founder of the Institute for Violence Prevention and Applied Criminology in Berlin. \u201cIf a kid has good social bonds, good attachment to other people, and a good involvement in society&#8211; all that stuff that prevents them from realizing such a deed.\u00a0 But if you do not have these bonds &#8211; these protective factors &#8211; you are more likely to do a grave deed.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"captionRight\">\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-37\" title=\"Students embrace after a memorial service\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/files\/2009\/04\/inline-schoolviolence2.jpg\" alt=\"Students embrace after a memorial service\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" \/>Students embrace after a memorial service on the third anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., on Saturday, April 20, 2002. Friends and family released balloons in memory of the 13 victims. (AP Photo\/Ed Andrieski)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Dr. Robertz studies the kids behind the school shootings so familiar to us now we reference them in shorthand: Columbine, Paducah, Pearl, Jonesboro, Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech. Overseas, too \u2013 in Finland, and in Robertz\u2019s native Germany. In March of this year, a teenager in Winnenden, Germany, went on a shooting spree that began at his former school and ended with 16 dead. The gunman, age 17, shot himself after a confrontation with the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese school shootings destroy the community \u2013 not only the people who are left dead after the incident, not only the victims, but also their relatives,\u201d says Robertz. \u201cAlso the people who are at school who saw this event, also officials who are responsible for the health of their kids at school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robertz focuses on the fantasies of these shooters, which he says are often aired publicly before the killings are carried out. From private diaries, to home videos, Web pages and school papers \u2013 the perpetrators of school shootings have almost always put the word out about their grievances and their plans well in advance of carrying them out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they want to get in touch with us,\u201d Robertz says. \u201cThey send us signals along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>SOME EXAMPLES<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<div class=\"captionRight\">\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-36\" title=\"A Northern Illinois University police officer, center, helps a victim after a shooting on the campus in DeKalb, Ill.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/files\/2009\/04\/inline-schoolviolence.jpg\" alt=\"A Northern Illinois University police officer, center, helps a victim after a shooting on the campus in DeKalb, Ill.\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" \/>A Northern Illinois University police officer, center, helps a victim after a shooting on the campus in DeKalb, Ill., in this Feb. 14, 2008, photo. In an interview with the Associated Press, NIU Police Chief Donald Grady said the shootings resulting in the deaths of five students, was the ugliest test of his career. It was a test that would draw on three decades of military and police work. (AP Photo\/Northern Star, Jim Killam, File)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Before killing 32 people at Virginia Tech \u2013 the single deadliest incident by a lone gunman in U.S. history &#8211; Seung-Hui wrote: \u201cKill yourselves, or you will never know how the dorky kid that you publicly humiliated and spat on will come behind you and slash your throats. Kill yourselves or you will never know the hour the little kid will come in with hundreds of ammunition on his back to shoot you down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before he killed two students and wounded 22 others in Springfield, Oregon, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel wrote this on a Spanish worksheet:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will hunt you down and put a hole in your head. With explosives\u2026RIP. You must DIE.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made a home movie for school about wanting to kill their classmates, in addition to a \u201cto do\u201d list \u2013 including the purchase of bombs and guns &#8211; leading up to the massacre.<\/p>\n<p>By studying these warning signs, Robertz and his co-workers have developed strategies they say can help identify students at risk for acts of violence, before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion every one occurrence [of school violence] which has happened would have been preventable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Robertz, who has interviewed school shooters, adds that his most surprising finding is how often these kids cry for help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of the school shooters actually said&#8211; if someone would have approached me with how I\u2019m feeling, what goes on in my mind, I would have told them,\u201d he says. \u201cSo if teachers actually approach kids, they have a very high chance that they will talk about what\u2019s going on in their minds, and will talk about their violent fantasies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>**For more facts on school violence, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.safeyouth.org\/scripts\/index.asp\" target=\"_blank\">National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center online<\/a>. The Center, founded in 1999 in response to the massacre at Columbine High School, offers information and statistics on youth violence and prevention, and intervention strategies for the general public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unidentified woman looks at 15 crosses posted on a hill above Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Wednesday, April 28, 1999 in remembrance of the 15 people who died during a shooting rampage at the school. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay) According to a federal study, the odds that an American student will die in high [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4621],"tags":[4639,330,4623,4638,8529],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-warning-signs","tag-adolescence","tag-education","tag-mental-health","tag-school-violence","tag-statistics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Resources ~ Wake-Up Call | Cry for Help | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/resources\/warning-signs\/resources-wake-up-call\/22\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resources ~ Wake-Up Call | Cry for Help | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An unidentified woman looks at 15 crosses posted on a hill above Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. 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