Risk factors in school shootings
Lack of attachment is a common thread with boys and violent behavior
by
Joe Manthey © 2007

This column was first published in the Petaluma Argus Courier

It seems that after every school shooting, the usual suspects, often with vested interests, come out of the woodwork with their theories: guns, psychotropic drugs, violent video games, Satanic lyrics, Nazism ... But the Secret Service has determined that school assassins do not fit a “profile” — aside from the fact that they have all been boys. Therefore, a more productive approach would be to look for certain character risk factors:

1. Lack of attachment with a primary caregiver at beginning of life. Seung-Hui Cho did not even communicate with his parents and those around him. In 1997, the father of Minnesota shooter Jeff Weise committed suicide and two years later his mother, whom he “hated,” was partly paralyzed and brain damaged. Weise was estranged from his mother and other family members and had a strained relationship with his grandfather, whom he lived with and murdered. The parents of Granite Hills High School assassin Jason Hoffman separated when he was 3 months old.

2. Recent trauma. Wiese’s school had rejected him six months prior to his rampage and was placed on “homebound study.” He then left a message on the school’s computer screen that people at the school “are going to pay.” Hoffman had just learned that he was not going to graduate. All these boys had left numerous clues that they were deeply disturbed, and their cries for help were ignored. Cho is simply the latest example.

3. Trigger. These boys were heavily stressed out in dysfunctional home environments. Former neighbors of Hoffman said he spent hours walking his neighborhood to get away from a troubled home life.

A groundbreaking 2001 Australian study of violent high school students discovered that almost all had suffered the loss of, or separation from, a close family member in their early childhood years. Before he reached the age of 10, Weise lost three relatives in eight years. The study, written by Elizabeth Parry, found a connection between stress-related disorders and the background of boys most at risk of violent behavior.

Parry reported that these boys were “unhappy with themselves, fearful, afraid of the future and concerned they would die with no identity.” Weise and his male friend who helped him plan the methodical rampage discussed in e-mails the placement of school cameras; not to avoid detection, but to make sure the shooting spree would be filmed. Cho took pictures of himself, which he then sent to the media.

Scientists have recently found a possible link between the psychological effects of lack of attachment and how the brain develops. According to researcher Antonio Damasio, there is “compelling evidence that the human brain has a specialized region for making personal and social decisions and that this region, located in the frontal lobes at the top of the brain, is connected to deeper brain regions that store emotional memories.”

Frontal lobe damage has always been a paradox: why do these bright boys behave so poorly in the social world? Drs. Antonio and Hanna Damasio found that human decision-making involves the frontal lobes utilizing separate but interconnected circuits. One functions in the social/emotional domain and the other functions in extra personal space, objects, language and arithmetic domains.

Hoffman was fascinated with mechanical things such as cars, boats and engines. But when it came to making rational decisions in personal and social behavior, he fell apart.

Boys suffer the majority of childhood brain disorders and diseases, many of which eventually translate into immoral or undisciplined behavior; and the adolescent male brain tends more toward diseases that affect self-control. But our schools have not realized how mentally and emotionally fragile boys can be.

When we finally switch from assuming that boys do not need any help to proactively assisting those who are adrift and angry, we will hopefully be inspired to a new way of thinking. Until then, these lost boys struggling to cope will continue to “cry bullets.”

Joe Manthey is a Petaluma-based gender equity advocate who is a trustee for The Boys Project and leads Teaching to Gender Differences in Brain Development seminars. His Web site is www.joemanthey.com.

Copyright 2007 Joe Manthey, all rights reserved