1.  James Garbarino, Ph.D.    "Children who Kill, Parts 1 and 2"

How does a nice boy turn into a killer? Not every child with access to a gun becomes an Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold. Not every child who feels ostracized or who plays video games or who writes an essay filled with violent imagery goes on a murderous rampage. The bottom line is that you need a lethal combination: a particular environment, imposed on a particular biology, mixed with inept parenting, and bad luck. And now the risk factors that have plagued inner city kids have seeped into the suburbs.

In an interview in the New York Times, our first speaker, Dr. James Garbarino stated, regarding the Littleton, Colorado shootings, that "At first it looks inexplicable if these kids don't seem to have the history of troubled relationships and temperamental difficulties. But as the days proceed and these boys' lives are put under the microscope, some distinguishing characteristics are emerging." Current research shows that these murderous adolescents don't target only an individual in some interpersonal dispute--they seem to launch a shooting spree that results in many deaths and injuries. The primary goal is to kill or harm others.

Understanding why children kill has become the professional calling of Dr. James Garbarino, director of Cornell University's Family Life Development Center in Ithaca, NY. Following the Columbine High School killings, he was interviewed by virtually all the major periodicals and newspapers in the country, and was involved in the FBI and White House Conferences on schoool violence. Author of Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment, Dr. Garbarino interviewed 24 young killers with his wife and fellow reseacher, Clare Bedard for his new book, Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them.

We first interviewed Dr. Garbarino after the first group of high school shootings. We have reproduced that interview for you here. And now we have returned to him a second time, following the Littleton, Colorado shootings, to see if he had any additinal thoughts to share with us, which he does.

2.  Robert Galatzer-Levy, M.D.     "Assessment"

In researching the topic of assessment of potentially violent adolescents, I have gathered together a checklist of points of concern. The number one risk factor is a previous history of violent behavior.

Parents need to know who their child's friends are, who their role models are, if the child avoids speaking to the parents for extended periods, slipping grades and activities, depression as evidenced by changes in appetite and sleeping patterns, isolation, new friends, fascination with guns or other means of destruction, preoccupation with violence in the media. Friends too need to be able to gauge the threat: does the student throw things, punch walls, avoid reality by turning to drugs, alcohol, computers, try to shock his friends? The more the student does these things, the more dangerous it is. Other risk factors include estrangement from family and classmates, immersion in the violent entertainment subculture, and of course, access to guns.

What should we as therapists do when presented with a case of a potentially violent child? Certainly we should not do what one of the Columbine counselors is reputed to have done--assume that because one of the killers had aspirations to join the military that his behavior and fantasies were understandable and not of concern!

Once again, for clear and direct advice on what to do and not do in assessing for violence, we turn to Dr. Robert Galatzer-Levy. Dr. Galatzer-Levy is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of children, adolescents and adults.

3.  Irmgard Wessel, MSW    "Families of Murder Victims"

No suffering compares to the unimaginable grief at the loss of a child. When that loss comes about through senseless violence, the grief is complicated by layer upon layer of meaning. This is a grieving process that cannot be simply reduced to the 4 phases Elizabeth Kubler Ross described years ago. Grief workers cannot help by presuming that there's one set prescription, imposing rules for mourning and telling people how they are going to feel. In addition, the techniques of "grief work," which say that the healthy response to trauma is to "work it through" and find "closure," and which encourage patients to talk about their emotions-and talk-and talk, can make some people feel even more vulnerable and out of control.

Forced ventilation makes little sense for those whose ordinary coping style is to remain calm. And there is surprisingly little evidence that talking about trauma in its immediate aftermath is particularly helpful. In fact it can lead to further difficulties.

Rather, when the bereaved families or friends look for help in their own time, we can be available, on terms based on the primary principal of psychotherapy --- "start where the client is."

Irmgard Wessel, a clinical social worker who has worked with families of murder victims for many years, and who says there is no one theory to rely on. The role of the therapist is to help, not cure. After all, what cure could be possible? We must, she states, honor the survivors and recognize with them the insanity of the events which stole their children.

4.  William Porter, Ph.D.    "Bullyproofing"

We conclude this program on school violence on a very hopeful note -- a prevention program that really works!

Bullies once were considered an inevitable fact of school life. Today, experts are absorbing the revelation that bullying is more common--and consequential than previously realized. Now we know that the victimes can turn violent too.

There has never in the history of the civilized world been a cohort of kids that is so little affected by adult guidance and so attuned to a peer world. We have removed grown-up wisdom and allowed kids to drift into a self-constructed, highly relativistic world of friendship and peers. The fact that modern adults have a less black and whilte view of morality and human behavior, that they have perhaps a more nuanced perspective, seems to block their ability to give clear-cut guidance and make strict rules for their children. Understanding can paralyze a parent or teacher. Understanding the roots of a boy's bullying should not stop these adults from dealing with it.

Furthernore, research shows that not only do these kids spend little time around adults, they don't like adults, don't like being controlled or monitored. Power, to them is a major theme. Unlike the victims-the targets, who may have low self esteem, bullies tend to be grandiose. Schools have tended to be unresponsive, even fearful of these bullies.

Thankfully, the notion that this is their world- the bullies and the bullying cliques, with their barely repressed violence - doesn't fly anymore. Especially in the wake of Littleton, the Lord of the Flies world-sadistic and hierarchical - is being reassessed. People no longer really believe the old saying about sticks and stones breaking bones but words never harming.

Based on extensive research into children who bully, and showing that the only way to prevent violence is to involve the community in changing the way it approaches the problem, a number of programs have been developed over the last few years to try to nip violent behavior in the bud.

A group of Denver area psychologists and social workers have devised a bully proofing system. The only way to neutralize bullies, they realized, is to lessen their opportunities. The best way to do that is to empower potential victims with behavioral strategies and back them up with a supportive school community.

In the forefront of this movement is Dr. William Porter. Dr. Porter has devoted his professional career to developing mental health programming for children and their families. He received a Doctorate in Child Clinical Psychology in 1978 from the University of Denver. He presently works in Student Achievement Services in the Cherry Creek School District, where he has supervised mental health services, scondary special education, students with emotional and behavioral problems, and children involved in out-of-district placements. Over the years he has been instrumental in the development of programs which address outdoor therapy, suicide prevention, home alone situations, and adolescent runaways, in addition to intervention programs for children's and adolescents' needs. Currently he is working to develop a safe climate for children in schoool and communities through his authoring of "Bully Proofing Your Schools," a program which trains personnel and develops character in students. His efforts have received both local and national acclaim.