It is April 30, just 10 days after the terrible tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, that left 15 dead (including 12 student victims, one teacher victim and the two trench-coated perpetrators), 23 students wounded, several critically, and a whole community traumatized. It seems to have spawned a tidal wave of more school violence, threats of violence, and "copycat" events. For example, a 14 year old in Alberta Canada wearing a trench coat to conceal a 22 caliber rifle killed one student and wounded another yesterday. A fifteen year old in Chicago was caught with a 22 caliber pistol taped to his ankle, and another 15 year old Chicagoan was arrested after an ax, knives, a rifle, shotguns and 150 rounds of ammunition were found in his home. Closer to (my) home, the headline in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel yesterday read "High Schools Reel From Bomb Threats." The accompanying article reported on dozens of bomb threats in South Florida schools, which actually pales in comparison to a report in the New York Times of 52 bomb scares and other threats in Pennsylvania.

     This tragedy is but the latest and most destructive of a series of suburban school killings that began in Pearl, MS (10/1/97, Luke Woodham, 16, killed his mother and 3 students, and wounded 7 others), and continued with West Paducah, KY (12/1/97, Michael Carneal, 14, killed 3 students at an early morning prayer meeting), Jonesboro, AR (3/24/98, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, set off a fire alarm to draw their schoolmates outside and then killed 4 students and a teacher), and Springfield, OR (5/21/98), Kip Kinkle, 15, killed his parents and 2 students and wounded 22 others).

     The public discourse on this series of tragedies has identified a range of contributing factors, which include: The easy availability of weapons (including, in addition to conventional guns and knives, assault weapons and bombs, instructions for which can be taken off the internet), our violence-soaked culture (with particular reference to the high levels of violence shown on TV, movies, and interactive video games), current forms of music popular with teens, under-resourced schools, the cruelty associated with the social stratification that occurs in high schools, and parental disengagement or abdication. (On the latter point, it was reported that once police investigators entered Eric Harris's room, they wondered how his parents could not know what he was doing, because Eric apparently made no attempt to hide his plans and preoccupations). It is likely that all of these factors play a role, which makes it all the more difficult to get a handle on this threatening problem.

     Complicating this further, the perpetrators themselves seem quite different from each other. Whereas some exhibit classic signs of sociopathy (e.g., Luke Woodham had beaten his dog and set it on fire), others may be depressed (e.g. Andrew Golden was abandoned by his parents and his accomplice, Mitchell Johnson was aggrieved by the loss of his father to divorce). For still others, a desire to commit suicide coupled with a belief in immortality or martyrdom may be part of a complex motivational pattern (e.g., Kip Kinkel, after being wrestled to the ground, yelled "shoot me"; the Littleton slayers killed themselves after laughing triumphantly while murdering their classmates).

     One factor not receiving much attention is the fact that all of these killers are male. While I do not mean to imply that all males are potential murderers, nor that females are never violent, I do want to suggest that masculinity is a strong predisposing factor in school violence. This is based on a perspective on the social construction of masculinity developed by leading members of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (APA division 51). In particular it is our view, based on clinical and empirical research conducted over the past two decades, that the socialization of boys to conform to the norms of traditional masculinity, such as toughness, aggression, dominance, and the restriction of emotional expression, has particularly damaging effects on boys which potentiate violence. These effects are seen in the emotion socialization process, through which boys' natural awareness and expressivity of both caring and vulnerable emotions is suppressed and channeled. This results in at least a mild form of alexithymia and the overdevelopment of aggression among those boys most strongly socialized to conform to male role norms. Boys' socialization, often at the hands of other boys (literally -- as boy culture is notoriously cruel), also includes the requirement that they learn not only to shut off their tears and fears but also to actively transform these vulnerable emotions into aggression, as when a boy is shoved down on a playground and he knows that he must come back up with a fistful of gravel rather than a face full of tears. The wider culture reinforces these norms, learned initially in the home, playground, and school. Television, movies, interactive video games, and popular music are not only drenched in violence, but they also actively construct the image of the violent, powerful, and dominant male as the cultural norm.

     Also not receiving much attention are the issues of race and class. In this high-profile wave of suburban school violence, all of the killers were white as were the victims, with the exception of Isaiah Shoels, and all of the schools were in middle to upper middle class suburban communities. Yet nearly as many children are killed by guns every day as were murdered at Columbine High School on April 20, and more than half of these victims are Black; and these deaths occur with barely an acknowledgement. The only upside to this reminder of the persistence of racism is that perhaps now the problem of youth violence will get serious attention.

     This serious problem of youth and school violence in fact demands that we find solutions. The public discourse on solutions spans the range from greater security measures, including school uniforms, metal detectors at school entrances, more police patrols, and even arming teachers to greater psychological measures, such as strengthening children and families, and helping parents learn how to be more effectively involved in their children's lives. While I do not argue with the need for security, I do think it would be a serious mistake if these tragedies drive us into turning our schools into heavily-policed institutions, similar in some ways to the social disaster that happened when we abandoned the inner cities and built prisons instead.

     Psychologists can make a difference here through the roles we play in science, practice, education and public policy.

     Many practitioners have encountered families where we can see high potential for this sort of violence (and are very glad that this family has chosen to be in therapy). One of my colleagues described a recent case in which the 16 year old son, very bright but getting poor grades, had been engaging in an escalating pattern of vandalism, and was recently arrested, which brought the family into therapy. In the first session, the boy described, without much affect, a particularly cruel act of vandalism against a teacher. The father responded to his son's report with laughter. The therapist asked the father what he found so funny, to which the father replied, "My son is great put-on and he really got that teacher". The son's face grew very dark during this interaction, clearly indicating that this was not the response he desired. Here was a boy who was engaging in increasingly extreme acts to get his father to step in and say, in effect, "No, son, you are ruining your life and I won't let you do that because I love you too much". Noting this, the therapist turned to the father and said, "You think that's funny? Let me tell you what's not funny. You went to law school, right? Do you think your son is going to go to law school?". The father replied "Well, probably not." " Right", said the therapist, "your son will not go to law school and have a nice career like you do and a nice family and home in the suburbs, because he is going to go to jail." Sometimes it takes powerful interventions like this one to break through such a high level of denial.

     An excellent example of the contribution we could make in public education is the videotape, "Warning Signs" which is the lead release of MTV's 1999 public education campaign titled "Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence," that the APA Practice Directorate produced in partnership with MTV. The release date of "Warning Signs" was moved up in response to the Colorado tragedy, and has now been aired 12 times. It was combined with local public education efforts, and a Guide for youth, parents and teachers on the warning signs of violence that was both posted on APA's webpage and available thorough calling 1-800-268-0078. Overall, the campaign has been extraordinarily timely and very successful, with 138,000 "hits" on the web version of the Guide and the dissemination of the entire first printing of 50,000 copies of the Guide.

     We have much science-based expertise to offer to the formulation of public policy on such matters as school violence, which the Public Interest Directorate has long been doing. However, most psychologists have not considered involvement in public policy as part their role as psychologists. I believe that psychologists need to take a broader view and consider the impact that psychological knowledge might have on their community at large. We must venture outside our consulting offices and become actively engaged in the social and political arenas.

     We must learn to use authority and exercise leadership in the community. Specific steps that individual psychologists can take include running for elective office, offering to provide service on public policy advisory boards, joining their communities’ chambers of commerce, and writing letters addressing policy matters to legislators and other government officials. Happily we are increasingly represented in public policy commissions and boards, and in elective offices at the local, state and national levels, with two psychologists now in Congress, Brian Baird, Ph.D., and Ted Stickland, Ph.D.). It is vital that we build on this trend and find ways to get more psychologists actively involved in the public policy arena.

     We are at the proverbial fork in the road as a society in dealing with this problem. There are many ways that psychologists can help, and I have sketched just a few of them. The stakes are high. If we can help, we must.

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