WHEN WILL IT END?

Despite a concerted effort to stop them, school shootings have become a tragic hallmark of this generation

FOCUS: Why School Shootings Persist

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students consider the phenomenon of school shootings: why, though overall school violence is down, such shootings have risen in the past few years.

Discussion Questions:

* What do you think is the cause of the recent rash of school shootings?

* A high school student working as an intern at UPFRONT said he believes that parents who abdicate control of their children must shoulder much of the blame for violent teens. Do you agree? Should parents face punishment if their children turn violent?

* Some potential shootings have been averted because of reports by teens. What would cause you to report a fellow student as potentially dangerous?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Critical Thinking: Focus on the "why" of school shootings. Have students identify reasons for shootings, as cited by experts in the article. Note the "Columbine mold"--angry male loners who are victims of bullying. (The American Psychological Association identifies a need for attention or respect and feelings of low self-worth as factors that contribute to teens' violent behavior.)

Do students agree with the causes cited? Rank them in order of importance. Is "zero tolerance" a solution? (See Opinion, page 26.) What solutions would students propose? Might some possible solutions violate students' rights? (See UPFRONT, February 19.) Next, have students consider "World View" (page 11). Does it suggest possible solutions? What conclusions can students draw about gun control and countries' cultural differences?

Finally, bring up bullying. How would students define it? Have they experienced it? Is it sometimes truly just a joke? Have students write a code in which they identify types of bullying. At what point should bullying be banned--only when it gets physical? Can students suggest ways to involve parents and/or community leaders in efforts to head off violent behavior?

Debate: Do the news media convey an exaggerated sense of danger in their coverage of school shootings? Debate whether a news blackout should be tried to prevent copycat killings. Would a blackout violate the First Amendment's protection of a free press? Could a blackout be enforced in the age of the Internet?

Web Watch: See Upfront Online's report on school violence at nytimes.com/upfront

Here's what happened in the week after Charles Andrew Williams killed 2 classmates and injured 13 last month at Santana High School in Santee, California: A distraught teen in Covington, Washington, waved a gun around his classroom, before students talked him out of using it. A freshman in Harlingen, Texas, was expelled after officials found a letter of his containing a 40-name hit list. In northern Arizona, another teen with a list told police of his plans to steal his father's handgun and kill seven classmates. A 14-year-old girl at a Pennsylvania parochial school shot and wounded one of her classmates. And in California, Texas, Indiana, Alabama, North Carolina, and New Jersey, among other states, dozens of teens were arrested, suspended, or placed under observation for bringing guns to school or threatening violence against fellow students.

Two weeks after that, an 18-year-old student wielding a shotgun and a handgun opened fire in an El Cajon, California, high school, wounding seven. And if that catalogue of violence isn't enough, consider this: In the month before Williams's attack, seven students were arrested for planning fatal rampages at schools in four states.

WELCOME TO THE WAR ZONE

From sea to shining sea, American high schools once again seem under siege. Williams's March 5 shooting spree from his school's tiled bathroom dredged up memories of the Columbine massacre, in which 15 were killed two years ago this month. It brought into sharper focus how a spate of school shootings--once rare occurrences--has transformed the familiar and predictable experience of high school into something strange, new, and sometimes deadly. The casualty figures--since a Moses Lake, Washington, student walked into his math class and gunned down three classmates in 1996--read like a report from a war zone: 39 dead, 104 wounded, in 18 separate incidents.

Williams, 15, and several of the other teens arrested last month fit the Columbine mold: angry male loners, the victims of bullying and social ostracism, with access to a weapon, and without the mental stability to keep their rage in check.

But almost as shocking as the shootings themselves was how routine it had all become. Some Santana students rushed into the building with cameras to photograph the event. Others produced media-savvy quotes for the hordes of news reporters. Within 10 minutes, the police team, trained to handle such emergencies, surrounded Williams and prevented him from unloading another cylinder's worth of bullets. Within 36 hours, the school, which had had plans in place for such an emergency, had completely cleaned up the blood and plastered over the bullet holes.

What is going on? Is society to blame? Is it something about this generation of teenagers? The truth is, nobody knows for sure exactly why this is happening. But a careful review of incidents of high school violence and talks with the social scientists most familiar with high school life suggest that a combination of factors have made outbursts like the one at Santana High more likely today than they were in past decades.

America's high schools, these observers stress, are still among the safest places on earth. The chances of being murdered in high school last year were 1 in 3 million; more Americans die every year from bee stings than from being shot in school. Since 1993, teen crime has dropped more than 30 percent, and homicides by teens have plummeted more than 56 percent. The current generation is among the least violent in recent decades.

But ready access to weapons, coupled with an atmosphere in which some high schools have become pressure cookers for teens--where taunting, belittling, and humiliation are routine --have turned some schools into breeding grounds for violence. Where adults have failed to end the bullying and hazing, and teens feel cut off from parents, teachers, or community leaders who could offer help, the odds of trouble soar even higher.

On top of that is a double whammy tied to teen psychology: a copycat syndrome that makes it more likely with each new school shooting that other angry, violent teens will act out, and a reluctance on the part of other students to report threats.

NO SURPRISE

Social scientists say that even in schools where no incident has taken place, students recognize when conditions are ripe for an explosion (see "When to Tell," page 12).

"This is starting to feel very uncomfortable and strange to kids," says Harvard psychologist William Pollack, who has spent hundreds of hours interviewing high school students in recent years. "But at the same time, if you talk to students, you will find they also say, `Why are adults so surprised? We knew this could happen.'"

Despite the overall drop in teen crime, the number of multiple homicides on school grounds has risen sharply since 1996. The percentage of high school students who say they have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property has held steady since 1991. And the percentage of students who stay away from school for fear of bullying or violence is not declining.

No single reason explains the entire problem, but experts say that an increased tolerance for hazing and teasing has created a harsh atmosphere in many schools, and they say marginal, troubled kids are more likely to lash out under such attack.

"These days, people are much more tolerant of demeaning, sarcastic behavior," says Dr. Bruce Perry, chief of psychiatry at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital. "The way we treat each other in the classroom is related to these violent acts. If a teen feels valued, respected, and included at school, it is highly unlikely that he will take a gun and kill his classmates."

Harvard's Pollack says he has discovered an environment that undercuts any notion of high schools filled with happy-faced kids eager to learn. "The kids I talk to say that school is often a hard and lonely place to be," he says. His studies suggest that bullying is worse today than in decades past. "People say it's gone on for years," he says. "But is it more vicious today? Yes. Is it more scarring? Yes."

For Williams--known as Andy to his friends--Santana High was by all accounts pretty close to a furnished suite in hell. A troubled young man, he apparently had almost no relationship with his divorced parents. He lived with his dad, but after his arrest he never once asked to see either his father or his mother. Friends say he often referred to their mothers as mom. When he moved to California from suburban Maryland two years ago, he became an instant target for ridicule and attack. Bullies stole his skateboard and sneakers. According to one friend, other teens would hold the metal of hot cigarette lighters to his neck, or just walk up and punch him for no reason. Williams never responded, keeping it all in, until the day he exploded.

If bullying may have set the stage for Williams's breakdown, experts say he may also have seen a kind of psychological green light in previous shootings like the one at Columbine. The phenomenon is called the copycat syndrome, but psychologists are quick to point out that only those who are already deeply disturbed will follow such a lead. Yet copycat shootings represent a clear and present danger. Several of the teens arrested in the week after Williams's shooting spree say they were emboldened by his actions.

"The problem is, the more often it happens, the more likely it is to continue," says James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, an expert on mass killings. "It builds on itself."

Critics often blame media coverage of the shootings for making the copycat syndrome worse, and social scientists agree that coverage that fails to bring home the loss suffered by the victims and their families, or that portrays the killers as powerful and in command--instead of in their true light, as deeply troubled and damaged individuals--could add fuel to the fire.

THE BOYS WHO DIED

But in the case of Santana High, few media stories glorified Williams. The boy's plight could evoke pity, but never elevate him to antihero stardom. As for his two victims, they were all-around regular guys, full of life and plans for the future. Randy Gordon, a 17-year-old senior, was a long-distance runner who dreamed of becoming a code expert for the Navy. Bryan Zuckor, 14, was a skateboard maniac who was himself so much a victim of bullying at school that he had been homeschooled for a time. Why should their lives have been cut short?

When will it all end? As Americans struggled to come to grips with this freshest tragedy, they also searched for ways to prevent future ones. Gun-control advocates once again pressed for tougher gun-control laws; while opponents, including President Bush, said upbringing and values were the issue, not guns (see "A Silence on Guns," page 13). Meanwhile, the Washington State Senate passed a bill that would outlaw bullying in schools.

And teens came under increasing pressure to report threats of violence made by other students. It was hard to argue against such a course: The four plots in the weeks before the Santee shootings were exposed by tipsters who knew of them in advance. In the Williams case, at least one student, aware of Williams's plans, may have stayed away from school. Even more chilling, some students patted Williams down that morning, fearful that he had brought a gun to school. They missed the gun, possibly hidden in his backpack.

Schools will continue to take more precautions. Already most have formed closer ties with local police, and have drawn up emergency plans complete with "crisis kits" that include aerial photographs of the school, student and faculty rosters, and master keys.

But in the hours after Williams surrendered his cocked and loaded gun, telling police, "It's only me," all the precautions in the world didn't matter anymore. Tabitha Vess, 17, a Santana senior, clutched a teddy bear at an Arby's restaurant near the school. She had been late to school, and was just heading in when students came stampeding out.

"I grew up way too fast today," she said. "I want to be a kid again."

WORLD VIEW: An American Crisis

In December 1999, a 17-year-old boy opened fire inside a high school in the Netherlands, wounding a teacher and four students. It was the first school shooting in the country's history, and there has not been one since.

In contrast, there have been 18 shootings in American schools since 1996, leaving 39 dead and 104 wounded. So why don't other countries seem to be plagued by this epidemic? Experts boil it down to two major reasons: the easy availability of guns in the United States, and a copycat phenomenon--the more these shootings happen, the more likely it becomes that others will follow.

"In other countries where school violence occurs, it takes a less deadly form," says Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence at Northeastern University. "That is simply because of the lack of availability of guns."

The Netherlands shootings prompted further tightening of the country's already-strict gun-control laws; gun ownership now requires a training course and a license. In Britain, where the only recent school shooting was the work of a non-student intruder in 1996, most citizens cannot own handguns. Japan, where citizens must prove a specific need to own a gun and undergo training to obtain a license, has never had a school shooting.

While there are no studies specifically comparing the number of school shootings in the U.S. and other countries, the United Nations Children's Fund reports that American children are 12 times more likely to die from gun violence than are children in 25 other industrialized nations combined. Even in poorer countries with high rates of violence, such as Nigeria and Brazil, there are no school shootings--perhaps, experts say, because students have more respect for school, which is considered a privilege.

Despite their strict gun-control laws, other countries may not be immune to school shootings forever. "We export our culture throughout the world," Levin says. "it's only a matter of time before school shootings reach across the Atlantic."

--Patricia Smith

WHEN TO TELL--AND HOW

When Vicky Sudd first overheard two 17-year-old boys on the school bus saying they had a gun and a list of people they planned to kill, she didn't think much of it. In fact, the Twentynine Palms, California, sophomore forgot about the threat--until the following week, when she was starkly reminded by the shooting at Santana High School. Vicky then told her father, and he told the police.

Searching the boys' homes, authorities found a hit list targeting 16 students, and a .22-caliber rifle. Both boys were arrested. And Vicky, 16, has been hailed as a hero in her community.

In the past month, students around the country have been reporting suspected violence, averting mayhem in several cases. If there's a lesson to be learned from the recent shootings, many experts believe it is the need to take threats of violence seriously.

A tipoff could have prevented many of the shootings that have plagued U.S. schools in recent years. In more than three quarters of 37 school shootings since 1974, the shooter told someone of the plan ahead of time, according to a study by the U.S. Secret Service.

If you know a student who has detailed plans to commit violence or has threatened to do so, experts say you should tell a trusted adult immediately. If you are unsure whether a threat is serious, consult an adult to help you decide.

But beyond that, what to report and when gets murkier. While there is no reliable profile of the kind of student likely to shoot classmates, experts say there are warning signs: constantly losing one's temper, frequent physical fighting, drastic behavior changes, increased drug or alcohol use, intense depression or alienation, carrying a weapon, or having access to one.

These signs do not guarantee a student will shoot his or her classmates, but they do mean a kid needs help. "These are not otherwise invisible kids," says Randy Borum, a psychologist who has studied school shootings. "They are already on somebody's radar screen as needing help."

But with more and more schools adopting "zero tolerance" policies for violence--even just the threat of it--students have real concerns that their friends could be punished for something they might never actually have intended to do. Rather than having an automatic punishment policy, Borum advises schools to respond to threats of violence on a case-by-case basis. "There is a distinction between making a threat and posing a threat," he says, adding that not everyone who threatens violence intends to carry it out.

Students can also help reduce the bullying that may lead to violence. "Reach out to these kids," says child psychiatrist Bruce Perry. "And don't let your friends tease them anymore. Step up, be brave, and you will make a difference."

--Patricia Smith

With reporting by FOX BUTTERFIELD, EVELYN NIEVES, and TODD S. PURDUM of The Times.