Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions, 5th edition

 

Dear readers and colleagues! I am pleased to announce that work on the fifth edition of the Reference Book has been completed. The file has already been posted on the website and is available for download. The new edition includes statistics for 2025, as well as additional data for previous periods, corrections of some errors and inaccuracies in previous editions, and a total of about 30 revisions and additions.

New data systematization and analytics tools

In addition to the existing ones, several new evaluation parameters have been added to the comparative and dynamic data analysis tables:

1. In the «Total victims» section, in addition to information about those killed and wounded, a subsection «Kidnapped» has been added, and the section «Involving hostage-taking» has been supplemented with a subsection «For the purpose of kidnapping.» This is related to crimes that occurred in November 2025 in Nigeria, where two organized, group, armed attacks on schools were carried out within four days of each other. In both cases, the aim of the attacks was to kidnap a large number of students and staff from these educational institutions (in both cases, more than 300 people were kidnapped, most of them children) for subsequent use as hostages in order to obtain ransom or satisfy political or religious demands from the authorities.

This section will include information on the number of people kidnapped at the time of the crime.

2. In category «2. Crimes falling under the criteria of mass murder and terrorist attacks,» an additional section «Suspect fled the scene» is created, with information about crimes where the suspect managed to leave the scene after committing the crime, and they were detained or found (in cases of suicide) outside the educational institution they attacked, or the crime remained unsolved.

Statistics in this section will allow (albeit not fully) an assessment of the level of protection of educational facilities from criminal and terrorist threats, as well as the responsiveness of law enforcement agencies. If a criminal was able to freely enter an educational institution, carry weapons, commit a crime, and then leave the scene unhindered. Such facts, and especially the increase in the proportion of such incidents (in comparative and dynamic analysis) in the total number of crimes, give grounds for certain conclusions. 

3. In category «2. Crimes falling under the criteria of mass murders and terrorist attacks,» an additional section «Suspect committed suicide (including attempts)» is created, with information about crimes in which the suspect committed suicide, either at the scene of the crime or within 24 hours after it.

A separate block of analytics on suicidal cases among suspects remains; this section is created solely for the convenience of tracking and comparing general statistical indicators. 

Indication of information about attempted crimes

This issue has been discussed repeatedly, especially after the release of version 4.0, with opinions both for and against this parameter being expressed. As a result of the discussions, it was decided to include this information in the category «2. Crimes that fall under the criteria of mass murder and terrorist attacks» starting in 2025. Only those incidents where the crime has reached the stage of immediate execution but, for reasons beyond the perpetrator's control, the perpetrator was unable to carry it through to completion will be included in the list.

For clarity, let's look at two examples of such attempts in 2025:

January 10, Kursk, Russia: an attempted attack on a secondary school using cold weapons and incendiary mixtures. The suspect, a former student of the school, put on a mask to hide his face and prepared weapons (a hammer, knife, and incendiary mixture), used the hammer to break a window, and entered the school premises. However, his actions attracted the attention of a security guard, who pressed the alarm button and called the police, and also began to pursue the suspect. The criminal dropped the bag with the weapons and incendiary mixture and fled the scene before he could harm anyone.

September 17, Ostrogozhsk, Russia: attempted attack on a secondary school with cold weapons. The suspect, a former student of the school, had previously posted threatening messages on his social media page, prepared weapons (a knife and a hammer), brought them to school, took them out, shouted verbal threats, and attempted to attack those around him, but was quickly neutralized by a teacher and security guard before he could harm anyone.

Such attempts will be included in the list and taken into account, but in cases where the crime was prevented during its preparation, such incidents will not be taken into account.

Information about the presence of security guards at educational facilities under attack

This is a good analytical tool, but unfortunately, at the moment, this information will only be published in part, mainly data on incidents that occurred in Russia, where this feature of such crimes is highlighted in media publications and official releases from law enforcement agencies.

Foreign media pay little attention to this circumstance, and it is rarely mentioned in publications and releases. I tried to make inquiries myself, but they all went unanswered. I do not know the reasons for this, especially since this information is not classified.

Statistics for 2025, tools for data analysis

Due to the fact that five-year periods are used for comparative and dynamic data analysis, and in 2025 such a period is just beginning, three new analytical tools are introduced for the convenience of visual representation of the situation, to compare statistics for the current year:

1. with the same period of the previous year, i.e., in this case, with 2024;

2. with the average indicator of the previous period, in this case, with the period 2020–2024; to calculate this indicator, the arithmetic mean value for each estimated parameter for the five-year period is used. Example: the average number of crimes committed with the use of firearms in the period 2020–2024, we take the values for 5 years, 2020 – 3, 2021 – 8, 2022 – 21, 2023 – 15, 2024 – 14. We add them up to get 61, divide by the number of years – 5 – to get 12 (if the value after the decimal point is 5 or less, we round down; if it is 6 or more, we round up, in this case to 2). The average percentage of such crimes is calculated in the same way.

3. With the average value for the entire reporting period starting in 2000, the calculation of the indicator here is similar to the calculation for the previous period.

This will be presented in the form of a table, where you can clearly see the dynamics of the situation for each individual indicator.

That's all for the changes and additions.

As new data comes in, work will begin on additions to the current edition and, at the same time, data collection for the sixth edition. I would appreciate any help in working on the new edition. You can find out how to do this in the final part of the reference book, in the section «Prospects for new editions.»

My goal is to create a useful, reliable, informative, easy-to-use, and, most importantly, publicly available reference and analytical tool for researchers and specialists in ensuring the security of schools and other educational institutions from threats of various types and nature.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who helped me collect new information, clarify and correct previously published data, form and edit sections, and do other work on the reference book.

Sincerely.

Author and editor-in-chief of the project – Roman Grishin

 

#SchoolSafety #SchoolSecurity #SafetySchools #school #kindergarten #university #college #analytics #crime #terrorism #handbook #statistics #criminology #security #safety

Safety of educational and childcare facilities in 2025, preliminary results, new threats, forecast for 2026

Note: it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia, so in this article, he considers the situation on the example of his country. Measures to ensure the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places with a mass stay of children that he proposes are developed by him for use in Russia, taking into account the existing law enforcement system and the situation there.

Work is currently nearing completion on an updated version of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions, which will include some corrections and additions for previous periods, as well as statistics for 2025. Taking into account the opinions and wishes expressed by colleagues, the form for submitting certain statistical data will be supplemented. I will provide more details about the new edition of the Handbook in an accompanying article to its publication.

Some preliminary conclusions about the security situation in schools and other educational and childcare institutions can already be drawn.

1. The negative trend continues.

Even for the incomplete year of 2025, crime rates have increased compared to both 2024 and the average for the most recent period (2020-2024). The increase is observed both in the total number of serious and particularly serious crimes and in incidents with signs of mass murders and terrorist acts.

2. The level of security in educational institutions remains low.

The vast majority of crimes are committed directly on the premises of educational institutions using weapons or explosive devices. This circumstance clearly indicates that the criminals entered the premises of the educational institution unhindered, carried weapons with them, and carried out their planned crime.

3. Using teenagers to carry out terrorist acts.

So far, this phenomenon is more common in Russia. Teenagers, following instructions from anonymous «curators» in messengers and social networks, commit arson or mine energy facilities, transport, cars, and police premises, as well as other law enforcement agencies. There are no exact statistics, but according to Russian media reports, 47 such crimes were committed in the first quarter of 2025. The main motives for committing these crimes are threats of violence, blackmail, and the promise of financial reward.

Although most of these crimes are committed in Russia (although there are isolated cases in other countries), this practice is rapidly spreading to other countries. Terrorist organizations and criminal communities are quick learners and closely monitor such «cutting-edge criminal experience».

Earlier, in my articles on PMC Ryodan and Red Dolphin, I expressed my opinion and made predictions that such crimes would be committed more often, that these cases were only a test and assessment of the possibilities of using teenagers, both individually and in groups, to commit crimes and terrorist acts with the possibility of anonymous, remote control of their actions. Unfortunately, as practice has shown, this experiment has been successful.

4. Dangerous precedents have been set in Nigeria.

In November 2025, within a span of four days, two organized, group, armed attacks on schools were carried out in Nigeria. In both cases, the aim of the attacks was to take hostages.

In the first case, on November 17 in the city of Magha, during an attack on a school, the deputy director was killed and a security guard was wounded, and 25 students were taken hostage.

In the second case, on November 21, in the city of Papiri, there were no deaths or injuries during the attack on the school, but more than 300 students and 12 teachers were taken hostage.

These cities are located in border states, less than 200 kilometers apart. After the first kidnapping, the Nigerian government launched a police operation and tightened security measures. However, this did not prevent the criminals from carrying out an even more daring attack four days later and taking 10 times more hostages.

Similar attacks have been carried out in Nigeria before, but not on such a scale. The last similar case (in terms of the number of people kidnapped) occurred there 11 years ago, in April 2014, when militants from a terrorist group kidnapped 276 high school students, 94 of whom have still not been released.

All this indicates that educational institutions have been and remain an easily accessible target for criminals and terrorists. They perceive children as a resource (a tool) with which they can commit crimes and terrorist acts with impunity, while remaining hundreds and thousands of kilometers away.

Forecast: The current situation clearly shows that the existing system for containing this threat is not working, and no effective system for actively countering it has yet been created. This means that in 2026, we should not expect any positive changes; at best, the situation will remain at its current level.

Author and Editor-in-Chief of the project - Roman Grishin.

#schoolsafety #crime #terrorism #victims #threats #safety #security #children #schools #college #kindergarten #university #statistics #summarizingresults #forecast #future

Announcement of upcoming publications

Dear readers and colleagues.

An article entitled «A Unified Approach to Assessing the Safety Level of Educational Facilities» will be published shortly (planned date: July 2).

In this publication, the author argues that there is currently no unified (or even widely used) system for assessing the safety level of educational institutions based on formal criteria. Most conclusions with similar assessments and findings are based on the personal opinions of the experts who compiled them, based on compliance with regulatory requirements, as well as a large number of various methodological guidelines, recommendations, and other documents containing mostly general and often vague wording.

The author proposes his own development – a table for assessing the overall level of security of an educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats, based on 64 criteria. Using this table should make it possible to objectively calculate the level of security of a facility based on formal criteria, with minimal influence from the «human factor», as well as to more easily and quickly conduct security audits and analyze changes in the security system of educational institutions, both in a single municipality and across an entire region or country.

Sincerely.

Author and editor-in-chief of the project

#SchoolSafety #SafetyLevel #SafetyAssessment #school #university #kindergarten #technicalcollege #university #institute #crime #terrorism #analytics #SafetyStandard

New edition of the handbook. Why is statistics important?

 

Dear readers and colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that the fourth, supplemented edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions has been completed, albeit with a slight delay (originally planned for April 11). The file has already been posted on the website and is available for download. The new edition corrects some errors and inaccuracies in previous editions and adds new information sent to me by colleagues from the Republic of Kazakhstan.

When I first started doing research on the security of schools and other educational institutions, the first problem I encountered was the lack of statistical data on crimes of this category collected and systematized in one source. I had to spend a great deal of time and effort to collect information from dozens of different sources and recheck it, because the completeness, reliability and objectivity of the published information often raised reasonable doubts. It became clear that there was a need for a unified information and reference resource containing information on crimes of this category and at least a brief (minimum) set of factual data on their details and circumstances. Without this information, it is simply impossible to see an objective picture of what is happening and assess the real scale of this threat, as well as to conduct a qualitative analysis of data, comparative, cross-checking, to assess the development of events in dynamics. Without the results of such analysis it is extremely difficult to explain the criminological processes taking place, and most importantly, to identify and identify the factors that affect them, which in turn makes it very difficult to predict the likely development of events.

When there is no understanding of the vector and features of threat development, it is impossible to develop effective countermeasures. This can be clearly seen now, when after another mass murder or terrorist attack in an educational institution, various experts, political scientists, law enforcement officials, educators and journalists, discussing the tragedy, ask the question: «Why did the measures developed and implemented as part of the security strategy to prevent and suppress threats not work?». The answer is simple: they were developed on the basis of incomplete data, and in many cases the data was not only incomplete, but also unreliable.

I often come across statistics in media publications that are very far from reality. For example, when commenting on another mass murder at a school or university, the author supports the article with figures of general statistics of incidents at educational institutions, despite the fact that most of these incidents are neither mass murders nor terrorism. For the most part, these are crimes of general criminal orientation, committed on the basis of personal animosity between specific people, or related to material motives (robbery, robbery, extortion), committed with hooligan motives or even unintentionally.

Therefore, it is crucial not only to know the statistical numbers, but also to understand the meaning behind them. Proper sorting of data is equally important. All collected cases should be cross-analyzed, comparing information from different sources, with preference given to police press releases, reports and court records because these contain more facts than speculation. All collected incidents should be divided into groups and subgroups according to various criminological characteristics. Such a division will make it possible to clearly see the nature of the development of the situation in a certain time period, both in comparison and in dynamics.

On the basis of qualitatively collected and systematized statistical data, it is possible to create fairly accurate criminological models and forecasts, and most importantly, thanks to these models and forecasts, it is possible to develop truly effective measures for preventing and combating these threats. This is the main goal and primary objective of applied criminology: to understand the nature of the threat, assess the prospects for its development, identify vulnerabilities, develop a strategy to counter the threat and eliminate it. This requires reliable raw data, validated and systematized, collected in a single source.

In the fall of 2023, I set about creating it. As a form of data presentation, I chose a format similar to a police incident report, in the form of a summary of the circumstances of the event containing such information as: date, time, place, manner, subject, object, subject, victims, consequences, outcome, and other reliably established facts.

In February 2024, the first edition was published on the website of the Public Order and Safety Project, which included statistical data for 24 years (from 2000 to 2023 inclusive). Then I received a lot of feedback, recommendations, additions and edits from colleagues around the world, already 2 months later, in April 2024, the second edition was published, which contained more than 100 additions and edits. During 2024, taking into account the requests from readers and colleagues, the information was updated and supplemented, the third edition, published in January 2025, contained updated information for 25 years. Today, the fourth edition has been published, which contains additional information and edits. As new data becomes available, work will begin on the fifth edition, which I plan to publish by the end of 2025. I would welcome any help in working on the new edition, and you can find out how to do this in the final part of the guide, in the section «Prospects for new editions».

My goal is to make a useful, reliable, informative, user-friendly and, most importantly, publicly available reference and analytical tool for researchers and specialists in ensuring the safety of schools and other educational institutions from threats of various types and nature.

Once again, I would like to thank all those who assisted me in collecting new information, clarifying and correcting previously published data, creating and editing sections, and other work on the handbook.

With respect.

Author and Editor-in-Chief of the project - Roman Grishin.

#SafetySchools #CrimeCrimesInSchools #EducationTerrorism #CrimeStatistics #SecurityAnalytics #SafetyGuide #EducationSafety #EducationSafety #MassMurder #SchoolTerrorism #Criminology #ChildSafety #EducationSchools #CrimeResearch #PublicPolice #ResearchAnalytics

The third edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions has been published

 

Dear readers and colleagues!

I am pleased to announce that the third edition of the handbook was finalized in January 2025. The file has already been posted on the website and is available for download.

The new edition corrects some errors and inaccuracies made in the first and second editions.

What's new:

1.      The Handbook has been updated with information on 42 more serious crimes committed in schools, other educational and childcare institutions (including preschools), including 33 crimes that have signs of mass murder and terrorist acts. The data on these crimes are detailed in more detail.

2.      Both general and detailed statistics for 2024 are added.

3.      Added Table #5 of a summary analysis of data for the five-year period from 2020 through and including 2024.

4.      Completed the summary and dynamic analysis sections (appendix) to reflect the new five-year period.

5.      Statistical models of the identities of likely suspects of similar crimes have been updated to reflect the additions.

6.      The section: «Summary of suicide cases among suspects» was supplemented with new data. Improved the data layout, making it more detailed and user-friendly. The cross-analysis of data has been supplemented with new statistics for a five-year period, including individual periods, comparisons and trends.

7.      Beginning in 2024 and going forward, when describing the details of crimes categorized as «Mass Murder and Terrorist Acts», a description of the weapon used will be included in addition to the type of weapon used.

I would like to thank all those who participated in the work on the third edition of the handbook for their help, data and useful recommendations. I look forward to the same fruitful cooperation in the future.

Work on the fourth edition will begin soon. As I said earlier, in the new editions, in addition to statistics, more attention will be paid to analyzing the obtained data, selecting and comparing individual parameters, searching for dependencies.

I will be very grateful to all those who are ready to help me in the work on the handbook by supplementing it with information on crimes that are not listed in it and their characteristics. The principles of collecting, referring, reviewing and verifying information, as well as contact details for contacting the author and editor of the handbook, are given in the final part of the handbook, in the section «Prospects for new versions of the handbook» (p. 92).

My goal is to create a useful, user-friendly and informative reference and analytical tool that is accessible to all. It is intended for researchers and security professionals in schools and other educational settings, as well as for anyone interested in the topic.

I would welcome feedback and constructive criticism. If you have any questions, suggestions or additions, write in the comments to the post or to me personally.

 

Regards,

Author and editor - Roman Grishin.

 

#SafetySchools #CrimeCrimesInSchools #EducationTerrorism #CrimeStatistics #SecurityAnalytics #SafetyGuide #EducationSafety #EducationSafety #MassMurder #SchoolTerrorism #Criminology #ChildSafety #EducationSchools #CrimeResearch #PublicPolice #ResearchAnalytics

Standardization of the security system of schools and other educational institutions - good or bad?

 

Attention: English is not my native language, the text is translated with the help of technical translation tools. I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases will be incorrectly conveyed.

Analyzing publications in the media, websites of law enforcement agencies, expert and scientific organizations, as well as specialized communities in social networks, I noticed some changes in the trends of statements, statements and comments from officials and specialists. Albeit with a great delay, but law enforcement services and other legislative and executive authorities of many countries are slowly beginning to recognize the fact that schools, other educational institutions and places with mass attendance of children have become objects of increased danger, that they have become an attractive target for criminals and terrorists*. There are also cautious statements that a special approach to their security is needed. There are few specifics in such statements, but the fact that the threat is being recognized at a fairly high level can already be called positive progress, albeit tentatively.  

Among those involved in the development of solutions in the field of security of educational and other children's institutions, especially in recent times, there is often expressed an opinion, which has a lot of support in the expert community, about the need to create the introduction of a single standard (format or template) of safety and security systems for educational institutions. There are even initiatives that such a standard should be made international. However, the question arises - how effective will such a «standardized» approach to the security of educational institutions be?

Proponents of standardization believe that it will be, arguing that such unified standards and templates are already used and quite successfully, for example, in terms of ensuring the protection of such facilities from fire or natural disasters in dangerous areas. They are developed on the basis of a long, deep analysis of real and probable emergency situations, natural and man-made, best practices of rescue services, as well as modern technical means of detection, warning and elimination of dangerous phenomena, such as fire, gas leakage (or other dangerous chemicals), earthquake, tornado, tornado, flood and others. The experience of using such templates is quite successful, it is indeed true.

However, in the above cases, we are dealing with unplanned and uncontrollable phenomena of natural or man-made nature. But let us consider the situation, in a different scenario. In any educational institution there is a detailed instruction on actions in case of fire, which is studied in classes, periodically repeated, drills and exercises are held, throughout the building hanging plans, information signs, signs of evacuation routes, main and emergency exits, sound warning buttons, sensors, water sprayers, fire extinguishers other elements of fire protection system. All this was calculated on the basis of the versions of the occurrence of fire due to natural causes, such as: short-circuited wiring, electrical appliance malfunction, lightning, careless handling of fire or even hooliganism. But, what if the cause of the fire will be the willful actions, of one or more criminals whose goal is to commit mass murder, using fire and smoke as weapons. They will have studied all the instructions and fire protocols in advance, and with this information in mind, they will develop their arson plan. What are the potential consequences of this scenario? When the perpetrator knows in advance every move of the potential victims?

Some may say that this is unlikely, I disagree, let's look at the statistics: in the world, for the period from 2000 to 2023 inclusive, in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities, there were 249 crimes**, falling under the signs of mass murder and terrorist acts. Of these, 16 were committed using incendiary devices and mixtures as weapons, 252 victims (140 dead and 112 injured), most of the victims were children.

For comparison, in the period from 2009 to 2012, in Russia, in schools and other educational institutions there were 1,504 fires (not one of them was not related to mass murder), in which 42 people suffered (9 dead, 33 injured). [1]

This example, clearly shows that the use of uniform standards in the field of fire safety is really effective in emergency situations of unintentional nature, where the casualty rate is only 0.03. However, in cases where the fire was a consequence of intentional actions such a coefficient is already 15.8, a difference of more than 500 times. 

I have always said it and I will say it again, the biggest mistake law enforcement makes in dealing with criminals who commit mass murders in schools and other educational institutions is underestimating them. An analysis of mass murders and terrorist acts committed in educational and other children's institutions directly indicates that such crimes are very rarely committed spontaneously or in a state of passion. On the contrary, most of them are preceded by careful planning and long, painstaking preparation.

Consider the events at Columbine High School. If everything had gone according to the original plan of the criminals, it would have been a tragedy on a scale comparable to «Beslan» or «September 11». In total, the criminals' plan had three stages of implementation and it was designed with the school's security protocol in mind. Firing sectors, main and reserve firing points, were formed according to the directions of movement of people during evacuation. Yes, their plan misfired, poor technical skills failed (the detonators of the largest bombs failed), what happened next was an unplanned improvisation on the part of the perpetrators, but even with this development of events - 27 victims (13 killed, 14 wounded).

If it had happened not 25 years ago, but in our days, the result would be different, because today, the detonator does not need to be made by yourself, the simplest, yet quite reliable version of the remote igniter can be ordered on the Internet, ready-made, and the whole system of explosive and incendiary devices can be controlled through an application in a smartphone or tablet. I am not talking about the possibilities for criminals to use unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), even those versions that are freely available, but this is a topic for a separate study. 

Based on the above, we can conclude that the creation and use of a single security standard for educational institutions will not improve their protection, but on the contrary, will create a dangerous vulnerability in it. This will give potential criminals the opportunity to build their attacks, taking into account all the weaknesses of the object and mechanisms to respond to threats, in different scenarios. If the crime is prepared by the student himself (almost 45% of mass murders in educational institutions are committed by their students), then he will be able not only to learn these features, but also to visually see how this system works, for example, during drills and exercises.

 

My opinion in this matter:

I am in favor of a compromise solution. I believe that there is indeed a need to form a unified (including international) standard for the safety of educational institutions and places with mass attendance of children, but in a minimal format. In the form of a set of minimum requirements, general purpose, providing a fundamental basis for the security system of an educational institution. What are these requirements?

The presence at the protected object:

- video surveillance system, both inside the building and on the external boundaries;

- a physical security post;

- a system of technical access control with identification of visitors;

- a system of technical control of visitors to carry weapons, ammunition, explosive devices, explosive, incendiary or poisonous substances into the premises;

- emergency call buttons for the police;

- intercom systems between the premises;

- safe zones in each room.

Also with modern features in mind, I would add to this list a drone (unmanned aerial vehicle) detection detector.

I am sure that such a minimum set of the above mentioned basic security measures should be in every school, kindergarten, college or university. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of these measures, they comply with the main principle of «Do no harm». However, at the same time, as I have already said, this should be only the foundation, but the other elements of the security system should be developed for each object individually, taking into account the peculiarities of the educational institution, the nature and degree of probability of threats. This can be different approaches to the organization and activities of physical security, the use of technical means of security and access control, methods of engineering reinforcement, both the entire building and individual rooms, surveillance systems, control, communication, alarms, alerts and much more. 

Note: It is important not to get carried away with engineering solutions and technical security features in facilities such as educational institutions. Not everything that at first glance seems useful and effective in theory is so in practice. I made a detailed analysis of such «means of protection» with analysis of application and examples in this article. 

 There are a lot of ways and possibilities in this direction, and with their proper use at the protected object, the level of its security can be raised to the maximum possible***.

There are no universal solutions (except for the basic security measures described above) in ensuring the security of educational institutions. The main components of an effective security system are its uniqueness, based on the individual characteristics of the protected object and limitation of access to this information by unauthorized persons.

It is important to realize that this system is built, not against petty thieves and hooligans, but against murderers and terrorists who do it deliberately, consciously, and cold-bloodedly, according to a pre-prepared plan. Their main goal is to kill as many people as possible. The main task of the security system is to prevent them.   

The creation of such a system should always start with a deep analysis of vulnerabilities and their expert evaluation, based on which, experts develop a detailed list of recommendations to eliminate the identified vulnerabilities, or to minimize their negative effect. All this should be combined into a single document – «Security Protocol», which after completion and approval should receive the status of «official» (closed) with a limited list of officials who have access to its contents. On the Internet site of an educational institution or its page in a social network, it is enough to inform about its compliance with the «basic» security standard, all other information should be closed.

One more important condition to be taken into account: yes, in the 21st century, schools, other educational institutions and places with mass stay of children have become high-risk objects and their protection requires a special approach, but they should not turn into analogs of prisons or military bunkers. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible.

In this article I will not consider the questions of what specialists should be involved in assessing the vulnerabilities of schools and other educational institutions (including preschools) and what means and methods should be used to create a system to ensure their security. This is a very voluminous topic that I will include in the second part**** of the study on comprehensive security systems for educational institutions, which I plan to finalize and publish in 2025. As for the active discussions on the application of technical means of safety and security for these purposes, I have already expressed my opinion about it in one of my previous articles.

 Author - Roman Grishin

 

* Although some may not see the difference, I still tend to separate these two types of criminals based on their motivation. For the «School Shooter», mass murder is a way of self-expression, he is guided by goals he alone understands and tries to convey only his personal message to others. A terrorist commits a crime guided by the ideology of a particular terrorist movement (organization) and pursues the goals that this extremist ideology (or organization) professes.

** Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions (second edition, revised and supplemented)

*** absolute security does not exist even in theory, the maximum possible indicator of the effectiveness of the security system is to reduce, to the possible minimum, the risk of a successful attack on the protected object and the damage caused by such an attack.

**** «Ensuring the safety of schools, other educational organizations and institutions with mass attendance of children» publication dated 05 January 2022.

#standardization #standards #safety #safeguarding #school #nursery #kindergarten #college #university #children #analytics #statistics #debate #opinion #effectiveness #Columbine #SafeandSoundSchools #SchoolSafety

Destructive Communities and Games, «Red Dolphin» a new type of threat to schools and other educational institutions. Part 2. How to counteract this phenomenon?

 

Attention: English is not my native language, the text is translated with the help of technical means of translation. I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases will be transferred incorrectly.

 

(continued, Part 1 here)

In this case, the shift in tactics of the extremists behind the creation and activities of «Red Dolphin», «Blue Whale» and similar communities already contains a serious vulnerability for criminals and it can be used against them.

The point is that the main difference between «Red Dolphin» and «Blue Whale» is that in the new scenario of the «Game» the teenager participating in it has to perform tasks of «curators», the essence of which is committing illegal acts, but not against himself (as it was in «Blue Whale»), but against other persons or organizations. The tasks are different, such as damaging or destroying property, causing offensive actions or light injuries to other people.

At the first stage, these tasks are insignificant in their consequences, for example, insulting inscriptions on walls, breaking a window, burning letters in the mailbox, damaging the wheel of a car, pouring water or safe but unpleasant liquids or mud on random people, verbal abuse, ridicule, knocking a hat off the head and similar minor offenses.

In the second stage, the tasks become more complicated, as well as the degree of their public danger, teenagers must commit more serious offenses, such as burning cars or buildings, killing animals, causing moderate or more severe injuries to random people, using illegal but dangerous weapons (pneumatic, cold, traumatic, percussion, gas, homemade).

In the third stage, the participant passes the «Point of No Return», these are tasks related to the category of serious offenses, such as injuring other people, but doing it in a hidden form, for example: pushing under a passing car or train, from a bridge or window, damaging railroad tracks or subways, burning buildings with people, children's or medical facilities.

At all three stages, offenses should be committed with video recording of what is happening on camera, records of completed tasks, teenagers should send to their «curators» through closed communities in social networks and messengers. In fact, the teenagers themselves shoot compromising materials, which they are subsequently blackmailed with if they try to leave the “Game” and refuse from illegal actions.

The fourth stage, aka the last one, is a mass murder, followed by the suicide of the perpetrator. Given the age of the participants, the place of the last act is usually chosen to be the school they attend, the likely victims are the immediate neighborhood, their classmates and teachers.

Once again I repeat what I said in the first part: that it was participation in the extremist community “Red Dolphin” that caused the two attacks on schools that took place in September 2024 in the Russian cities of Chelyabinsk and Balagansk is only an assumption. There is no direct evidence of this version published in the official media. Law enforcement agencies do not officially confirm this fact, but they do not deny it either. In spite of this, I consider that extremist community type «Red Dolphin» or «Blue Whale», represents the direct and obvious threat to the safety of people, especially children. This means that it is necessary to be proactive by developing a tactical scheme to counter this threat, with measures to both prevent and suppress direct attacks.

Prevention:

This work should be divided into 3 key areas, and perform tasks in parallel, only in this case the prevention of the threat will be effective:

1 direction - identification of potential victims:

The very scenario of the «deadly quest», which the organizers of these extremist communities impose on their victims, contains a serious vulnerability, which, if used correctly, will allow to quickly identify and stop teenagers drawn into destructive activities. As I have already written above, the scenario provides for the passage of 4 stages, with the execution of tasks with increasing complexity and the level of public danger, these violations must be recorded on video and committed publicly, and this is the vulnerability. The fact is that the network of criminals, as a rule, fall into the hands of children, previously to such offenses are not prone to such misconduct, who have not committed offenses and have not previously had a record in the police.

According to psychologists, to whom I asked for comments on this situation, the fulfillment of the final task, namely, mass murder followed by suicide of the perpetrator, is impossible without the prior fulfillment of the first three stages. Because it is precisely during the fulfillment of a chain of tasks with a gradual increase in complexity and the degree of public danger that a teenager forms and consolidates an obsession with committing a mass murder with suicide. By committing serious crimes at the penultimate stage, the child passes a kind of «point of no return». In addition, recording the committed offenses on video (which is a mandatory condition for participation) and providing it as a report to their supervisors, gives them additional leverage for blackmail and other forms of psychological pressure on the participant, if he suddenly decides to refuse to perform the final task and stop the «death quest».

This feature can be used to quickly identify potential mass murderers, even at the stage of preparation for the crime. How exactly to do this? In the first turn most closely attention to teenage (main object group 12 - 16 years), behavior of which dramatically changed without any grounds.

A clear signal that the teenager may have fallen under the external control of a destructive community is that the child, up to this point, in character: uncommunicative, shy (according to psychologists, the most prone to such influence is a teenager with such personality characteristics as: passive introvert sensitive type, melancholic), obedient, suddenly, begins to commit uncharacteristic actions and minor offenses, to explain the motives of which, he can not or does not want to. In this case it is necessary to connect to the work of specialists, children's psychologists, social pedagogues, psychologists-criminals.

I am sure that for specialized specialists, it will not be difficult to establish a link between changes in the teenager's behavior and the extremist community (if there really was one). If this connection is established, then representatives of police services and other law enforcement agencies should be involved in the situation. At the same time, the work of psychologists and social pedagogues with the child and his family should not stop here; it is important to establish and eliminate the circumstances that prompted the teenager to turn to a destructive community. In addition, the study of each such case will allow a more detailed understanding of the methods used by criminals to involve children in extremist groups. The systematization and analysis of such information will make it possible to develop more effective mechanisms for identifying cases of «external management» of teenagers' behavior and more effective counteraction to such crimes.

Who should do this? This is a complex task that should involve all those who are directly or indirectly related to children at risk. These are, first of all, parents and guardians of children, teachers and school staff, coaches of sports clubs, children's doctors, police officers and security and safety officers of educational institutions, even school bus drivers. All these people need to know what external signs and deviations in the child's behavior to pay attention to and who to contact. Accordingly, a clear algorithm of interdepartmental interaction should be developed, on the basis of which a normative document defining the form and procedure of such response should be adopted. The measures taken should be of both public and non-public nature, using the full, permissible arsenal of means of behavioral correction.

2 direction - information safety:

Involvement of teenagers in destructive communities in most cases occurs according to one of two schemes:

1. active (initiative) - a child independently (using links from other resources, hashtags or special phrases for search queries) finds an extremist community in social networks or messengers, applies to join, undergoes identification (in some groups it is a rather complicated and long process, in several stages) after which he or she is assigned a «curator» who begins to give him or her tasks and exercise control until the final stage;

2. passive - the teenager places certain hashtags on his social network page, to which the «curators» (recruiters) of destructive communities react and get in touch with him. The rest is the same as in the first scheme: identification, fixation of the «curator2, and fulfillment of tasks.

To build a system of information counteraction, it is necessary to first reach an agreement between the owners of social networks and messengers on how to block such communities and accounts. The unlawfulness of the actions of such communities or individuals is obvious. In the criminal legislation of any country, involving minors in illegal activities and leading them to suicide is a crime. However, any crime or at least criminal intent must be proven. For this purpose, lawyers of police services or other law enforcement agencies should develop special «Protocols for prompt response to threats to information security»* to establish, collect and document the circumstances confirming the criminal intentions of administrators of communities or account owners who disseminate such information. I would like to clarify that this protocol means collecting evidence not to bring charges or criminal charges, but to block the source of extremist information. It is important to stop the spread of destructive information, to deprive extremists of a tool to control children's behavior. Although let us be objective, it will not be possible to completely deprive criminals of the opportunity to recruit new victims, it is quite realistic to seriously complicate this process for them.

 

* Ideally, if such protocols are developed in an international format (because this threat has long since become an international threat and the level of its danger continues to grow), with a unified form and procedure of application. By introducing their use through international law enforcement organizations, such as special bodies of the UN Security Council or Interpol, it could significantly increase the effectiveness of countering this threat worldwide.

 

The most important thing for an information safety strategy is that it must be offensive. Law enforcement agencies and departments of education, guardianship and custody of children should actively monitor information resources, both independently and within the framework of appeals from concerned citizens. Identify destructive resources, conduct checks, document the criminal intentions (if any) of their owners and, within the framework of the above-mentioned information security protocols, apply all available legal tools to block them promptly. If technically and legally possible, prosecute those who create and administer Internet resources with destructive content.

 

3. Continuous monitoring, forecasting and modeling of probable threats

This task should be mostly performed by expert analysts of law enforcement agencies. Both incoming information about events that have actually already taken place and probable threats should be considered. The first and second line of prevention measures must be constantly adjusted to reflect the changing situation.

Once countermeasures have been introduced, criminals change tactics quite quickly, so it is important not only to react to their current actions, but also to predict their possible moves. On the basis of such forecasts, it is important to develop and implement preventive measures to prevent and suppress their possible actions.

The optimal solution would be to create such an information and analytical group on a permanent basis in an international format.

 

Defense against direct attacks.

Despite all measures to anticipate and prevent likely threats, direct attempts to carry out mass killings cannot be avoided. Unfortunately, to date there is no security system with 100% efficiency. All existing methods of prediction and prevention of such threats can only reduce to an acceptable limit both the probability of such attacks and the damage caused by them, and minimize the number of possible victims.

It is impossible to describe in one article how to prevent and suppress attempts of mass murder in schools, other educational institutions, as well as places where children are present in large numbers. This is a very broad research topic, which I am currently finalizing and will soon begin work on a project devoted to this very issue. This is a complex, multi-level system of prevention and counteraction to both existing and future threats to the security of educational institutions. I made my first attempt to develop such a model back in 2019 and described it in this article, which was subsequently updated several times. The new project will be much more extensive and will contain more concrete measures and proposals, but these are only future plans for now.

 

Conclusion:

I believe that extremist ideology and the destructive communities «Blue Whale» and «Red Dolphin» that have emerged on its basis are links in the same chain, a long-term criminal plot. This criminal plan pursues the goal of creating a system of «remotely controlled mass murders» committed by teenagers, followed by the suicide of the perpetrator, and what we are witnessing today is a kind of experiment to test the efficiency of this system. The reality shows that, unfortunately, the system works. I don't know who is behind it and what purpose they pursue, and to be honest I am not really interested in it, my task is applied.

The situation also indicates not only the emergence of a new threat, but also the emergence of a new, third type of criminal who commits mass murders in educational institutions. Previously, we have dealt with two main types of criminals, divided by their motivation:

1. «School shooter» - for him mass murder is a way of self-expression, he is guided only by his understandable goals and tries to convey to others only his personal message.

2. «Terrorist» - commits a crime guided by a specific ideology and pursues the goals that this extremist ideology (or terrorist organization or movement) professes.

A new, third type, I would call «Controlled Suicide», his goal is to fulfill the task of the «curator», whose identity and true motives he does not know, and then kill himself.

Unfortunately, this way of committing mass murder is quite attractive for terrorist and other radical extremist organizations, which will obviously try to develop it and use it for their criminal purposes in the near future.

I would be glad to hear the opinion of colleagues on this issue, write in the comments to the post or in private messages. All ways to contact me are in the signature.

Author - Roman Grishin

 

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