Heeding the Signs Part 3

FLAWED
FAMILIES
Other children who explode in rage and violence come from the sort of family backgrounds we associate with troubled kids. Poverty, poor parenting, drug and alcohol problems, emotional and physical abuse, negative attitudes toward schooling, and domestic violence all provide a fertile breeding ground for a child to develop antisocial attitudes and aggressive behavior, according to Dr. Hill Walker at the Oregon Social Learning Center, who with his colleagues has spent decades identifying the parenting practices that produce healthy, well-adjusted children.

The greater the number of risks a young child is exposed to, and the longer the exposure, Walker says, the more likely he will see the world as a dangerous place and develop into a hostile, self-centered adolescent who reacts aggressively to real or imagined slights.

Evan Ramsey, tried as an adult last year and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the school shootings in Bethel, was such a child. By the time Evan was seven, his father was in prison for storming the Anchorage Times newspaper offices with an assault weapon, and his alcoholic mother was unable to care for her three sons. Evan and his brothers were taken into state custody. A psychologist who examined Evan at the time warned that the boy was depressed and needed counseling and a safe home environment. Yet over the next three years, Evan bounced from one foster home to another-10 in all. The year before the shootings, he had 12 disciplinary infractions at school and two suspensions. A friend told a reporter that Evan was sometimes teased by fellow students as "brain-dead" and "retarded."

The authors of Early Warning, Timely Response note that social withdrawal is a common response when a young person feels picked on, teased, bullied, and ridiculed for perceived differences or inadequacies. The resulting isolation, combined with feelings of frustration and anger, can spell disaster for a troubled child. Two of the four young killers in the Northwest school shootings specifically targeted classmates who teased them. The government report suggests that any school-violence prevention and response plan include a code of conduct that covers antibullying rules, and clearly lays out sanctions against behavior such as teasing and hurtful name-calling. Some schools are going farther and implementing antibullying curricula. (See Page 10 for a sampling of curricula.)

"Hey Everybody!! … I feel rejected, rejected, not so much alone, but rejected," Evan wrote in a notebook the night before the shootings. "Life sucks in its own way, so I killed a little and killed myself. " Evan had often talked of suicide and admitted after the tragedy that he expected to die the day he took the gun to school.

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