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The U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education are grateful to many agencies and individuals for their assistance in planning and carrying out the Safe School Initiative. First and foremost, the authors of this report owe a debt of gratitude to the representatives of the numerous law enforcement and criminal justice agencies that permitted Secret Service personnel to review investigative files on the school attacks in their respective communities; provided other key information and materials about these attacks; and assisted and supported Secret Service personnel in seeking permission to interview 10 attackers. Moreover, the authors are grateful to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs’ National Institute of Justice for providing critical financial support that helped make the study possible.
In addition, Secret Service and Department of Education personnel benefited substantially from the contributions of several law enforcement, behavioral science and mental health professionals whose collective experience and expertise helped to inform the development of the project plan and research design. In alphabetical order, these individuals are: Gerardo Blue, Frederick Calhoun, Charles Ewing, Michael Gelles, Dennis McCarthy, Edward Mulvey, William Pollack, Larry Porte, Pam Robbins, Raymond Smyth, Sara Strizzi and Andrew Vita.
This project would not have been possible
without the support and guidance that the authors received from several
key officials and personnel at the Department of Education and the Secret
Service. Absent the expertise
and insights of these individuals, the Secret Service’s experience
in researching and preventing targeted violence could not have been translated
into a useful study of targeted school violence. At the Department of Education, these individuals are:
Secretary of Education Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education Richard
Riley and Connie Deshpande. Secret
Service officials who provided guidance and support for this project are:
Director Brian Stafford, Assistant Director Terry Samway, Deputy Assistant Directors Bob Byers and Tom Riopelle,
Special Agent in Charge George Luczko and Resident Agent in Charge John
Berglund. Special thanks are
extended to Social Science Research Specialist Karissa Kumm who assisted
with project data collection and was instrumental in organizing information
from the Safe School Initiative
kick-off meeting. Our thanks go
also to Dean Terry, Michael Gelles and Marty Allen for providing extensive
assistance with project data collection.
The authors extend special thanks to
Assistant Director Barbara Riggs, Office of Protective Research, U.S.
Secret Service for her support of the Safe
School Initiative and the National Threat Assessment Center.
The authors wish to thank Assistant
Special Agent in Charge Matt Doherty, Assistant to the Special Agent in
Charge Cindy Rubendall and Special Agent Ignacio Zamora for giving generously
of their time in reviewing earlier drafts of this document, and former
Special Agent Nancy Fogarty, Social Science Research Specialists Derricka
Dean and Megan Williams and interns Marissa Savastana, Becca Norwick and
Colleen Spokis for their invaluable assistance with data collection, data
entry and project management.
Finally, the Secret Service and the
Department of Education gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Paul
Kelly and Gwen Holden of the Nauset Group, whose insightful observations
and comments helped to shape the Final Report. Special thanks
go out to Gwen Holden, who edited the Final Report.
Bryan Vossekuil
Randy Borum
William Modzeleski
Washington, D.C.
May 2002
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Safe School Initiative Contents Page