Fact claims

Since the creation of the U.S. Secret Service in 1865, the agency has evolved to meet changing mission demands and growing threats in our nation.

To ensure we remain on the forefront, the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) was created in 1998 to provide guidance and training on threat assessment both within the U.S. Secret Service and to others with criminal justice and public safety responsibilities.

Since the creation of the U.S. Secret Service’s NTAC, we have provided 450 in-depth trainings on the prevention of targeted school violence to over 93,000 attendees including school administrators, teachers, counselors, mental health professionals, school resource officers, and other public safety partners.

Over the last 20 years, NTAC has conducted research, training, and consultation on threat assessment and the prevention of various forms of targeted violence.

The findings of the SSI, and an accompanying guide, served as the impetus for establishing threat assessment programs in schools.

There have been male and female attackers, high-achieving students with good grades as well as poor performers. These acts of violence were committed by students who were loners and socially isolated, and those who were well-liked and popular.

For example, some schools have opted to use the label “Assessment and Care Team” to encourage involvement from those who might be concerned about a student, and to focus on getting a student access to needed resources and supports.

Other schools have chosen to refer to this group as a “Behavioral Intervention Team” to focus on a spectrum of concerning behaviors that a student may be exhibiting.

Finally, some schools have continued to refer to their groups as “Threat Assessment Teams” to highlight the heightened sense of concern about a student who is identified.

Many reporting mechanisms employed by K-12 schools resemble nationwide criminal reporting apps. The online and phone reporting capabilities of these types of apps allow individuals across the country, including students, parents, and teachers, to report crimes and other concerning behaviors in their communities and schools.

Some reporting mechanisms are developed specifically for use by students in K-12 school settings. These programs allow students, parents, and teachers to anonymously report threats, bullying, and other situations that make them feel unsafe or fear for the safety of a peer to trained experts who respond appropriately.

For example, the most common types of reports submitted to Safe2Tell Colorado during the 2016- 2017 school year were related to suicide, bullying, drugs, cutting (self-harm), and depression.

Those that do warrant law enforcement intervention include threats of violence and planned school attacks, which constituted Safe2Tell’s sixth and seventh most common types of reports, respectively.

On February 12, 2016, a 15-year-old female student fatally shot her girlfriend while they were sitting under a covered patio at their high school and then fatally shot herself.

In several notes found after the incident, the student explained that she carried out her attack because her girlfriend had recently confessed that she was contemplating ending their relationship.

She also wrote in her notes that she hated who she was and that learning her girlfriend wanted to end their relationship “destabilized” her.

fire on five of his closest friends as they were having lunch in the school cafeteria, killing four of them, and then fatally shot himself.

In the months prior to his attack, the student sent a number of text messages to his ex-girlfriend indicating he was considering suicide and posted videos on Snapchat that mentioned suicide.

Two people confronted the student about his concerning statements, but he told them he was just joking or having a bad moment.

The student also posted a number of Twitter messages indicating he was having trouble overcoming a setback, posting in one Tweet, “It breaks me… It actually does… I know it seems like I’m sweating it off… But I’m not..

Sometimes parents who keep weapons at home incorrectly assume that their children are unaware of where they are stored or how to access them.

The Team should also remember that firearms are not the only weapons to be concerned about. Even though many school attackers have used firearms in carrying out their attacks, explosives, incendiary devices, bladed weapons, or combinations of these weapons have been used in past attacks.

On October 21, 2013, a 12-year-old male student took a handgun to his middle school and opened fire, injuring two classmates and killing a teacher. He then fatally shot himself.

In the months leading up to his attack, the student conducted numerous internet searches for violent material and content, including “Top 10 evil children,” “Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game,” ”shoot,” “guns,” “bullets,” “revenge,” “murder,” “school shootings,” and “violent game.” He also searched for music videos of and songs about school shootings. On his cell phone, the student had saved photos of violent war scenes and images of the Columbine High School shooters.

He also enjoyed playing video games, doing so for several hours each night. Of his 69 video games, 47 were first-person shooter or similar games.

On April 29, 2014, a 17-year-old male student was arrested after a concerned citizen called police when she observed the student acting suspiciously around a storage unit and thought he might be attempting to break into one. Responding officers discovered bomb-making material and other weapons inside the unit the student had asked a friend’s mother to rent for him.

The student later confessed to an extensive plot that involved murdering his parents and sister, setting a diversionary fire, planting explosive devices at his high school, targeting students and the school resource officer for harm, and engaging in gunfire with responding police officers before committing suicide.

The student admitted that at some point he became fascinated with chemicals, explosives, and weapons and began researching how to build his own explosive devices. He created his own channel on YouTube to post videos that showed him detonating his devices and included a written commentary about each video.

On November 12, 2008, a 15-year-old female student fatally shot a classmate while students were changing classes. The attacker fled to a restaurant across the street from her high school and phoned 9-1-1 to turn herself in to police.

Prior to her attack, she faced a number of stressors in her life, mostly outside of school. As an infant, her college-aged parents abandoned her and she was raised largely by her grandparents.

At the age of six years, she was sexually molested by a family member; and at age 12, she was raped by an uncle. She did have some contact with her birth parents, but her mother was reportedly abusive and suffered from severe mental illness; and her father began serving a 25-year prison sentence for murder around the time she was 14 years old.

At her high school, she was lonely, appeared to struggle to connect with others, and had behavior problems.

On January 18, 1993, a 17-year-old male student fatally shot his English teacher and a school custodian at his high school and held classmates hostage before surrendering to police.

The student had recently turned in a poem to his English teacher for an assignment that discussed his thoughts of committing homicide or suicide.

The student had failed in at least three prior suicide attempts, including one the night before his attack.

Although the student entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill at trial, ultimately he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

On February 1, 1997, a 16-year-old male student used a shotgun to fire on fellow students in the common area of his high school prior to the start of the school day. He killed one student and the principal and injured two additional students.

Prior to his attack, the student had been bullied and teased by several classmates, including the student killed.

At some point prior to his attack, the student asked the principal and dean of students for help with the bullying he was experiencing. They intervened, and though the situation improved temporarily, the teasing and bullying soon resumed.

The student asked the principal for help a second time, but this time the principal advised him to just ignore the bullies. The student tried, but felt like the victimization worsened and he began to feel hopeless that it would ever end.

After his attack, the student explained that he felt as though he had asked the “proper people” for assistance, but he was denied help, so he decided that bringing a gun to school would scare his tormentors and get them to leave him alone.

When some friends learned of the plan, they told him that he had to use the weapon to shoot people or the bullying would continue. The student decided he would have to fire the weapon at people in order to end his torment.

On March 25, 2011, a 15-year-old male student fired two shots at a classmate, wounding him in the abdomen. After firing the weapon, the student fled the scene and dropped the gun in a field. He was arrested about an hour after the incident.

The student had a history of being involved in numerous physical altercations with other students throughout his 6th, 7th, and 8th grade school years. Additionally, he tried to start a fight with the targeted victim, and once threatened him with a chain.

About three weeks prior to the attack, the student threatened to blow up the school. Days prior to the incident, the student, who was angry at the targeted victim, told a friend that he planned to kill him. engaged in behaviors

On December 7, 2017, a 21-year-old male shot and killed two students at his former high school before fatally shooting himself. Prior to his attack, a number of individuals had expressed concern regarding his behaviors and statements.

Sometime in 2012, other users of an online forum were concerned after the student made threats about attacking his school. In March 2016, federal investigators met with the student after he made comments in an online chat room about wanting to find an inexpensive assault rifle he could use for a mass shooting. At the time, a family member told the investigators that the student was troubled and liked to make outlandish statements.

At some point prior to his attack, the student posted content supportive of the attacks at Columbine High School in an online forum, upsetting many of the forum’s users.

On January 14, 2014, a 12-year-old male student used a shotgun with a sawed-off stock to fire three rounds of birdshot at fellow students gathered in their middle school gymnasium prior to the start of the school day. He injured two students and a security guard before surrendering to a teacher.

The student began talking about his attack plans as early as November 2013, saying that he wanted to fire a weapon in the air to make people take him seriously.

According to reports, his father owned a pistol and a shotgun. In January 2014, the student wrote in his diary that he wanted to use his father’s pistol for his attack, but was unable to locate it so he used the shotgun instead.

The morning of the attack, the student was driven to school by a family member so he hid his shotgun in a duffel bag, claiming it contained items for his gym class. impulsive

On December 13, 2013, an 18-year-old male student entered his high school with a shotgun, a large knife, bandoliers with ammunition, and a number of homemade Molotov cocktails. He opened fire on two female students, fatally shooting one. He then entered the school library and opened fire on a faculty member there, who was able to escape through a back door. The student then set fire to a shelf of books in the library with one of his Molotov cocktails before fatally shooting himself.

The student spent three months planning his attack, starting a diary on his computer in September 2013 to detail his plans. There he wrote that he wanted to choose a day during final exams so that the largest number of students would be present.

Over the next few months, he planned how and where he would enter the school, including where he would initiate the attack, and purchased the firearm and ammunition he would use. On the morning of the incident, the student purchased a four-pack of glass soda bottles and used these to create the Molotov cocktails he deployed during the attack.

On June 10, 2014, a 15-year-old male student brought a rifle, handgun, nine magazines with ammunition, and a knife into the boy’s locker room at his high school. He had taken the weapons from his brother’s locked gun case in his home.

Once at school, he changed into all black clothing, and donned a helmet, face mask, and a non-ballistic vest. He then fatally shot one student and wounded a teacher. After being confronted by staff and law enforcement, the student fatally shot himself in a bathroom.

Prior to his attack, the student was an ordained deacon at his church and was appointed president of the deacon’s quorum. He participated in youth night at the church, Boy Scouts, youth basketball, and track. Friends described him as friendly and outgoing. He was also a member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) and was fascinated with guns and the military.

Despite his outward appearance, some time prior to his attack, he wrote in a journal about his plans to kill his classmates and spoke harshly about “sinners,” which included people who smoked cigarettes and took the Lord’s name in vain.

Removing a student from school does not eliminate the risk to the school community. Several school attacks have been carried out by former students who had been removed from the school or aged out of their former school.

In one recent case, a school principal described a situation when a student was suspended from his high school for drug possession. Soon after, a fellow student discovered a concerning video he posted online and notified school personnel.

A school administrator met with the student and his father. While the administrator had no immediate safety concerns about the student, he was aware that the student was experiencing a number of stressors.

The student’s parents were divorced and he was living with his father, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and was receiving frequent medical treatments. His mother was dealing with a mental illness, was a source of embarrassment to him, and was unlikely to be able to serve as his guardian after his father’s passing. He was also recently removed from the wrestling team, and due to his suspension, banned from attending the matches. While suspended, the student was required to attend tutoring sessions in lieu of school, but was unable to make his sessions because he was transporting his father to medical appointments.

The administrator reported that he would have alerted their school resource officer and local sheriff’s office if he had safety concerns about the student, but instead the school worked with community services to provide access to resources and supports, including transportation services for his father to his medical appointments so the student could attend tutoring sessions, and counseling and support services that would assist the student after his father’s passing.

The school also worked with the student and his father to develop a plan for the student to return to campus and remain on track to graduate.

In some communities without school resource officers, local law enforcement agencies have encouraged officers to “adopt a school,” stopping by the school to greet and become familiar with students and teachers, eating lunch on campus, or doing paperwork in an office at the school.