Suspects of revenge rampages and mass shootings more frequently express their intentions prior to executing their ill motivated plots. The proliferation of social media in the recent past has seen the platform being one of the most used by individuals intending to cause harm either as a way of conveying their identities, or in efforts aimed at expressing their grievances, frustrations, thoughts, behavior, as well as interests, what is now commonly referred to as leakage. It is not uncommon for shooters, especially when the subjects are young individuals, to post their homicidal thoughts, or even direct warnings on social media prior to implementing their plans. Whereas these public statements often offer a rare opportunity for prevention, most of these warning signs often go unnoticed, or sometimes not treated as seriously as they should be, thereby affording perpetrators of revenge rampages and mass shootings the freedom to execute their dangerous plans.
Nowhere to Hide podcast is an audio file about Jake Smith, a sophomore student who threatened to bring a gun to school and execute revenge on his English teacher, Ms. Yeager, for humiliating him in front of his classmates, and also for hating on him. He also intends to shoot the school principal, Steven Bishop, for siding with the Ms. Yeager and suspending him from school for three days. One of the highlights of the podcast is the role of social media in illustrating threats, especially those that are intended to cause harm. Thanks to posts by Jake Smith on an online website, police officers Trish Bell and Charlie Harris get to confirm that there indeed could be a planned attack on the school by one of the students. They had earlier been notified about the same by the school principal, Steven Bishop. In an interview with 15 year old Tina Bradshaw, Jake’s girlfriend, officers Bell and Harris get the opportunity to see the posts by Jake on social media where he talks about getting back on his English teacher and the school principal. The illustrations on social media about school shooting make Jake Smith a subject of interest from officers Bell and Harris. The two officers set forth to determine the root cause of the intended gun attack on the two teachers as it is the stimulus to initiating an intervention strategy.
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Exploring intensification of the threat as evidenced in the case helps advance this discussion. It is true that the threat by Jake to attack two of his school teachers intensifies through a variety of channels. Aside from the fact that his girlfriend Tina Bradshaw presents the two officers with his posts regarding the intended gun attack, she also talks about the same with her therapist. The therapist’s supervisor, Elisa Hemmings then went ahead and called the school principal, warning him about a possible threat against his school. The school principal in turn called police officers, sharing with them what he knew about the threat by Jake Smith. Additionally, Jake also admits to planning to attack Ms. Yeager, the school principal, and any other teacher who dared to intervene during the ordeal to his juvenile probation officer, Lynn Curtis. The latter shares the information with officers Bell and Harris, his father, Brent Smith, and the father’s parole officer, Mark Jenkins.
Equally important to this discussion is the contribution of social media to threat assessment. Borum, Cornell, Modzeleski, and Jimerson (2010) had their say about this topic. The quartet revealed that posts on social media are important to threat assessment since they can be used to ascertain the motivation of the threat giver as well as the credibility of the threat. They also added that social media posts can be used to acquire leading clues imperative to establishing the background and history of the subject individual, who his friends are, and their level of intelligence. These sentiments by the quartet are in agreement with a publication by Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS). According to the publication, social media is crucial to threat assessment in that in often provides relevant information that can be used to devise prevention plans against violence in schools. However, REMS goes a step further to indicate that in so doing, it is important to accord special focus on what a particular student is saying or doing, and not whether the student looks like those who have attacked the school/ other schools in the past (“Use of social media in school behavioral threat assessments,” n.d). According to Whittaker and Kowalski (2014), social contributes to threat assessment in two significant ways. First, the platform can be successfully used to determine whether the threat maker has the relevant information on how to execute their plots and if in case they might require the help of others to make good of their threats. And if the latter is true, then who are the people the threat maker intends to recruit into his plan and what are their specific contributions to the plot. The duo also indicated that social media posts by a threat maker can be used to establish whether the persons of interest have access to the tools as well as the capacity to implement the threats. Finally, a publication by Lehigh University indicates that social media posts by threat makers can be used to ensure the physical safety of the would-be victims (Bowers, 2018). Nikolas Cruz, a 19 year old suspect in the deadly rampage at a Florida high school, for example, was a troubled teenager as was evidenced from several disturbing content that he posted on social media (Kennedy, 2018). A review of his online activity reveal that had his media activity been taken seriously, perhaps things could not have ended the same way as they did. The same can be said about Jake Smith’s posts on social media regarding his planned attacks on two of his school teachers save for the fact that this case was treated with the seriousness it deserved. However, valuable time can also be spent on social media posts by intervening officers, allowing threat givers time to regroup and attack through a different channel. Social media posts can also be used by perpetrators of criminal activities to mislead investigations. They can use the platform to post one thing but do the exact opposite; thereby ensuring relevant authorities are least prepared for the attack and ensure maximum damage (Williams et al., n.d).
The last piece to this discussion is the examination of the roles of parents and caregivers in preventing social media victimization. McCullum (2019) expressed his opinions on the responsibilities of parents and caregivers (teachers) in preventing cyberbullying among students. He said that parents have an obligation to monitor their children’s online activities, confiscate their children’s mobile devices or impose sanctions on them whenever they find them guilty of mistreating people online, and also scrutinize their children’s relationships and closely monitor those they speak to. Furthermore, McCullum also mentioned that parents should tutor their children on how to use technology responsibly, understand the signs that are likely to be manifested by bullying victims, and most important, make themselves approachable to their children (McCullum, 2019). On the responsibilities of teachers regarding prevention of cyberbullying among students, this is what he had to say. McCullum said that teachers should let students know that it is okay to report incidences of bullying over the internet, create an environment of tolerance and mutual respect within the classroom, and implement anti-cyberbullying policies within the classroom and the school as a whole. In addition, he affirmed that teachers should also make it clear to students that cyberbullying is wrong, and punish those found guilty, participate in training on cyberbullying prevention, and also work closely with parents to help understand and prevent cyberbullying (McCullum, 2019).
Conclusion
Social media activities can reveal a lot of information about criminal activities prior to their execution, especially when the attackers post warnings about these attacks online. However, several attacks, for example school shootings and revenge rampages posted on social media platforms can be prevented if the information regarding the threats are carefully assessed and appropriate measures forged and implemented. Also apparent in this discussion is the fact that parents and even caregivers, for example, teachers have a huge role to play in the prevention of social media victimization.
References
Borum, R., Cornell, D.G., Modzeleski, W., & Jimerson, S.R. (2010). What can be done about school shootings? A review of the evidence. Educational Researcher, 39 , 27-37. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1533&context=mhlp_facpub
Bowers, E.S. (2018). School shooters-Inside their minds. Lehigh University College of Education. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://ed.lehigh.edu/theory-to-practice/2013/school-shooters
Kennedy, K. (2018). ‘Disturbing’ Instagram posts: what Nicholas Cruz, suspected in Florida shooting, did online. USA Today. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/15/nikolas-cruz-who-florida-shooting-suspect-social-media/340092002/
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016d). Nowhere to hide [Audio file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/FPSY/8200/CH/mm/podcast_repository/episode3.html
McCullum, K. (2019). Cyberbullying in school: prevention and support. Community for Accredited Online Schools. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/cyberbullying-prevention-and-support/
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS). (n.d). Use of social media in school behavioral threat assessments. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://rems.ed.gov/docs/Resources/Social_Media_Threat_Assessment_Webinar_Slides_508C.pdf
Whittaker, E., & Kowalski, R.M. (2014). Cyberbullying via social media. Journal of School Violence, 14 (1), 11-29. doi: 10.1080/15388220.2014.949377
Williams, K., et al. (n.d). Social networking privacy behaviors and risks. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6017/f696ef2c153fd2c90423adb7694607670ed8.pdf
