So far Alabama has escaped the circuit of more than 18 school shooting incidents in 17 states that began in 1996, but the schools are not immune to the threat of violence that has become a modern-day reality.
Officials fear increased bomb threats and gun possession by minors on school property is developing into a nightmarish game of dominoes following each nationally publicized incident.
Evidence of this pattern of increased threats was demonstrated recently across Alabama schools following the March shooting rampage by a high school freshman in Santee, Calif., that left two dead and 13 wounded.
From rural county schools like Phil Campbell High School in Franklin County to larger city schools like Vestavia Hills High School in Birmingham, students made threats, some were accused of threats and others were arrested the week following the California tragedy.
Pelham police Lt. Larry Palmer, a member of Community Baptist Church, Maylene, said there is always an increased number of copycat behaviors that occur following a nationally publicized school shooting. “I don’t have to see statistics,” he said. “I know a number of copycat behaviors occur although it may be at different levels of seriousness.”
While school and law enforcement officials attribute most threats to copycat reactions to the incidents, many also believe it is more an increased awareness to the possibility.
Phil Campbell High School principal William Smith said, “I think what the media attention to the school shootings does is scare parents.
“They realize the vulnerability of their children when they send them to school,” he said following what turned out to be a rumored act of violence at his school March 9.
Still, Smith said, “You never know.” And officials are finding that there is no rhyme or reason, such as the school’s size or location, as to where an incident might occur.
For instance, in recent weeks five Huntsville students were charged in three separate incidents for making terrorist threats. One 17-year-old boy was accused of targeting specific sports teams at Grissom High School through a note he had written threatening to kill them on a designated day.
The charge for making a terrorist threat is now a class C felony, and gun possession by a minor is a misdemeanor. The Grissom student was the first Huntsville student to be charged under the new law.
Palmer also mentioned two high school students who were caught last year making bomb threats to Pelham High School. He explained that although they were punished through the school system, they barely missed being charged with a class C felony because the new law was still a few days away from going into effect.
“Kids don’t realize the price they will pay for doing what they may think is a prank. It turns out that these two boys made the threat to get a friend out of school so he wouldn’t have to take a test,” Palmer stated.
“This law was passed so that kids will know that this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated,” he added.
In another incident in Huntsville two girls, ages 12 and 14, were arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat to a county school. Two boys, ages 13 and 14, were charged in separate incidents for making terrorist threats at two other county schools. Since the first of the year three firearms have been confiscated from two different Huntsville area schools.
At Wilson High School in Lauderdale County, a thousand students stayed home from school March 14 after an e-mail circulated rumoring a violent act would take place that day. Bomb threats were also made at Cullman and Homewood high schools March 8 causing evacuation of the schools. Lauderdale County Superintendent Jerry Fulmer told The Times Daily newspaper that no evidence had been uncovered linking anyone to threats of violence at Wilson High School.
The news article stated that school administrators and sheriff’s deputies spent two days trying to trace the source of rumors that a student was targeting other students and was planning a violent act against them. The paper also reported that the majority of the rumors were circulated by seventh- and eighth-grade students via e-mail, as well as by telephone.
“The problem seems to be that under the circumstances created by the situation in California, everyone is very concerned about the welfare and safety of their children in school. Everyone’s concern is heightened,” Fulmer said in the article.
But Steve Martin, a member of the Shelby County board of education, believes that while the media attention can trigger copycat behavior it can also have a positive affect on youth. “Students are gathering from all of the publicity that telling an adult they overheard a fellow student making threats of violence is the right thing to do. They are seeing how important it is to report any suspicious behavior and the consequences of what could happen if they didn’t,” he said, referring to the California shooting where the accused gunman was not reported when he made the threats.
The hibernating fear of gun violence in Alabama schools raises its nasty head every time another nightmarish incident occurs and thus magnifies the vulnerability of Alabama’s school children. But parents, school officials and law enforcement agencies are determined to keep the state’s children from becoming another national statistic.
Last year Alabama lawmakers passed legislation making threats of violence to schools a class C felony. And as recent as March 15, the state Senate unanimously passed the School Violence Protection Act that was sponsored by Sen. Ted Little, D-Auburn.
If the bill garners the required votes in the House of Representatives it will give school superintendents and principals access to court records of juveniles who commit crimes that are violent, drug-related or involve a weapon.
“While a juvenile’s records are still protected, this allows those who are responsible for the safety of our children while they are at school to have the knowledge that a student has a record of violent, criminal behavior,” said Little, a member of First Baptist, Auburn.
Shelby County school board member Steve Martin, a member of Valleydale Baptist, said he supports this bill because it will give school faculty and administration an advantage in being alerted to an early pattern of behavioral problems that can be identified and reported to the proper authorities if needed.
“This bill is not intended to apply to every student who has a bad day or randomly acts out,” Martin said. “If a teacher sees a noticeable change in a student’s behavior or if there are repeated acts of defiant behavior or even something as simple as a change in class performance, mood swings or changes in dress pattern, it would be worth the teacher alerting the principal so that appropriate intervention could be taken,” he said.
Martin said the Shelby County school system has been taking proactive measures to assure school safety for several years, mentioning the presence of metal detectors in half a dozen Shelby County schools.
Martin also noted that the school system asked the state board of education to send a team of safety experts to conduct a safety audit in the system’s 32 schools.
“We already had this audit going before this latest school shooting incident occurred,” he explained. “There is not a beginning or an end to school safety procedures — it’s an ongoing process,” he added.
In Jefferson County’s Family Court, a number of creative, as well as effective, programs have sprung up that all interface with one another. One such preventative program, Gun Court, is also reducing repeat offenders. Gun Court is under the direction of the county’s specialized delinquent unit and is overseen by Larry Hooks, a senior probation officer who supervises a team of probation officers whose multiple responsibilities include focusing on safety education, gun danger awareness and prevention of guns in school.
In other parts of the state aggressive and proactive steps are being taken as evidenced by the March 20 elaborate reenactment of a terrorist act at a Lee County High School .
The brainchild of Larry DiChiara of the Lee County board of education, this one-of-a-kind experiment drew the attention and involvement of 21 different agencies including the FBI negotiations task force and participants from nearby Fort Benning in Georgia.
The idea, which grew out of concern for state-of-the-art preparedness, involved a hypothetical scenario of a shooting spree incident at Beulah High School. Along with ambulances, hospital emergency personnel and Auburn University’s biological detection systems, a hi-tech computerized program that had never been utilized outside of the military was used.
This created the enactment of a terrorist situation on a computerized program where multiple varying scenarios could be rehearsed, analyzed and fine-tuned.
“We certainly hope something of this magnitude never happens in our county or the state but if it ever did, we want to be prepared to take immediate action,” DiChiara said. “It’s already been proven that the saving of time, even down to seconds, can save lives in a volatile situation such as a shooting spree on a school campus,” he said.
And one of the most critical components to a crisis situation on a school campus is the knowledge and familiarity of the school’s campus and safety plan.
That’s why Lt. Larry Palmer of the Pelham Police Department, who oversees any such incidents at all of the four area schools, has familiarized himself with each school’s safety plan. He keeps within reach individual copies of all of the school’s blueprints and his officers routinely patrol the halls of the middle and high school at least twice a day.
“The officers always vary their arrival time so that no one can predict their coming and going,” he explained.
The state board of education has prepared and distributed detailed safety program manuals that cover every possible disaster including bomb threats and gun violence on campus.
They have distributed brochures for students to read as well as created hall posters that urge students to call anonymously a 1-800 hot line in the event they hear of any potential school violence.
As recently as March 9 a concerned student phoned in the report of the potential trouble at Phil Campbell High School in Franklin County.
Although school principal William Smith had already been alerted by a parent, he praised the student who made the call for doing the right thing.
“The student heard there could be trouble, made a phone call and by the time l arrived at school there was already notification from the crisis management team who had answered the call. That’s the way we want it to work,” he said.
The words were written in two distinctive sophomoric scrawls as the bored students passed the notebook paper back and forth during their history class.
Their inattention was noticed by their teacher who confiscated the note once she realized what was happening. To her surprise and alarm she read the message that discussed vandalizing her home and then killing her.
“I’ve known both of these students for a long time and they both came to me pleading that it was a joke. They’re the kind of kids that would joke about something like this, but today idle threats — joking or not — are not funny,” said the Alabama teacher of 25 years. Although the teacher chose not to take the issue any further, she did keep a copy as well as turn one in to the school guidance counselor.
Another teacher, Linda Cotton, a member of The Church at Brook Hills and an English teacher for more than two decades in the Shelby County school system, said she has seen a significant change in student behavior since she began her teaching career. “There is an obvious decline in the amount of respect that kids today have for authority,” she said. “School violence has become such an everyday part of our lives,” she added, stating that “the vast majority of students are scared by what’s happening in schools across the nation regarding the shooting rampages.”
Cotton commends the county board of education as well as the state board for their proactive efforts in having posters distributed around the schools that boldly display a 1-800 number that students can call if they hear of any suspicious activity.
“If anyone will hear about it the students will,” she said. “Most of them are taking school violence very seriously,” she stated, adding the random patrolling of Pelham police officers in the halls during class time is a comforting site to students and faculty alike.
Although the norm for years in schools across the state was the participation of occasional fire and weather drills, safety drill precautions today include more then fire and weather alerts — terrorist threats are now included in the list.
In Shelby County’s Pelham High School a coded signal is announced over the intercom and teachers immediately instruct their students to move to one corner of the room away from any visibility from the hallway. The teacher then locks the door and turns out the light to give the appearance of an empty room.
“When I first started teaching, the serious issues at school were drugs and theft. Today it’s concern for your life and the life of your students,” Cotton said.
“It’s really scary,” said fellow teacher Pam Campbell. “You don’t know if you make a kid mad if he’ll come back and try and shoot you,” she said.
“It’s sad that it’s come to this,” Cotton interjected. “No one wants to go into the teaching profession anymore. There’s a teacher shortage in the country, and I have no doubt that school violence and safety is contributing to it,” Campbell added.
“I used to think that it couldn’t ever happen at my school,” said Sammy Brasseale, a junior who attends Homewood High School. “But with everything that is happening across the county at other schools I’m sure those kids never thought it would happen to them either.”The play-acting that took place on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in a fifth grade class at Brookville Elementary School in Adamsville was innocent enough — but the message it relayed was extremely serious.
Giggling students raised their eager hands hoping to be picked as a volunteer for an impromptu skit. Probation officer Tiffany Large of Jefferson County’s specialized delinquent unit of Family Court took her time choosing from the selection of hands that were waving across the room. After her selections were made three children snuggled into their rearranged desk chairs that were doubling for the seats in a make-believe car.
Larry Hooks, senior probation officer and supervisor for Family Court’s specialized delinquent unit, immediately took his cue from Large who was sitting in the driver’s seat of the pretend convertible acting out listening to the car radio with her buddies.
Hooks urged the class to make siren noises and to picture red and blue blinking lights while he acted out a patrolman stopping the car for having a taillight that was out.
As the scene unfolds one unfortunate boy is shocked to find that he has been sitting in the seat where a pretend gun is hidden. “But it’s not mine, I didn’t know about it,” the child said. “Well it’s certainly not mine,” denied Large.
“I bet all of you thought the person driving the car would be the one getting into trouble, didn’t you,” Hooks asked his shocked audience as heads nodded.
The class became quiet as the officers took turns listing off the chain of events that take place when a youth is caught with possession of a gun at school or otherwise.
Sobering questions were asked by the young listeners as they learned about Gun Court, getting arrested, weeks of strenuous boot camp, expulsion from school, probation, electronic monitoring and restrictions on activities if they bring a gun to school or are caught with one in their possession.
Any student in Jefferson County caught with a gun on school property is automatically expelled for one calendar year, Hooks explained.
It’s a scene that could come straight from one of today’s live action courtroom television shows — with a name to match. But there is one big difference — Jefferson County’s Gun Court is a serious dose of reality for juvenile offenders — just ask any youth who has experienced it.
This unique court experience is the brainchild of Jefferson County’s Family Court Judge Sandra Ross Storm.
In 1994 she noticed a record number of gun-related homicides in Jefferson County with an all-time high being reached for homicide rates of juveniles 18 years of age and under. Storm soon developed what has become a successful and attention-getting way of letting juveniles and their parents in Jefferson County know that gun possession at schools and elsewhere will not be tolerated. Once youth complete the program they are not likely to want to experience it again and chances are good they will positively influence their peers away from Gun Court.
According to Family Court Judge Andre Sparks, a member of Birmingham’s First Missionary Baptist, East Boyles, in Tarrant, “We think that we’ve made an impact on the general awareness of guns being carried by young people.” He mentioned the irony he sees in many of the cases he presides over as referee, where young offenders say they carry a gun because they are afraid and have it for their own protection. “They can’t see the potential for a multitude of people getting hurt with it,” he said.
The success of Gun Court — evidenced by the reduction over the past six years of Jefferson County youth being caught with guns — has been nominated by the Justice Department as a contender for a national prototype for a juvenile gun reduction program. “Gun Court has already been determined to be one of the 50 most promising programs in the country,” Sparks said.
Representatives from Gun Court go into the schools and educate the youth on concerns and problems regarding juveniles and guns. Since 1997 more than 3,000 students have been educated through lectures, videos and handouts about Gun Court and its policies.
Larry Hooks, senior probation officer and one of the team of five who speak to area school children said, “Courts are usually reactive by nature but this aspect of going into the school systems and reaching kids before they make a mistake is one of the great aspects of this comprehensive program,” he said.
The Gun Court initiative is a collaborative effort of numerous entities including: the Alabama department of youth services, the Birmingham police department, the Jefferson County sheriff’s department, the Jefferson County coroner’s office, the mayor’s office of youth development, the Birmingham and Jefferson County school systems, the private sector and Family Court. The goal of the initiative is to provide for public safety by reducing the number of violent crimes and handgun offenses in Jefferson County.
Once a juvenile is charged (and found guilty) of a gun-related charge, he or she will be held in detention and then sent to either a 30-day boot camp or be committed to the Alabama Department of Youth Services. If this is the youth’s first offense, he or she will be ordered to comply with the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). This program is a special period of probation that the youth will complete after attending boot camp. It includes electronic monitoring, a curfew, daily check-ins and home visits.
But that’s not all of the program. Parents have a significant role in this program as well. They are required to participate in 10-week parent education classes specifically designed for Gun Court. Each parent is expected to comply with the court order and if there is noncompliance then jail time will be ordered for the parent. The juvenile offender is also required to attend classes on topics ranging from consequences of guns, gun safety, conflict resolution and anger management.
Although the required attendance of boot camp may seem extreme to some, the logic is based on the precept that juveniles don’t listen and must be shown.
Hooks, a member of Sardis Baptist Church, Birmingham, points out that 80 percent of kids are going to be all right. He says about 15 percent will be borderline cases who will make some poor choices. “These are the kids we are hoping to get the message to. The other 5 percent of kids are the ones that we will be having to deal with in the courts and prisons,” he said.
Hooks said Gun Court has dealt with juveniles as young as 8 and 9 years old but they do not get assigned to boot-camp if they are under the age of 10. “They will be referred to courts for other services,” he explained.
The average age of offenders that are sent to boot camp is around 15 with more than 90 percent being male.
According to Judge Storm, Gun Court is based on the simple theory that inappropriate behavior can be changed by applying swift and appropriate consequences.
Steps have been taken to make the public aware of this program by the distribution of two brochures. One warns juveniles of incarceration for gun offenses. The other urges parents to monitor their child and seek help if there is any suspicion of involvement with guns.
Hooks said that since the last national publicized shootings more and more schools are calling to get presentations made in their schools. “I’ve been in over 50 schools since this program began and as of March 16 I will have already spoken in 11 schools this month alone.” A proactive part of the program offers an outreach component for the Birmingham and Jefferson County schools. In July 1999 the Department of Justice awarded Jefferson County Commission a grant to provide for the expansion of existing Gun Court services with special focus being on education, awareness and prevention through the cooperative efforts of city and county schools.
Hooks said in many instances the kids know they should not be touching a gun but they are reacting to peer pressure from their friends daring them to get the gun. “Kids you wouldn’t think would get a gun will do it.”
“In Gun Court the type of juvenile that comes through is across the board from every social and economic background. We’ve had kids from poor as well as rich families. Kids who have dropped out of school and kids who make A’s and B’s.”
Hooks said statistics show that chances of juveniles repeating this offense is much lower if they have already been through Gun Court and boot camp as opposed to juveniles in other parts of the state.
Hooks said, “We want to stress to parents who attend Gun Court appointed parent classes that they need to keep their guns safe and locked up or put away where their kids can’t get to them.”
Probation officer James Sparkes said Gun Court appearances are showing a decline and he thinks he knows the reason. “It’s my opinion that the gun school graduates are going back and telling their friends that this is one school they don’t want to graduate from. Some of them must be listening,” he said.
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