A government organization studying targeted violence is speaking with school districts around the country with a goal of preventing attacks and school shootings before they happen.
Jeffrey McGarry is a supervisory social science research specialist with the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center. On Monday, McGarry gave a presentation to dozens of Peoria Public Schools resource officers, school officials and community leaders.
The presentation focuses on the findings of two studies, performed in 2019 and 2021, that examine the characteristics of past plots for violence in schools and those who carried them out.
Among the findings, researchers found there’s really not a “one size fits all” profile for school shooters. McGarry said all of the attacks included in the study were carried out by current or former students.
“What we do know from our research, which is very clear, is these attacks are preventable,” he said. “There is a build-up there.”
In many cases, McGarry said the perpetrator would communicate their plans to someone. Some students display a change in behavior, showing extreme isolation or anger. In some cases, they develop unexplained interests in violent topics, like weapons and brutal crimes.
“There are all these moments of early intervention where we can intervene and steer a student in a different direction,” he said.
So McGarry travels the country, instructing people in positions and backgrounds of all kinds on how to identify red flags and intervene early.
“It's just about getting a student help, right? We want to avoid unwanted outcomes down the road, we know what happens to behavior that goes unchecked. So yes, this is about preventing violence,” he said. “But we also want to prevent students from maybe dropping out of school, you know, getting heavily used with drugs and alcohol, right? We're just looking for signs that this student is in trouble.”
McGarry said he wants to make it clear to law enforcement and others that they are always in a position to avert attacks and reach a positive outcome for students.
“They are always in position to be that positive role model,” he said. “And we want to understand that these students, they're not necessarily, you know, I'm not taking away the monstrous acts they have done. But these are students that are in trouble. And we need to humanize them.”
McGarry stresses, above all else, that prevention is just as important as response when dealing with targeted violence in schools. He said we tend to respond afterwards with measures like metal detectors, bulletproof glass, active shooter training and armed school resource officers.
“And that's great. And there are reasons to believe that these kinds of strategies can help save lives,” he said. “But we have to understand that the majority, it’s often the case with these attacks, they are insiders, they're students that go to the school, they notice security protocols.”
Often, McGarry said the attacks are ferocious and over fast. In his research, not one of the attacks included was stopped by an outside law enforcement officer responding to the scene. In most cases, he said, the attacks begin and end within five minutes and cause incredible harm.
“The key point to understand is that we want to intervene before the situation gets to the point where there's an attack about to happen,” McGarry said. “Because, again, we are not waiting for a student to engage in an attack to respond when we had all these behavior changes six months leading up to the attack when we could have intervened.”
You can see the full studies conducted by the Secret Service here and here.
