HOW THE PUBLIC CAN HELP IN PREVENTING SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
It’s an unsettling and a deeply painful fact that in America, schools are no longer the haven that our children should be able to count on. It is the right of every child to grow up without violence, but from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and every school shooting in between, school safety has been dismantled one life at a time.
The pressing question is “Can we prevent a school shooting from happening in the first place?” The answer is, “Yes.” In San Diego, we believe that we can provide hope to the nation’s schools and replace fear with confidence based on a uniquely collaborative model where everyone has a role in the solution.
Having personally prosecuted the last school shooter in San Diego County and witnessing the long-term trauma to the young children whose lives were threatened, I’ve made preventing harm to schools a fervent priority. We refuse to allow the country’s tragedy to become the norm in San Diego.
That’s why since 2018, we have been working to stop would-be school shooters before they can act, through the School Threats Protocol, which encompasses all 42 school districts in the county. The protocol guides how schools, law enforcement and prosecutors respond to school threats, using evidence-based guidelines for investigation and resolution of the threat. This innovative protocol was updated in November 2021 to meet the latest research from the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center.
The most important revelation from our work in this area is the importance teachers and school professionals, who have eyes and ears on students, play in detecting and addressing concerning and threatening behavior through a consistent protocol. When we look back at most school shootings, shooters made public threats, but they were ignored. San Diego’s protocol is built to not miss this information through the help of our protocol partners.
Equally important is the role the public, students and parents have of alerting law enforcement to harmful threats, no matter how trivial they may seem. Consider this: 93 percent of school shooters make plans to carry out their attack. About 80 percent of them tell at least one person and 60 percent tell at least two people of their plan.
With these statistics, it is more than clear why law enforcement relies on all of us to prevent school shootings. We need the public to report threatening behavior. In San Diego County, every threat is handled under the protocol to disrupt any plan and prevent harm. While nothing is foolproof, we are confident that these tips have helped us stop shootings that were in the final phases of execution.
Our office has received 44 school threats cases to review in the last 16 months and nine cases have been filed in Juvenile Court and the remaining handled through increased mental health services, removal of weapons and other mitigation strategies. Every school threat is fully investigated, and each culprit is held accountable.
Some of the factors we take into consideration to confirm the credibility of a threat once the suspect has been identified include: • Investigate the suspect’s background, including whether the person made prior threats
• Look at open-source intelligence such as social media posts
• Check to see if the person has registered guns, has made recent ammunition purchases or has access to guns
• Check on whether there has been contact with terrorist organizations
• Determine whether the person has had psychiatric holds or other mental health red flags
• Research whether the person has had a recent traumatic event or grievance with a particular school or person associated with a school
We are calling on every parent to talk to their children and explain that making threatening statements — whether on social media or any other form — will lead to serious consequences.
In addition, parents, teachers and school peers should not tolerate bullying. While nothing excuses violence, we must note that at least 71 percent of school shooters have reported being bullied as one of the factors for their violence.
Keeping our schools safe is everyone’s responsibility, so I am calling on everyone to do their part. We use public tips to investigate and interrupt violence. Students can visit studentsspeakingout.org to make anonymous reports.
We refuse to allow the country’s tragedy to become the norm in San Diego.