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FBI's Four-Pronged Assessment Model

The Education World story The School Shooter: One Solution Doesn't Fit All tells about the new FBI report on school violence. As part of its report, the FBI includes an evaluation tool. Basing the assessment model on its extensive experience in assessing violent threats over the past two decades, the agency lists several behaviors and traits that students who may present potential problems might display. The FBI also based its report on an evaluation of current cases of threats made against schools, an intensive review of 18 school shooting cases, and input from the nation's leading experts on childhood behavior and violence and from law enforcement officials and educators involved in school shooting incidents.

This evaluation tool is part of the FBI's report The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. Basing the assessment model on its extensive experience in assessing violent threats over the past two decades, the agency lists several behaviors and traits that students who may present potential problems might display. The FBI also based its report on an evaluation of current cases of threats made against schools, an intensive review of 18 school shooting cases, and input from the nation's leading experts on childhood behavior and violence and from law enforcement officials and educators involved in school shooting incidents.

No magic number of traits displayed by a student determines whether that student may present a problem, nor does one bad day reflect any student's real personality. The FBI report warns educators that students are not usually dangerous if they exhibit a few of the traits or behaviors listed, since adolescents commonly exhibit some of the behaviors, as do children who are experiencing mental health problems.

Personality and Behavior of the Student

The report tells educators to look at a collective pattern of a student's behavior and personality traits. The evaluation should be based on firsthand observations of the student by those who knew the student before he or she made a threat. The assessor also needs to understand adolescent behavior when making the evaluation because many teens will exhibit some of these characteristics and not be potential school shooters.

The report lists 28 different traits and characteristics. Some of those traits and behaviors that may be displayed by the student include the following:

• Poor coping skills.
• Low tolerance for frustration.
• Lack of resiliency.
• Resentment over real or perceived injustices.
• Narcissistic (self-centered) behavior (blames others for failures and disappointments).
• Failure to demonstrate empathy for others.
• Alienation from others (consistently behaves as if he/she is different from others).
• Exaggerated sense of entitlement.
• Attitude of superiority.
• Anger-management problems.
• Refusal to take responsibility for own actions (blames others for any failings or shortcomings).
• Intolerance of racial or religious differences.
• Desire to manipulate others.
• Unusual interest in sensational violence.
• Fascination with violence-filled entertainment.
• Revelation of clues (intentionally or unintentionally) that may signal an impending violent act.

Family Dynamics

Educators also need to understand the pattern of behavior and values of the student's family, another key element in determining whether a student may carry out a threat.

Understanding the circumstances and stresses in the student's life and how both the student and the parents perceive those circumstances helps educators evaluate the risk of the threat. Some of the family dynamics to consider include these:

• Turbulent parent-child relationship.
• Acceptance of pathological behavior.
• Access to weapons.
• Lack of family intimacy or closeness.
• No limits on the child's conduct.
• Intimidation of parents of child.

School Dynamics

School culture is often tough for teachers and school administrators to judge, but the report maintains that teachers and administrators need to have some level of understanding of the particular dynamics in their school.

Although some patterns are obvious, others are subtle. Some key factors school staff should consider when assessing the threat include the following conditions in the school:

• Tolerance of disrespectful behavior by the student.
• Detachment of student from other students, teachers, and school activities.
• Inequitable discipline.
• Inflexible culture, through both official and unofficial patterns of behavior (a culture that is insensitive to changes in society and the changing needs of newer students and staff).
• Code of silence among students (few feel they can tell staff about another student's behavior or attitudes).
• Pecking order among students (certain groups of students are officially or unofficially given more prestige and respect than others).
• Unsupervised computer access available to students.

Social Dynamics

Schools also need to understand the role of the student in the community, including the people the student chooses to socialize with outside of school. Some of the factors school staff should consider include these:

• Student's access to and choice of media, entertainment, and technology with themes and images of extreme violence.
• Student's choice of reading materials.
• Student's attitudes about drugs, alcohol, and weapons.
• Patterns of behavior of the student's peer group.
• Student's outside school interests (these can either lessen or increase concern when evaluating a student).
• Copycat effect (staff needs to be vigilant in noting disturbing student behavior following a heavily publicized incident of school violence elsewhere).

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