Excerpted from: Daily Emergency Service Report Vol. 2, No. 084  -- 3/25/98:

ESR CLOSE UP

JONESBORO, ARKANSAS (EmergencyNet News) - Four girls and one teacher were killed in what police called a carefully planned ambush by two boys dressed in camouflage at an Arkansas middle school on Tuesday afternoon. The two boys shot at least 27 rounds at dozens of their schoolmates. Nine other girls and one other teacher were also wounded in the attack at the Westside Middle School, located in a quiet rural area just west of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Police arrested two boys, ages 11 and 13, as they tried to flee after firing a hail of bullets at their fellow students from a wooded area about 100 yards behind the school. The two suspects hid among the trees as a friend deliberately set off a false fire alarm inside the school. One witness, however, says that she saw one of the boys pull the alarm.

When teachers led their students outside, the boys opened fire. The Arkansas State Police said the boys were armed with high-power rifles and pistols and dressed in camouflage-colored shirts and hats often used by hunters.

All four of the dead girls were between 11 and 14 years old. One girl was killed immediately and the others died either on the way to the hospital or while undergoing emergency treatment. One teacher sustained critical wounds and died later on Tuesday evening.

It was not immediately clear what the motive of the suspects was, but fellow students said they were troublemakers and that one was angry because his girlfriend broke up with him.

One fellow student said he knew one of the suspects and that he had said he would kill somebody. The witness said, "He said he was going to come and shoot people and I never thought he'd do it, but he did."

EMS worker Rick Elder described the carnage as he arrived on the scene of the shooting. He said, "There were children, mostly female, lying every- where when I got there. I took a female teacher to the hospital. She was shot through the chest. All I feel is disgust and hurt. You think of this happening somewhere else. Not here."

Under Arkansas law, the two suspects are considered juveniles and were scheduled to face a detention hearing on Wednesday morning.

Jonesboro is located about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock and about 80 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee.

 Excerpted from: Daily Emergency Service Report Vol. 2, No. 085 -- 3/26/98:

 ESR CLOSE UP

In the wake of Tuesday's tragic shooting at a middle school in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where five people -- including four girls -- were killed and 11 other people were wounded, ERRI analysts went back and re-examined the report that was released by the U.S. Department of Education last week.

According to a national survey, 20 percent of American middle schools and high schools reported at least one serious crime such as rape or robbery in 1997. Student crime occurs mostly in larger urban schools, the report concluded.

The report said 43 percent of public schools surveyed reported zero crimes

-- serious or minor -- in the 1996-97 school year. Only crimes reported to police were used in the statistical analysis.

The Education Department survey was based on data from a 1,200-school sample. It said that public schools nationwide experienced more than 11,000 fights in which weapons were used, 4,000 rapes and other sexual assaults and 7,000 robberies.

The survey on school crime was produced by the Education Department's National Center for Education and Statistics. The survey, based on responses from school principals, counted only crimes reported to police at schools, aboard schoolbuses or at school-sponsored events.

The elementary, middle and high schools surveyed were in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Among the survey's major findings:

-- Crime was more common at larger schools. One-third of schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more reported at least one serious violent crime, compared with 4 percent to 9 percent in schools with fewer than 1,000 students.

-- Principals rate absenteeism, tardiness and fights as the most common discipline problems among pupils.

-- Ten percent of schools reported at least one serious violent crime during the last school year. Counting only middle and high schools, the proportion in this category rises to 20 percent. Elementary schools had far less of a problem with student crime, especially violent crime.

-- Crimes were more likely to occur in schools with the highest proportion of minority students. Among schools where at least half the students are minorities, 68 percent reported crime, compared with 47 percent of schools with less than 50 percent minority enrollment.

03/30/98

By James Denney, ERRI Senior Analyst

The Jonesboro incident is a manifestation of the national violence problem that exists in America (and the world for that matter). That children are involved should not come as a surprise considering that they are keen observers and witness violence on a daily basis (and have throughout history). In our society, as in many others, we tend to tolerate violence that results from many issues. For example, the killing of an individual directly related to the infidelity of a spouse or loved, though not justified, is understood as the potential consequence of that infidelity. In other cases, such as the use of violence in the commission of a crime, is also understood within the framework of reasonable anticipation of violence (one can expect violence in this situation). This is understood by the population to exist within the predator-prey construct. The fact that we label violence as a particular type is what ultimately provides the "shock" when it comes from an unanticipated source.

That the Jonesboro perpetrators are alleged to be relatively young children does not alter the horror of the incident, nor does it add to the horror. It merely illustrates the vulnerability of an unsuspecting society that concentrates on the analysis of an event rather than the processes that led to it. Sadly, we will continue to witness these episodes as society becomes more and more complex and our ability to develop standards of conduct must increasingly compete with global standards purveyed to our children through all the forms of media access available to them.