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

Armed attack scenario drills and exercises, in schools and other educational institutions. Beneficial or harmful?

 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.

I often read news about practical training and drills to practice the skills of staff and students of schools and other educational institutions (colleges, kindergartens and universities) on how to act when there is a signal of an armed attack. They show coordinated actions during evacuation, comment on successes and speed of execution, and the children themselves seem to be interested in it, enthusiastically participating. 

I absolutely agree that practicing practical skills in case of an attack or its threat is an important element of the system of prevention and response to such crimes. But is this process properly organized?

During such trainings the sequence of actions is practiced, which will be actually performed in case of a real threat. Each student and employee of an educational institution knows exactly who, in what order, by what route, in what direction will move or vice versa, where and how to hide. All the details and all the details of the plan of action.

Let's imagine that among the students there is one who is planning such an attack, thanks to such practical exercises he will know exactly where his potential victims will be and how they will act. The fact that the perpetrator will have this information greatly increases his chances of causing as much damage as possible with his attack, greatly increasing the number of potential victims.

Now let's complicate the situation, what if the attack is carried out not by a lone gunman, but by a group of killers who will plan the attack with this information in mind. The simplest tactical scheme, the movements towards each other, one criminal moves from the starting point to the end point, the second vice versa. Provided they know where the start point is, where the end point is, and what route the potential victims will take between these points.

If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating the level of the threat and its likelihood, here are some statistics:

- globally, between 2000 and 2023 inclusive, in schools, kindergartens, colleges, and universities, 249 crimes* (not including 2024) falling under mass murder occurred, of which:

- 115 (46.2%) were committed by students at these educational institutions;

- 26 (10.4%) were committed by a group of persons.

The victims of these tragedies were 4 064 people, of whom 1 394 died and 2 670 were injured, most of them children.

So should we give free access to information that potential killers can use for their own purposes? I think it is not worth it, because in this case, from an element of crime prevention, it turns into a vulnerability of the security system of the educational institution, which on the contrary favors the attack and increases the number of its possible victims. 

So, what should we do? Cancel all drills and training?

No, I believe that it is necessary to simply change the approach to their organization and conduct. For each school (kindergarten, college, university), a unique «Safety Protocol» should be developed, which should contain a list of mandatory actions of each school employee on the signal «Armed Attack». This protocol should be developed by law enforcement specialists, taking into account the personal characteristics of the educational institution. Every classroom, every office in the institution should be surveyed by security specialists, and each should be given an objective and comprehensive assessment. Based on the results of such a survey, a «Safety Zone» should be defined in each room, the boundaries of this zone, the layout of children and teachers in it, as well as other features should also be included in the «Safety Protocol».

In addition, the expert group should develop several most likely scenarios of an attack on the educational institution (single, group, internal and external), based on which several universal, effective algorithms of actions of the school staff should be developed, until the arrival of police units, or until direct instructions from law enforcement agencies on how to proceed.

Once the protocol is approved, it should receive the status of a closed document, with limited access, and it should be stored not in the school, but in a specialized police unit. All staff of the educational institution should know, and most importantly understand, that the content of this document is classified information, not subject to disclosure.

Drills and drills to practice the practical skills of school personnel on how to act upon receipt of an «Armed Attack» signal using the «Safety Protocol» should be conducted without the participation of students, only school personnel, as well as law enforcement and other emergency services.

Pupils should know and understand only one thing: in the event of an «Armed Attack» signal, they should obey exactly, unconditionally, all the requirements of the teacher or other member of staff. Practical interaction between school staff and pupils can be practiced by conducting exercises and drills on actions in case of other threats, for example, in case of natural or man-made emergencies. Such drills and exercises should be held regularly, involving students. 

Again, this is necessary, for the reason that a significant part of mass murders in educational institutions is committed by their students, and as practice shows, they are thoroughly prepared for crimes, so their knowledge of the «Safety Protocol» and the algorithm of actions on the signal «Armed Attack» will allow them to adjust the tactics of the crime in such a way as to cause maximum damage.

Author - Roman Grishin

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

#drills #childhood #children #safety #security #school #college #kindergarten #university #threat #crime #terrorism 

 

I am starting work on a new project

 

Back in July 2020, I prepared and published my first article on securing schools and other educational institutions from criminal and terrorist threats. After publication, the article was edited several times, the last edits I made in January 2022.

The article was divided into two parts:

In the first part, I analyzed the current situation of child safety in educational institutions by the example of my country, as well as in the world, in parallel, I considered positive examples from foreign experience in this area. In addition, I gave my assessment of the level of risks and the degree of probable threats in the near future, and some forecasts about the prospects for the development of the situation;

In the second, I considered the possibilities of counteracting such threats, reducing the number of human casualties and the level of material damage. In addition, I proposed my own, hypothetical model of the system of ensuring the security of educational institutions.

While still working on the article, I noticed the difficulties in collecting materials for research, which have to be collected from various sources, and they often contain incomplete or unreliable (contradictory) information, there was no information on statistics at all, apparently, no one was simply not engaged in it. All this prompted me to create my own statistical research, which I did, spending almost a year on it, but it was worth it. The result of this work was the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions, which includes information on crimes and terrorist acts committed in educational institutions around the world, for the period from 2000 to 2023 inclusive. The publication contains not only statistical but also analytical material. The handbook is fully accessible to all who wish to use its materials without any restrictions.   I continue to collect and systematize data for the handbook, and as they accumulate I will try to post new, corrected and supplemented versions of the handbook.

When I was working on the materials for the handbook, I realized that the nature of the threat and its scale is much greater than I had originally assumed, I seriously underestimated the degree of danger, both at the moment and in the near future. The hypothetical model of the system of ensuring the security of educational institutions that I proposed in the first article could not effectively cope with it.

Improvement of the system I proposed initially will not give anything, it requires a completely different approach, the creation of a model (so far only hypothetical) built on completely different principles and with completely different tasks. 

The technical task that I have set for myself, if briefly, is the following: to create an effective model to ensure the safety of schools and other educational institutions, as well as places with a mass stay of children, from threats (existing and prospective), criminal and terrorist nature. At the same time, educational institutions should not change their main function, should not turn into prisons, bunkers or military bases.

Is this possible? I believe that it is, so I am starting to work on it. I will be glad to receive any help in working on the project, as well as communication with like-minded people, colleagues and everyone who is interested in this topic, who wants to make children's lives safer.  

You can contact me in any convenient way.

#project #childhood #children #safety #security #school #college #kindergarten #university #threat #crime #terrorism 

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

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

The tragedy in Beslan, 20 years later.

 

20 years ago, on September 3, 2004, one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century - Beslan - ended with terrible consequences. Then - on September 01, the day of the beginning of the school year, in this small town in the south of Russia, in the Republic of North Ossetia, terrorists seized a secondary school, more than 1100 people were taken hostage, most of whom were children.

The terrorists booby-trapped the school building, where they held hostages for 2.5 days, including many pregnant women and children under the age of 1 year. The criminals held people without water, food and access to medical care.

On September 03, special units started storming the captured school, some of the bombs were defused, but the criminals managed to detonate the other part of them. They were also shooting the hostages chaotically with all kinds of automatic firearms, as well as with hand grenades. Out of 32 terrorists, 31 were killed, 1 was arrested (currently serving a life sentence in prison).

The victims of the terrorist attack were 333 people, including:

- 186 children between the ages of 7 and 17;

- 17 teachers and school staff;

- 111 parents of students and guests of the school;

- 11 members of the assault special forces and police officers;

- 8 emergency services personnel.

This is a terrible tragedy, which in its scale, cruelty and number of victims - shocked the world. I was not interested in the motives of the criminals, I believe that such crimes do not and cannot have any justification, without exception.

Personally for me the tragedy in the school of Beslan became a starting point, it was then that I began to actively study and develop such a direction of applied criminology as “Ensuring the safety of schools and other educational institutions from criminal and terrorist threats”. Unfortunately, the results of my research do not give reason for optimism, because no one has drawn any conclusions from this terrible crime. In the 20 years that have passed since the tragedy, 218 crimes* (not including 2024) falling under the signs of mass murder have occurred in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities around the world, 17 of them were qualified as terrorist acts, 18 were connected with hostage-taking. The victims of these tragedies were 2,649 people, of whom 933 died and 1,716 were injured, most of them children.

As it is not sad, but the dynamics of such crimes is not decreasing, schools, kindergartens, colleges, universities and other educational institutions, as well as places with mass presence of children, continue to be «easy targets» for criminals and terrorists, which means that no one and nowhere is safe from the repetition of a tragedy like the terrorist act in the school of Beslan, it is only a matter of time. So for now we can only wait.

Is it possible to completely eliminate the risk of a repetition of such crimes? I believe that no, it is impossible. However, it is quite possible to significantly reduce the risk of such tragedies, as well as the scale of their consequences.

Are there effective ways and methods to counter such threats? Yes, there are.

What is needed for this? The presence of two conditions:

1. Recognition of the fact of existence of the threat, that schools, kindergartens, colleges, universities and other educational institutions, as well as places with mass stay of children, are objects of increased danger.

2. Complete change of the existing approach to the system of ensuring the safety of such institutions. It is quite possible to make them safe without turning them into analogs of military bases or prisons. How exactly, is a topic for a separate conversation, which makes sense only after condition № 1 is met.

Author - Roman Grishin

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

photo taken from the website: Network edition «Alpha news»

#Beslan #tragedy #terrorist #attack #terroristattack #terrorist_attack #terrorism #murder #threat #conclusions #victims