Schools need systems to spot troubled kids: experts

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Strategies put together by the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Education after the 1999 Columbine shootings might help schools detect and act on clues ahead of violent massacres like this week's Virginia Tech shooting, experts said on Friday.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech, they said, underscores the need for an early warning system that school officials, students and faculty could use to report troubling behavior and potentially head off deadly acts of violence.

Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old Virginia Tech gunman, left some pretty clear warning signs, mental health experts said, but those details were never pieced together until after he killed 32 people and took his own life.

"We may not always be able to find the needle in a haystack of troubled people, but we certainly can design systems to respond more appropriately to those who are known to be troubled and needing help," said Randy Borum, a psychologist at the Florida Mental Health Institute and one of the authors of the 2002 report about school safety.

That report -- Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates -- was based on a system devised by the U.S. Secret Service to identify people who might attack public figures such as the president of the United States.

It was modified to address school shootings, particularly after Columbine, and offers a model for detecting potential threats in schools. Being attuned to warning signs and having a centralized place for reporting that information can help reduce risks, Borum said in a telephone interview.

The 2002 report found that incidents of targeted violence in school were "rarely impulsive." Most attacks, it found, were planned out in advance with planning behavior that could often be observed.

"Prior to most attacks, other children knew that the attack was to occur," the report reads.