September 2022 – nSide™

September 27, 2022

School Violence Aversion, Pt. 2

Adolescence is a time that most of us would rather not relive. It is a time of awkwardness and insecurity, and rarely a time of roaring courage. It is difficult to get through this time in life under normal circumstances, but these days, the threat of school violence can make the life of a teenager even more stressful.

The two stories we share today show the immense courage it takes for a student to report their peers and our responsibility, as the adults in the room, to listen and take action.

Overheard on the Bus

(Uniontown, Pennsylvania – 2018)

Imagine being 14 years old, sitting quietly on a bus, and overhearing a classmate bragging about his plans to carry out a shooting at your school. People laugh nervously or brush him off, but part of you knows there is truth behind what he is saying. You’ve seen him get angry. You’ve heard him talk about his weapons before. You’ve seen the news about shootings at other schools, and deep down, you know there’s always a possibility it could happen to your school. To your friends. To you. You also know that if you were to tell anyone, you could become the number one target if you are not taken seriously.

This is the pressure facing kids today, and this is exactly what happened in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 2018.

One brave student told his parents and later authorities what he heard on the school bus that day. Police carried out a search warrant on the classmate’s home and found one semi-automatic rifle, one shotgun, two lever-action rifles, one revolver, one crossbow and bulk ammunition for all weapons in the 14 year-old’s bedroom. They also found throwing knives and two machetes.

In their investigation, police learned that the student was planning to target four individuals at his school and open fire on the rest of the school. He had a specific plan for targeting the individuals with a sniper rifle, as well as a plan for causing mass casualties with other weapons. He also told police how easy it would be to get his guns inside the school.

The student was arrested and charged with terroristic threats, possession of firearms by a minor, and criminal attempt to commit catastrophe.

The reporting student was hailed by parents and school faculty as a hero. His courage was not lost on those who would have been directly affected by these horrific plans.

A Haunting Online Conversation

(Arlington, Vermont – 2018)

When Angela McDevitt reconnected with an old friend on Facebook, she noticed immediately that something was wrong. The Jack Sawyer she had known before was “a very kind person,” but months after they had last seen each other, he had grown despondent. Their conversation took a turn when he started talking about his desire to carry out a shooting at his old high school in Vermont, the same school that Angela still attended.

It was February 2018, and the day after their conversation, the Parkland shooting in Florida happened. Seventeen people were killed by a former student.

Angela knew she needed to talk to Jack again. Not only was their previous conversation haunting her, she knew they had a mutual friend who had attended the school in Florida.

She got on Facebook and brought up the shooting to Jack, mentioning their mutual friend. She expressed how horrified she was by the events, and asked him what he thought. His response? “That’s fantastic.”

At that point, she knew she had to tell someone about their conversation. Unsure of who to contact, she first sent an email to her school’s guidance counselor saying she needed to speak to her in the morning about something urgent. After a sleepless night, she spoke to the school social worker the next morning and showed him the messages from Jack. The social worker then shared the information with the SRO (School Resource Officer) and Sheriff’s Deputy. The message was then distributed to police.

As it turned out, she was not the only one who had noticed a change in Jack. Another friend had reported that his demeanor had changed dramatically, and he was already on the authorities’ radar.

Once Angela submitted her report, police learned that Jack had made a series of threats against his former school, and he had recently purchased a shotgun and four boxes of ammunition from a local sporting goods store.

Jack Sawyer was arrested the same day that Angela reported.

There are two important takeaways from these stories: 1. Students must feel empowered to report suspicious behavior from their peers; and 2. Adults must take them seriously when they do report. It is crucial for schools and communities to create an environment where students feel safe coming forward with information. These stories could have ended very differently if the adults had not taken these students seriously and acted quickly.

One important thing a school can do is make sure there is an anonymous reporting system in place that is being monitored daily. When students have information to share, they need to know where and how to report. If your school is already set up with the nSide platform, you can spread awareness about our anonymous TIPs page at tips.nside.io.

If you would like to learn more about how to improve your school’s safety plans, please contact us today. Our support team is available 24/7 to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us by emailing help@nside.io, calling 1.800.604.1822, or by using our live chat function available on our website and on the platform.

Sources:

Bonus: Do you know the warning signs of violence?

Sarah Ann McCain

September 27, 2022

Blog Cover School Violence Aversion Series (1)

September 16, 2022

School Violence Aversion, Pt. 1

School shootings. School violence. These terms are enough to stir fear in even the most stoic of school leaders. It is the most dreaded topic of conversation, and yet the constant barrage of media coverage on the latest violent incident makes it impossible to avoid. Even violence prevention training can be a grim affair when details of what has happened and what could happen are discussed.

Of course, we must address these topics when we work in schools, no matter how scary and uncomfortable it may be. However, what we sometimes forget is that for every violent incident that makes the news, there are countless other incidents that are successfully averted.

A History of Red Flags

One such incident happened in Malcolm, Nebraska in 2004, just five years after the Columbine shooting in Colorado. Josh Magee, a 17 year-old student at Malcolm High School, was arrested in the school parking lot on March 16, 2004 after a staff member saw him drinking liquor from a flask and putting on a black overcoat. While this may not seem to be an obvious clue to his violent plans, the behavior was suspicious enough that the staff member contacted police.

When police arrived, they searched Josh Magee’s car and found a bolt-action rifle, several rounds of ammunition, and twenty rigged homemade bombs. With the weapons, police also found a handwritten note from Magee saying that he wanted to kill everyone in the school except for three of his friends.

The car was parked less than 100 feet from a school building with over 400 students. Josh Magee was charged with attempted first-degree murder.

The trouble had not just begun that day, however. The actions of Josh Magee in the parking lot that Tuesday followed a long history of red-flag behavior at the school. Having shown an interest in violence and weapons from a young age, he had been on the district’s radar since elementary school.

According to teachers and classmates, he talked frequently about the 1999 Columbine shootings, in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. He even expressed his admiration of Harris and Klebold to classmates in private conversations. When classmates reported to faculty that Magee was bragging about building and testing explosives at home, faculty and staff members started paying close attention to Magee’s movements and behaviors.

When Magee was seen swigging liquor from a flask and donning a black overcoat similar to those worn by the Columbine killers, a staff member wasted no time reporting another suspicious behavior from the teen.

There is no doubt that the staff member’s judgment call saved lives that day.

A Friend Speaks Up

Another incident of averted violence comes from Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 2008. It started with a teenager who stole three handguns from his father after expressing a plan to kill classmates and himself. His father reported the stolen handguns, not knowing then that his report would play a key role in stopping his own son’s violent plans.

Richard Yanis was in the ninth grade at Pottstown High School in December of 2008. He was planning to smuggle his father’s guns into school shortly after Winter Break, shoot other students, and then turn a gun on himself.

One day, he handed a bag to a friend, asking him to hold onto it for him. The friend took the bag home and opened it. Inside he found three handguns and ammunition. The friend reported this to his stepmother, and the two of them took the bag to a nearby creek and dumped the weapons there.

Later at school, the friend told a teacher about the guns, and police were contacted. The police were able to talk to the friend and get the details they needed to recover the weapons and learn of Yanis’s plans. When police found the weapons, they discovered that they were the same weapons reported stolen by Yanis’s father a few weeks before.

Richard Yanis was taken into custody before any part of his plan could be implemented.

A tragedy was avoided because a friend spoke up. Yanis had no history of aggressive behaviors at school, and family friends were shocked by his plans, saying it seemed out of character for the teen. It was later revealed in court that Yanis had been a victim of severe bullying at school, but he had never told anyone what he was going through.

These stories show a few key elements of school violence prevention: awareness, threat assessment, and reporting. Josh Magee had a history of fascination with violence and weapons. Faculty and staff paid attention to his behavior, and when he began acting suspiciously, they did not hesitate to call the authorities. Richard Yanis had no history of aggression. However, his friend recognized suspicious behavior and reported it. His actions most likely saved lives.

nSide is first and foremost about preventing school violence by emphasizing safety measures that build awareness, make threat assessment easier and more accessible, and increase response time when a report is made. If you are already an nSide user, be sure to tell your faculty and students about our Tips page. Tips about suspicious behavior or known plans can be reported anonymously at tips.nside.io. If you would like to learn more about how to improve your school’s safety plans, please contact us today. Our support team is available 24/7 to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us by emailing help@nside.io, calling 1.800.604.1822, or by using our live chat function available on our website and in the platform.