School-Shooting Tragedy Might Have Been Avoided If Threats Had Been Taken Seriously, UB Expert Says

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A shooting at a suburban San Diego high school this week that left two students dead and 13 injured might have been prevented if a teen-ager's threats had been taken seriously and reported to authorities, a University at Buffalo forensic psychologist and law professor said today.

Charles P. Ewing, Ph.D., a nationally known authority, expert witness and author of "Kids Who Kill," said that the shooter had told friends of his plans before he took the weapon to school, opened fire and began the bloody rampage.

"Any threat of harm made by a student should be taken seriously and reported to authorities, who are in a better position to assess the threat," Ewing emphasized.

Many youths who commit senseless crimes, he added, talk about their plans before they act and they most often confide in peers.

"Had this boy's threat been reported to school or law enforcement officials, this tragedy likely would have been averted," Ewing emphasized.

Fifteen-year-old Charles Andrew Williams is scheduled to be charged as an adult with murder, assault with a deadly weapon and gun possession, according to an Associated Press dispatch that quoted San Diego district attorney Paul Pfingst.

Friends who Williams had confided in about his plans to bring a weapon to school were alarmed enough to question him further, going so far as to frisk him before school began.

But he reportedly reassured them before class on Monday that he was only kidding. Finding no weapons, they erroneously believed that he was not serious.

"According to reports," Ewing said, "the student had been mercilessly teased, taunted and called a 'nerd' because of his slight build."

He said that students, teachers and others who are aware of bullying behavior should take a proactive role in addressing the problem at school and make it clear that this is not only unacceptable, but that it can lead to often-deadly results.

"Teasing and taunting are often viewed as a sort of teen-age 'rite of passage' -- especially among young men. But for some it can and does backfire," Ewing pointed out.

He said that although this type of behavior always has been around, "the easy accessibility of guns today offers some bullying victims an 'equalizer,' a weapon that allows them to retaliate.

"And today," Ewing said, "kids seem more liable to exhibit their hurt and anger through guns."

In-school programs aimed at making students aware of more acceptable ways of dealing with rage associated with bullying, harassing and merciless taunting are one way to approach the problem.

Limiting access to guns is another.

"You can kill someone with other kinds of weapons, but at least potential victims -- many of whom are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time -- would have a better chance of surviving," Ewing said.