- As some people know, professionally, I am a suicide prevention
and school violence consultant. It has been a very busy two weeks for
me, as I have been interviewed by CTV and CBC, even appearing on Canadian
television. Of course, television is all fine and good, but it does not
allow for the fuller extension of insights through the written word of
the online and print media.
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- Therefore, I want to share what I am seeing, what I project
as forthcoming in the next month. I've been saying most of this on radio
interviews and in suicide trainings for weeks. No one seems to be listening.
Nevertheless, readers may wish to know about the patterns that are so
obviously developing.
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- In talking about the copycat effect in media interviews,
I've been noting a developing and coming wave of events for this autumn
of 2006, due to the following facts...based on the trends and analyses
I've written about in The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)
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- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743482239/
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- Here is what I am finding:
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- - most contemporary school shootings tend to occur primarily
during two periods of the school year - at the beginning (late Aug through
October) and near the the end of the academic year (March-April)...
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- - copycats follow a regular temporal pattern that repeats
- these could be after a primary media event in a day, a week, two weeks,
a month, a year, ten years - vulnerable humans have internal media clocks...
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- - copycats imitate the previous violent attacks, oftentimes
down to specific details as that mirror the previous specifics of the shooter,
the victims, and the methods -
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- - "celebrity" events have a far-reaching impact
and modeling effect - so, of course, Columbine serves as a dark cloud over
many school shootings.
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- One of the silliest things I have heard from cable news
in the last several days during mid-September 2006, is that "these
school shootings aren't like the other school shootings." This is
short-sighted, and factually untrue.
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- Before the current model (post-1996) in which a member
of the student body would go into their own school and kill fellow students,
the pattern was one of outsiders - often adults - going into schools and
killing students. In my book, I discuss some of the more infamous cases
(on pages 166-167, and in a long list in my appendix, following page 263).
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- Every year is different, and a fresh view must be considered
based upon observations that are right in front of our eyes. What I do
at the beginning of a new school year is to see if there is an emerging
pattern that will be the re-worked "copycat" model for the new
school year. To me, it was and is obvious where we were going this year.
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- Here's what I see...a mix of outsiders invading school
and students making plans too:
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- Thursday, August 24, 2006 - Essex, Vermont - two dead
(two teachers) - three wounded (two teachers, plus the shooter who turned
the gun on himself) - the shooter was a male, all victims were female.
Christopher Williams, 26, of Essex, attempted to kill his former girlfriend,
first-grade schoolteacher Andrea Lambesis. The dead was Lambesis' mother,
Linda, 57, the first victim, and veteran Essex Elementary School second-grade
teacher Alicia Shanks, 56, of Essex, slain in her classroom at the school
at about 2 p.m.
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- Wednesday, August 29, 2006 - Hillsborough, NC - one dead
(father of teenage shooter) - two wounded (two students) - shooter showed
up in a trench coat, with guns, pipe bombs, in a copycat of Columbine -
Asked by police why he went to Orange High School, Alvaro Rafael Castillo,
19, responded: "Columbine. Remember Columbine."
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- Thursday, September 7, 2006 - Paris, France - A 19-year-old
man was detained after opening fire with a shot-pistol at a school in Paris.
There were no injuries. No other details available.
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- Friday, September 8, 2006 - Paris, France - A 16-year-old
boy fired a shotgun inside a school in the southern outskirts of Paris,
lightly injuring a teacher and a student, said police. No other details
available.
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- Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - Montreal, Quebec - Based
on the pattern I see behind this shooting, Quebec was a logical next location
(near Vermont and French-linked). Kimveer Gill, the 25-year-old shooter,
a self-described atheist Goth with an Indian Sikh heritage, wearing a trenchcoat,
dark clothing, and a Mohawk haircut, came to Dawson College, fully armed.
He appeared to target what students call the "Jew Caf" and opened
fire, killing Anastasia de Sousa, 18, and wounded 19 other students. Police
fired upon him, and then Gill turned the gun on himself. Gill was obsessed
by the Columbine massacre. He mentioned online being a fan of several
computer games (e.g. Super Columbine Massacre) and movies (e.g. Natural
Born Killers, Matrix) with violent themes that have been played out in
several school shootings.
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- Thursday, September 14, 2006 - Green Bay, Wisconsin -
Matt Atkinson, a 17-year-old senior, told an associate principal at Green
Bay East High School on the day after the Montreal college shooting that
a Columbine-like plot was being planned by two teens. It was said to be
a "suicide-by-cop" plot. Police arrested the boys and then found
sawed-off shotguns, automatic weapons, pistols, ammunition, several bombs,
bomb-making materials, camouflage clothing, helmets, gas masks, and suicide
notes. Brown County District Attorney John Zakowski said: "This was
a Columbine waiting to happen."
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- Thursday, September 21, 2006 - Montgomery, Alabama
- Former student Willie Beamon, 18, told a female student his plans to
go Robert E. Lee High school to start shooting. The girl notified the police
of what she had been told. Beamon was arrested at the Second Chance School
he was attending after he had been expelled from Robert E Lee High School.
He was held on $10,000 bond.
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- Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - Bailey, Colorado (39
miles from Columbine) - Duane R. Morrison, 54, (DOB 7-23-1953) walked into
an English classroom at Platte Canyon High School, and took six young female
students hostage. After releasing four hostages, one at a time, the students
told the police that sexual assaults were occurring. As the situation
neared a 4 pm deadline and discussions broke down, a police SWAT team blew
open the door to Room 206 with explosives. Morrison fired a handgun at
entering SWAT officers, and then at 16-year old Emily Keyes, fatally wounding
her. The gunman then killed himself. The last hostage was saved. (A suicide
note from the shooter was found on September 28th.)
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- Friday, September 29, 2006 - Cazenovia, Wisconsin - A
recently expelled student (Eric) arrived at school at 8 am with a shotgun.
Principal John Klang, 49, is then shot with a handgun, three times, once
in the head. He is taken to the hospital in critical condition. The shooter
is taken into custody.
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- Please note that the lone male "outsider shooter"
is a common denominator here, as well as most of the victims being females.
Also, there exists a clear and concentrated repeating pattern of Wednesdays
and/or Thursdays, since August 24th.
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- I would watch Wednesday, October 11 (four weeks exactly)
through Friday, October 13 (the month-by-date) anniversary period, a "month"
from the Dawson College shootings, as a dangerous "hot window"
for a next wave of school shootings. A month from the Colorado events
of September 27, at the end of October, should also be a time in which
people must keep their guard up and on high alert.
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- In general, however, we seem to now be in an unfortunate
high copycat effect pattern, and it could be a deadly time for students
in North America, as well as internationally, for several weeks, no matter
what the day or date.
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- As the US Secret Service found in their study of school
shootings, the vast majority, 80% of these shooters, are suicidal. Frankly,
I think all of them are suicidal. Homicide, as Freud said, is suicide
turned outward, and that's exactly the model that is being followed. Suicide
is also homicide turned inward.
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- Expect more school shootings, unfortunately.
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