NCJ Number
197304
Journal
Campus Safety Journal Volume: 10 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2002 Pages: 12-14
Date Published
September 2002
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines the factors that prevented five students at New Bedford High School (Massachusetts) from implementing their plan to set off bombs in the school building and shoot as many classmates and teachers as possible.
Abstract
Following the tragedy at Columbine, law enforcement and school officials in New Bedford recognized that they were poorly prepared for potential school violence, so safety and security moved to the top of their agendas. School administrators were supplied with two-way radios, classroom intercoms were installed, and crisis-management plans were revised and distributed. School personnel attended crisis-prevention workshops and conducted crisis simulations after school hours. New Bedford police were supplied with blueprints of every building in the school system. In September 2001, two city police officers were assigned to the school full time as school resource officers. The two resource officers had barely settled into their jobs before they became aware of rumors of a planned violent event in the school. In the course of their investigation, they came across an unsigned note found by the school janitor that indicated a massacre was going to occur at the school the Monday after Thanksgiving. By the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the police found enough evidence in the homes of the suspects to arrest the five conspirators. One of the keys to preventing the tragedy was the evidence provided by a girl who knew of the plan and reported it and the planners to a teacher with whom she had a close bond. The tragedy was averted because the students, school staff, and the police were prepared to recognize and act effectively upon evidence that a crisis was imminent. The experience in New Bedford confirms that the five keys to preventing school violence are teamwork, preparedness, awareness, communication, and "connectedness."