Wednesday, 6 September, 2000 Warning signs for pupil violence Schools fear a repeat of the murders at Columbine High School Police in the United States have alerted schools to the warning signs that could show a pupil is inclined to violence. These include students who have a "pre-occupation" with violence and who repeatedly return to images of destruction, dismemberment and death in their written and art work. The warning on the risk of school shootings gives the example of a violence-fixated teenage boy who was asked to bake a cake in a home economics lesson and made the cake in the shape of a handgun. These indications of potentially dangerous pupils have been drawn up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a two-year study of school violence, published as School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. But in producing its list of warning signs, the FBI says that these are suggestions to help schools to assess risk - and should not to be used as a "checklist" with which to screen pupils. The list of warning signs has been produced as schools return for the new term - and amid continuing fears of attacks by pupils similar to the murders last year at Columbine High School in Colorado. Among the signs which teachers are encouraged to look out for are pupils showing an obsessive interest in violent music, films, images and books. Other factors to monitor, says the FBI, are pupils who have access to weapons, suffer from depression and who are known to abuse drugs and alcohol. Also included in the list of traits associated with school shootings are social isolation, "inappropriate" sense of humour, outbursts of anger, nihilism, narcissism, mood swings, attention-seeking, exaggerated sense of self-importance, inability to take criticism and intolerance. There are also suggestions that schools should be aware of out-of-school activities that could be a prelude to violence, such as practising with firearms and using the internet to find information on bomb-making. The FBI's risk assessment says that such behaviour had to be interpreted in the context of a number of factors, including the pupil's personality, home life and the peer group culture at school. The report also gives advice on how schools can assess the seriousness of threats made by pupils. It says that the FBI's experience showed that the more specific, detailed and plausible the threat the greater its likelihood of being enacted. For instance it says that vague threats to kill - without a clear picture of how this might be carried out - are much less serious than when a specific time, target, venue and method are included in a threat of violence. As an example of a high-risk threat, the report quotes: "At eight o'clock tomorrow morning I intend to shoot the principal. That's when he is in the office by himself. I have a 9mm. Believe me I know what I'm doing. I am sick and tired of the way he runs this school." The FBI report emphasises that the roots of violence are complex and that there is no simple formula for pre-empting attacks, but it urges schools to act quickly when the assessment of risk appears to be high.