Involvement key to averting
school violence

A principal whose school had a
shooting tells isle officials kids
must feel they belong

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

Every school has a potential for violence if students feel bullied, that they don't belong and aren't actively involved in the learning process.

This message was delivered to Hawaii health and safety experts and school principals the past two days by an official working for "safe and orderly schools and school improvement" for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

To achieve safe schools, kids must feel they belong and that people care for them, and they must have a "rigorous, engaging curriculum," said Bill Bond, principal of Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., when three students were killed and five wounded by 14-year-old Michael Carneal on Dec. 1, 1997.

If they don't feel secure and happy, he said, a room full of cameras and security devices won't prevent violence. "Kids can beat any system you put in front of them," he said.

"Too many of us don't realize we have a problem," Bond said yesterday after speaking at the Governor's 7th Biennial Pacific Rim Safety & Health Conference, presented by the American Society of Safety Engineers, Hawaii Chapter.

There have been shootings at 39 schools since 1973, all committed by boys or young men, most of whom felt persecuted at school, he said.

A member of the U.S. Department of Education's National Crisis Team, Bond said bullying and harassment must be stopped in schools, not just to prevent shootings but to improve learning.

"The civil-rights issue this decade is how students treat other students," he said. "This is hard for principals and educators and parents to admit, but kids are verbally hurtful. They pick on and hurt other kids."

Changes should start with the adults because many bullies are teachers, he said. "Sarcasm and put-downs are the wrong way to control a classroom or employees."

Schools should have the same anti-harassment policies companies have for employees, or bullying students will go into the workplace with the same attitudes, Bond said.

Corey Nakamura, acting vice principal of Kapaa Middle School on Kauai, said his school has no major discipline problems -- mostly insubordination and some bullying.

"Mostly, it's bigger kids picking on smaller kids," he said, adding that "discipline assemblies" are held every quarter to explain bullying and harassment and consequences.

The need to start at the faculty level caught his attention, Nakamura said.

"I see it happening. Teachers say negative things about other teachers."

Kapaa's advantage, he said, is that it is a "pretty tight-knit community" with close relationships between the faculty and families that tend to develop trust.

Bond spoke to principals at Puuhale School in Kalihi Wednesday and went yesterday afternoon to Campbell High School in Ewa Beach. A 17-year-old at Campbell allegedly pointed a gun at students and a vice principal and barricaded himself in a classroom Sept. 21, 1998.

School shooters usually tell other students, who seldom pass on information to adults, Bond said.

"At my school, eight kids saw the gun on Wednesday at school before Thanksgiving," he said. "None told me or parents. The next Monday morning, three girls died who never harassed him."

A national hot line soon will be established by which students who feel they can't talk to parents or teachers can report information anonymously, Bond said.

School shootings aren't spontaneous but are planned an average of two weeks in advance, allowing time to intervene if adults are informed, he said.

There is no profile for potential student killers, who represent different ages, ethnic groups and family situations, Bond said, noting the Heath High School shooter was an A and B student. His sister was a valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar.

Mel Tom, responsible for security at Kamehameha Schools' Kawaiahao Plaza administrative offices, was interested in what Bond's school did for security after the shooting.

A member of Kamehameha Schools' violence intervention team, Tom described tight security measures on that campus.

"Our main concern is the safety of children we take care of," he said.

Bond said his school had no security personnel when the shooting occurred. Now it has fences and an armed guard who talks to kids and helps them with problems.

He said he debated whether to take backpacks away so kids couldn't stash guns in them. Instead, he said, three teachers were assigned to each of three doors to check backpacks and bags and greet students with a smile when they enter school.