Announcement: Ensuring Comprehensive Safety in Schools and Other Educational Institutions: From Problem Analysis to Practical Solutions.

 

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.

I am pleased to announce that I have finally completed the main part of my work on the article «Ensuring Comprehensive Safety in Schools, Other Educational Institutions, and Facilities and Locations Frequented by Large Numbers of Children Against Threats of a Criminal, Terrorist, and Other Nature».

All that remains are purely technical details: combining the separate sections into a single whole, making corrections, formatting it, and preparing it for publication on the portal’s main website. There is no exact date yet, but tentatively - late May to early June of this year.

This article is of a practical nature. I am not interested in discussing the problem or stirring up the atmosphere around it—crime statistics in schools, kindergartens, colleges, and universities do that much better. I am also not interested in the motives of criminals. I do not believe, nor do I even entertain the thought, that the mass murder of innocent people could have any justification whatsoever.

My interest lies in finding answers to other questions: can this be stopped? And if so, how exactly can it be done?

I began searching for answers to these questions back in 2018, when I was working on my first article about safety in schools and other educational institutions. I started that work almost immediately after the tragedy at the Kerch Polytechnic College, where 20 people were killed and another 67 were injured.

At the time, as I studied the timeline of that tragedy, I tried to understand: why was it so easy for the perpetrator to commit such a monstrous crime?

Here’s what I saw. A man armed with a gun, a large amount of ammunition, and homemade explosive devices leaves his home, walks to a public transportation stop, gets on a bus, rides to the right stop, walks to the college building, goes inside, finds an open, isolated room, prepares his weapon, arranges the ammunition for quick reloading, and sets the timers on the bombs. Then he goes out, heads to the emergency exit, tries to block it, walks toward the cafeteria, sets up an explosive device, goes back, grabs his weapon, and starts killing.

An explosion, panic. The killer moves calmly and, most importantly, unhindered through the college hallways, shooting at anyone who crosses his path or comes into view. He throws homemade grenades. Then he goes to the library, where he commits suicide.

It was all over before the first police car even arrived on the scene. No one stopped the criminal. No one stopped him. He killed himself when he considered his bloody mission accomplished. From start to finish, he had the situation completely under control.

 

It would be one thing if this were the first tragedy of its kind in Russia. But before this, there were Beslan, Moscow, Ivanteevka, Perm, Ulan-Ude, Shadrinsk, Sterlitamak, and Barabinsk. Wasn’t that enough to realize that the threat is real, and that a tragedy on the scale of the Kerch College attack is only a matter of time?

However, even this crime did not serve as a catalyst for recognizing the level of the threat and revising the entire security system. As always, everything was limited to talk and formal measures that had no real impact on the situation. Next came Kazan, Perm, Izhevsk, Bryansk—and these are only the largest crimes in terms of the number of victims. There were others, and quite a few of them.

The situation in other countries also clearly shows that there is no basis for optimistic forecasts. Statistics (link) clearly demonstrate a trend toward an increase in the number of similar crimes worldwide. The year 2025 set a kind of anti-record for their number. However, the first five months of 2026 clearly indicate that this record will be broken in the very near future.

All of this clearly demonstrates the complete vulnerability of schools and other educational institutions to criminals and terrorists. Every time there is another attack, meetings and discussions begin, task forces and commissions convene, plans and decisions are formulated, and high-profile statements are made to the media. However, very little time passes before new attacks occur and new victims emerge.

At the same time, even the simplest analysis of the chronology of these events shows that in most cases, the criminals exploited the same vulnerabilities that have long been known to everyone.

I was unable to get started right away. Difficulties arose, forcing me to postpone the work for nearly two years.

In the first area of research (the security situation at educational institutions in Russia and around the world), I encountered a lack of statistical data on crimes in this category that had been collected and systematized in a single source. I had to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort gathering information from dozens of different sources and cross-checking it.

Without these statistics, it is impossible to:

- gain an objective picture of what is happening;

- conduct a thorough (comparative and cross-sectional) analysis of the data;

- track developments over time;

- assess the true scale of the threat;

- explain ongoing criminological processes and identify the factors influencing them;

- predict how events will unfold.

Furthermore, there is a lack of understanding regarding the direction and specific characteristics of the threat’s development, which makes it extremely difficult to devise effective countermeasures. We see the result now, when, following yet another mass shooting or terrorist attack at an educational institution, experts, political analysts, law enforcement officials, educators, and journalists ask themselves: «Why didn’t the measures developed and implemented as part of the security strategy work?»

The answer is simple: they were developed based on incomplete data. And in many cases, this data was not only incomplete but also unreliable.

I myself have often come across statistics in media reports that are far removed from reality. For example, when commenting on yet another mass shooting at a school or university, the author would back up the article with general statistics on incidents at educational institutions—even though most of these incidents were not even indirectly related to mass shootings or terrorism. For the most part, these are general criminal offenses: committed due to personal animosity, or for financial gain (robberies, muggings, extortion), often out of hooliganism or even unintentionally.

Therefore, it is extremely important not only to know the statistics, but also to understand what lies behind these numbers. Proper data categorization is equally important.

The principles I used during data collection:

All collected cases underwent cross-analysis and comparison of information from various sources.

Preference was given to police press releases, reports, and court transcripts—these contain more facts than speculation.

All incidents were divided into groups and subgroups based on various criminological characteristics. This classification allows us to clearly see the nature of the situation’s development over a specific time period, both in comparison and in terms of trends.

Based on high-quality, systematically organized statistical data, it is possible to create more accurate (than currently available) criminological models and forecasts. Most importantly, these models can be used to develop truly effective measures for preventing and combating threats.

This requires reliable source data—verified, organized, and compiled into a single repository. But such data did not exist.

It became clear that a unified information and reference resource was needed, containing information on crimes in this category and at least a brief (minimal) set of factual data about their perpetrators and circumstances. Realizing this, I set out to create it.

As a format for presenting the data, I chose a format similar to a police incident report: a brief summary of the circumstances containing such information as the date, time, place, method, object, perpetrator, victims, consequences, outcome, and other reliably established facts.

In February 2024, the first edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions was published on the «Public Order and Safety» portal, containing statistical data spanning 24 years (from 2000 through 2023).

The information has since been updated and expanded. The fifth edition is now available for download, containing data spanning 26 years. One of the main objectives has been achieved: an informative, user-friendly, and, most importantly, publicly accessible reference and analytical tool has been created for researchers and specialists in school safety.

For me, the main outcome of working on the handbook was that I was finally able to see a fairly objective picture regarding the first area of research. And as it turned out, this picture is far from optimistic. I won’t delve too deeply into the details—you can review the statistics and analytics for yourselves. The most important thing is that the year and a half spent on this was not wasted.

While studying materials on crimes in educational institutions, I noticed that experts often use the term «safety level» in their assessments, adding various adjectives to it: high, low, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, adequate, minimal, and so on. This raised a question for me: what exactly do they mean by this concept, and how do they define it?

After reviewing the information available in open sources, I have concluded that there is currently no unified (or even widely used) system in our country for assessing the safety levels of educational institutions based on formal criteria. Most reports containing such assessments are based on the personal opinions of the experts who compiled them.

An analysis of international experience also revealed nothing concrete—the situation there appears to be similar.

This situation struck me as, to put it mildly, strange. It is clear that there is a need for such a tool. Although I am not a proponent of total standardization in safety matters, I consider this area an exception. Since there was no evaluation system that could objectively calculate the safety level of an educational facility based on formal criteria (with minimal human influence), and I needed such a tool for my work, I decided to create it myself.

The result is a table in which evaluations are based on 64 criteria covering:

- characteristics of the educational facility’s grounds and its location;

- characteristics of buildings and structures;

- the presence of physical security and its features;

- technical security measures and their capabilities;

- additional active and passive security measures.

Each item, if present and operational, is assigned a number of points, which are then totaled. A final score is calculated. In addition to the total score, there are factors that negatively impact the final score.

Once completed, the table clearly shows:

- the level of security at the educational institution;

- its capabilities;

and most importantly—obvious shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the security system.

Based on the resulting assessment, measures and costs can be planned to improve the facility’s security level. Using annual data on such assessments of one or more facilities, it is easy to conduct comparative and dynamic analyses, clearly assessing the situation in a specific school, city, region, or even country over a given time period. You can compare both overall assessments and individual indicators or sections.

The result is a convenient and, most importantly, objective tool for monitoring the situation, where even a one-point drop in the rating compared to the previous period immediately indicates that the situation is deteriorating and action must be taken.

Even while collecting data for the handbook and developing the assessment table, I increasingly came to the conclusion that the model of a comprehensive security system for educational institutions that I had previously developed and outlined in my first article was ineffective and unpromising.

Solving the problem would require a completely different approach.

I began work on this at the end of 2023. In May 2026, I finally managed to complete it (though I assume it is not yet final).

In my new development, I was guided by public demand, which is as follows: schools, other educational institutions (including preschools), as well as facilities where large numbers of children gather, must be reliably protected from criminal, terrorist, and other threats, but at the same time, they must not be turned into something resembling a prison or a military base.

Is this realistic? I believe it is.

What needs to be done to achieve this, why, and exactly how—I will address these questions in the main article.

The publication is scheduled for late May to early June of this year on the «Public Order and Safety» portal.

Author – Roman Grishin.

Poisoning as a weapon in schools: a new threat scenario

 
On January 21, 2026 *, a seventh-grade student, aged about 14, brought a chemical education kit (such kits are freely available in stores) to school. He selected one of the dangerous and toxic reagents, mixed it into a carbonated drink, and then offered it to his classmates. Three teenagers drank the beverage, felt severely ill, and were hospitalized at the nearest hospital with a diagnosis of toxic poisoning. Thanks to the competent actions of the medical staff, the teenagers' lives were not in danger, and they were discharged from the hospital the next day.

Unfortunately, attempts by schoolchildren to commit mass murders of their classmates or cause harm to their health are not uncommon these days. In this case, what is of interest to experts is not the fact of the crime itself, but the method chosen by the perpetrator. The use of toxic chemicals as weapons in mass killings in educational institutions is not the most common method, but it is not unique either. Since 2000, there have been five** recorded cases of this kind:

November 20, 2006, Emsdetten, Germany
attack on a secondary school, using chemical poisons (smoke grenades) as secondary weapons; 37 victims (0 killed, 37 injured); perpetrator – male, age at the time of the crime – 18, former student of the school;

November 12, 2019, Kaiyuan, China
attack on an elementary school, using chemical poisons (toxic powder), 54 victims (0 killed, 54 injured), perpetrator – male, age at the time of the crime – 23;

December 2, 2024, Berlin, Germany
attack on an elementary school using chemical poisons (tear gas), 44 victims (0 killed, 44 injured), suspect fled, crime unsolved, identity of perpetrator unknown;

February 4, 2025, Erebro, Sweden
attack on a secondary school, using (as an auxiliary weapon) chemical poisons (smoke grenades), 22 victims (10 killed, 12 wounded), perpetrator - male, age at the time of the crime - 35 years old;

December 16, 2025, Odintsovo, Russia
attack on a secondary school, using (as an auxiliary weapon) chemical poisons (tear gas), 4 victims (1 killed, 3 wounded), age at the time of the crime - 15 years old, a student at the school.

As can be seen from the description, the criminals mainly used tear gas or poisonous smoke; in one case, the criminal sprayed toxic powder in the premises. In three out of five cases, the attackers used poisonous substances as additional weapons and only in two cases as the sole weapon.  I have not found any cases of attacks on educational institutions involving the deliberate poisoning of food or drink as a means of committing a crime, although I fully admit that they may have occurred but were not reported to the police or the media.

I would suggest that in this case, we are dealing with a new method of committing crimes such as deliberate mass harm to health or murder. Given the active discussion of this fact in the media, social networks, and forums, there is a high probability that a similar scenario could well be repeated in the near future.

I invite everyone who is involved in or simply interested in the field of applied criminology, such as the security of schools and other educational institutions, to participate in the development of effective, practical methods for preventing and suppressing threats committed in the following manner: deliberate poisoning of food or beverages with dangerous chemicals (or naturally occurring components) with the aim of mass murder or causing harm to human health.

You can contact the author in any convenient way listed on his page.

Author – Roman Grishin.

 

* The crime took place at a lyceum in the village of Kuyuki, Pestrechinsky District, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.

** There is partially confirmed data on a series of attacks using poisonous substances in schools and higher education institutions in Iran in 2022-2023. Unfortunately, Iran's information secrecy does not allow us to obtain accurate data on the circumstances of the crimes (if they occurred at all) established by law enforcement agencies for analysis and publication in the handbook.

 

#SchoolSafety #assault #poisoning #threat #chemicals #murder #harm #children #schools #safety #criminology

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

 

#threat #children #school #kindergarten #college #university #terrorism #criminal #destructive #extremism #murder #suicide #BlueWhale #Blue_Whale #RedDolphin #Red_Dolphin #SafeandSoundSchools #SchoolSafety

Destructive Communities and Games, «Red Dolphin» a new type of threat to schools and other educational institutions. Part 1.

 

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.

In September 2024, two similar attacks on schools took place in Russia, in the cities of Chelyabinsk and Balagansk, one week apart. In both cases, they were internal attacks committed by students of these schools, the same type of weapon (hammer) was used, the similarity and age of the suspects. Both crimes were premeditated, the attacks were preceded by preparation and planning.
In general, against the background of other crimes of a similar category, these two attacks do not stand out in any particular way. However, immediately after the first attack (Chelyabinsk 16.09.2024) in a number of media outlets, Internet communities in social networks and messengers, as well as in the statements of some officials (Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Presidential Ombudsman for Children's Rights) and public organizations (Safe Internet League), there was information that perhaps this attack was committed not on the personal initiative of the teenager who carried it out, but in order for him to perform a certain task, which he received from the organizers of a closed community on the Internet under the name of «Safe Internet». It should be noted that information about such Internet communities has previously been reported in the media under the name of the game «Blue Whale». Associations in social networks with this name placed depressing content, curators - group owners gave teenagers tasks, the last of which was suicide. Thus, the participants of the communities were compared to whales that are thrown ashore, if a teenager refused to commit suicide, he was threatened with the murder of his family. The peak of activity of this «game» came in 2016-2017, with it was associated with the deaths of several teenagers. At that time, law enforcement agencies, with the support of the public, blocked most of the «Blue Whale» communities in social networks, the police and the Investigative Committee arrested several administrators of these communities and charged them with deliberately leading to suicide. By 2018, the activity of such groups on the Internet and messengers has significantly decreased, they practically did not manifest themselves in any way.

In 2024, the situation changes dramatically. New communities and channels actively appear in social networks and messengers, this time they use the name «Red Dolphin». Not only the name has changed, but also the ideology. If «Blue Whale» encouraged teenagers to injure themselves and the final mission was the suicide of the participant, then in «Red Dolphin» the task is to cause harm to others, and the final mission is also the suicide of the perpetrator, but with the preliminary commission of mass murder.

A little later, on October 01, 2024, in Chelyabinsk and Balagansk, the FSB detains another teenager (16 years old) on suspicion of preparing to commit a mass murder at school. The media indicate that the teenager was a member of some extremist community, where he was indoctrinated with such thoughts, however, the name of the community is not specified.

I repeat that the connection of the attacks on schools in September of this year with the ideology of the «Red Dolphin» is only an assumption, because the investigation materials are not available in open sources, and in the official press releases of the Investigative Committee, this information is also absent. However, given the facts: that this information was received almost simultaneously, from different sources, and that these sources are well informed, as well as the fact that there were no refutations of this information, not from the officials who expressed it, not from the media, not from law enforcement agencies. Therefore, this information is highly likely to be reliable. However, even if this destructive community has nothing to do with these attacks, we should not underestimate the probable threat it poses in the future.

The very fact of the existence of this destructive community is not in doubt, it exists (it is not difficult to check it by corresponding inquiries in messengers and social networks, and there are also many journalistic investigations on this topic), it has already covered several countries informationally, which means that its spread to the whole world is only a matter of time (my forecast is 2-3 months).  

If this «game» becomes widespread, it will form a new type of mass murderer in educational institutions. As of today we are dealing with two main types of such criminals:

1. School Killer (often called «School Shooter» regardless of the type of weapon used) - who commits mass murder for personal motives, they can be many: revenge, personal animosity, mental illness, imitation of other killers, «God Complex» and others. Such crimes are the majority, over 93%.

2. Terrorist - such crimes are still less than 7% (16 out of 249)* of the total number, yet they are among the most dangerous in terms of victims, accounting for 42.6% of the total number of victims (1,732 out of 4,064)*. They are committed by members of a terrorist organization (their supporters, ideological fanatics), in its interests, on the direct orders of its leaders, or on their own initiative.

>In this case, a third type appears, let's call it conditionally – «Controlled killer» - who commits mass murder in a school (kindergarten, college, university) performing the task of the game or on the instructions of the «curator» without a direct personal motive and not in the interests of the terrorist organization. His task is to come to the educational institution, commit mass murder, and in the end commit suicide. This teenager has nothing to lose, there are no deterrents for him.

In my opinion, such crimes tend to appear and develop. However, I also believe that they can be predicted and prevented at the stage of preparation, as well as suppressed at the time of execution. How to do this, I will write in the next part of the article.

I would be glad to hear the opinion of colleagues on this issue, write in comments or private messages.

Author - Roman Grishin

* Statistical data are taken from Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in schools and other educational institutions

#threat #newthreat #new_threat #danger #internetcommunity #internet_community #RedDolphin #Red_Dolphin #BlueWhale #Blue_Whale #school #kindergarten #college #university #murder

The attack on the school in Balagansk, Irkutsk region, Russia, September 23, 2024

 

Only a week has passed since the tragedy at School No. 68 in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, where a 13-year-old student brought two hammers, an air pistol, and a knife to school and attacked his classmates. At the time, three children and a teacher were injured.  And now, just 7 days later, a new attack, again a school, again with hammers as weapons. Three injured teenagers, although the victims could have been much more, simply, hearing the screams of children, a gym teacher came to their aid, who selflessly rushed to the armed criminal and managed to disarm him and detain him until the police arrived. And if he had not been there?

Again and again the situation is repeated, which has happened many times before: the criminal, without any obstacles in his way, plans a crime, prepares a weapon, quietly sneaks the weapon into the school premises and already there takes it out and uses it to attack and, if not for the courage of the teacher, the ending of this story could have been more tragic. 

And if he had used not a cold weapon, but a firearm, explosive or incendiary device, or poisonous substances. How would it have ended then? If someone says that I am exaggerating, here is a small statistical reference that for the period from 2000 to 2023 inclusive, when attacking educational institutions (schools, colleges, kindergartens, universities) attackers used explosive, incendiary or atomizing devices 38 times and this is only known cases, if we talk about the use of firearms, then there the count has long exceeded three-digit figure, and the list of victims four-digit*.  

This applies not only to Russia, in 2024 alone (and the year is not over yet) schools and other educational institutions in China, Germany, USA, Mexico, Finland, Bosnia, Greece and the UK were attacked, in which 59 people were injured, of whom 17 were killed, 42 were injured, most of the victims were children.

Can't we see that schools and other educational institutions have long ago turned into high-risk objects and their protection should be provided in a completely different way, we need to completely change the approach to the organization of the security system of educational institutions.

How many more victims do we need to realize this?

Author - Roman Grishin

* Statistical data are taken from Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in schools and other educational institutions

#school #balagansk #Irkutsk #Russia #murder #threat #attack #children #security #guarding #hammer

The attack on a school in Chelyabinsk on September 16, 2024.

 

Another tragedy occurred last Monday at School No. 68 in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. On that day, a 13-year-old student brought two hammers, a pneumatic pistol and a knife to school, went to the restroom, changed his clothes, turned on a portable audio speaker and a video camera (broadcasting live on the Internet), then entered the classroom where he was studying and attacked his classmates. Three children and a teacher were injured, two injured girls are in serious condition.   

After the attack, the perpetrator left the classroom and attempted to commit suicide, but was not able to complete his plan and was detained alive by police officers who arrived at the scene.

I am not trying to assess the motives of the perpetrator, for two reasons:

1. I do not believe that there can be reasons that would justify committing or attempting mass murder;

2. I practice applied criminology, and my area of interest is only in the actual crime.

In every such crime, other questions are more relevant to me, the main ones being:

- Why was the perpetrator able to carry out his criminal intent?

- Why did the attention-grabbingly dressed teenager walk freely from home to school without attracting attention?

- Why did the juvenile dressed in eye-catching (directly signaling danger) clothing, which clearly does not comply with school rules, freely enter the school building, pass the security post, and move freely through it without attracting attention?

- Why did the juvenile freely, pass the security post and carry a weapon into the school?

- Why did the suspect move freely through the school building and was only apprehended by police officers who arrived?

- Why was the threat alert system not working (according to witnesses, other students and teachers learned of the incident only through the screams of victims and eyewitnesses)?

Since the beginning of 2024, in the world, this is already the 12th case of crime with the purpose of mass murder committed in an educational institution (these are only those cases that received publicity in the media, in fact, there are more such crimes, not all of them are included in statistical reports), before that, there were similar cases in China, Germany, USA, Mexico, Finland, Bosnia, Greece, Great Britain, in which 59 people suffered, 17 of them were killed, 42 were injured, most of the victims were children.

Every year dozens of such crimes are committed, hundreds of victims, but nothing changes. Each time the criminals use the same vulnerabilities in the school security system, they easily get inside the educational institutions and carry out their plans.

Can this bloody wave be stopped? I believe it can.

Are there effective ways to counter these threats? I believe there are.

Why has it not been done so far? I don't have an answer to that question.

Author - Roman Grishin

#school #Chelyabinsk #Russia #suicide #threat #attack #children #safety #security #questions #answers

Tragedy at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA - need help gathering information.

At the beginning I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who died in this terrible crime, as well as wish a speedy recovery to all those who were injured and traumatized.

According to preliminary data published in the media: 4 people were killed in the attack on the school (2 teachers and 2 students), and more than 10 people were injured of varying degrees of severity. The attack was committed by 1 perpetrator, who used firearms to commit the crime. The suspect was detained alive at the scene of the crime.

There is a lot of contradictory information in the publications of news outlets and TV channels, and in the official statements of law enforcement agencies there are no details of the crime, which are extremely necessary in my work.

I will be very grateful if those who have information on this crime, share this information. On this tragedy is interested in the factual side of the incident, primarily the chronology of the event (what time the criminal came to the school, how he got into it, how long he was in the building, who called the police, how long she arrived, whether the suspect was detained on school grounds or managed to escape, etc.), eyewitness accounts, police reports, etc., simply put - not opinions, but facts. Also interested in any other corroborated data.

Thank you in advance for your help.

You can contact me in any convenient way, here are all my contacts

#tragedy #Apalachee #High #School #Winder #Georgia #shooting #murder #information #HighSchool #High_School

Columbine High School tragedy, 25 years later, facts, thoughts, unanswered questions

The other day I finished reading Dave Cullen's book «Columbine» (in my country the book was published under the title «Columbine - an exhaustive report from the scene». The second, supplemented edition of this book was published back in 2016, but in my country it was not published until the end of 2023).

For all those who are seriously interested in the Columbine tragedy and school massacres in general, I would recommend reading this book. Such books are very rare today, its author has done a tremendous job (according to his statement, the collection, verification and systematization of materials for the book took him almost 10 years), combining in one publication a large number of facts «from the first person». Everything is here: testimonies of direct participants and other witnesses, data from police and court reports, conclusions of criminalists, psychiatrists and other experts. The book reconstructs a detailed chronology of events, along parallel time lines (perpetrators, victims, eyewitnesses, police). There are quotes from the perpetrators' diaries, their plans and plotting, transcripts of “basement videotapes” and a lot of other useful information.

Another (in my opinion) plus of the book is that Cullen, does not take the bad example of many other authors who first give their version of the event, and then begin to adjust the facts under it, while indicating only what corresponds to their interpretation, ignoring everything in it does not fit. Here, the author puts only facts, and from all participants of the tragedy, as if offering readers to see the tragedy through their eyes, from the position of the perpetrator, victim, student or teacher, parent, police officer, FBI agent, journalist, ambulance doctor, firefighter, just a random onlooker, and then, on their basis, to draw their own conclusions. In general, my impression of the book, only positive, it is a good solid work, a real criminal journalist, with a competent and interesting form of presentation of material.

For those who are interested in a personal analysis of school shooters (including the Columbine killers) - I would recommend Dr. Peter Langman's book «Why Kids Kill». There he provides an objective comparative analysis of the most notorious «school shooters» by psychological and forensic measures. Once again confirming the theory, previously repeatedly expressed by various criminologists and law enforcement agencies that there is no single psychotype of «school shooter», as well as some unique personality traits inherent only to them, and they have more differences than common. Therefore, all attempts to identify them at an early stage and predict their emergence are «Sisyphean labor» that wastes a lot of resources, but is of no practical use.  

However, let's return to the main question - Why exactly «Columbine» has become a nominal name for crimes of this kind? I have long been involved in applied criminology, in terms of ensuring the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places where children are present in large numbers. This is the main topic of my research. Often in discussions with my colleagues, the question has been raised that, if we put aside the moral and ethical component and consider this crime from a purely formal point of view, at first glance there is nothing particularly outstanding in it. Both before and after it there were tragedies, more bloody in their scale and consequences (those who are interested in the statistics of such crimes can see here), and yet why «Columbine»?

Probably, because at detailed study of the facts, it becomes clear that if the plan (and the crime was carefully planned) of the criminals was executed by them in the original scenario, it would have been a terrorist attack on a scale comparable to the tragedy in the school of Beslan in 2004 or «September 11». In Chapter 8 of «Maximum Human Concentration» - Dave Cullen's book – «Columbine. An Exhaustive Report from the Field.» (supplemented 2016 edition) describes in detail the plan of the criminals, the number of bombs, their charge, striking elements, their purpose (to hit large crowds of people, to distract attention, to hit the emergency workers and journalists who arrived on the scene, to collapse the building and ignite it). The following are indicated: prepared sectors for firing, main and reserve firing points formed taking into account the direction of movement of people during evacuation.

In total, the plan had three stages of realization of the criminals' plan, and if they had managed to realize not all of it, but at least most of it, the number of victims, with a high degree of probability, would have been four-digit. According to experts (including myself, I personally asked people who served in anti-terrorist and intelligence-sabotage units), this plan was drawn up at a good professional level. It takes into account many important factors and conditions, and there are, of course, shortcomings, but not critical. The most important conclusion of their experts was that this plan was quite suitable for real implementation. The fact that this plan was not realized in practice, happened rather by accident, first - the technique failed, most of the detonators installed on the most destructive bombs did not work, the second - the lack of the killers of the backup scenario for such a case and as a result of the lack of coordination of their actions. In fact, what happened as a result was an unplanned improvisation on the part of the perpetrators, but even with this development of events - 27 victims (13 killed, 14 wounded).

My opinion is that the events at Columbine High School have clearly demonstrated that the threat level of the School Shooters is underestimated. Two ordinary teenagers, spent a year hatching a plan for large scale mass murder, procuring weapons, ammunition, bomb parts, planning, discussing, practicing. They didn't just talk, they acted.

This begs the questions: did no one see anything, or understand? Or did they see, but didn't want to understand? Or maybe they saw understood, and even with these thoughts came to their superiors, but heard: «Do not exaggerate, it's just teenagers, what can they do at all, at most write an obscene phrase on the door of the director's office. Go and do something serious, and forget about your fantasies and do not tell anyone...».

However, as it turned out - they can, and can much more than what is expected of them. Cold-bloodedly and calculatingly make a plan to deprive hundreds, and maybe thousands, of the lives and health of their classmates, teachers, friends, neighbors or just acquaintances, and then try to carry it out. If they hadn't been let down by homemade detonators, they would have done it. Simple teenagers from the backwoods, were ready to kill hundreds and thousands of innocent people, if their plan had succeeded, the terrorists from «Al-Qaeda», against their background would look like a bunch of petty hooligans.

The events at Columbine High School showed the main thing: children, in their desire to kill their own kind, are able to show great analytical abilities in planning, and in the implementation of their plans, the level of cruelty and danger, far surpass adults. Outwardly normal teenagers are capable of killing without the slightest reason or compassion. Except that we still don't want to recognize this. That is why every year in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities shots and explosions rumble, knives and axes take a deadly swing, incendiary devices and atomizers detonate, children and adults die.

And someone continues to say that «There is no need to exaggerate and exaggerate, these are just teenagers, what can they do...».

Author - Roman Grishin

photo from the website: Chalkbeat

#Columbine #School #facts #thoughts #questions #tragedy #murder #crime #shooter #threat