Two UC Davis professors on the forefront of reducing juvenile violence welcome the public focus on troubled kids brought by the mass homicides in Jonesboro, Ark., and Littleton, Colo. But, they say, calls for stricter gun control, metal detectors on campuses and reduced violence in the media can't alone provide sufficient intervention to reduce the problem. In looking at the recent murder cases, Charles Scott, a forensic psychiatrist and expert on juvenile violence at the UC Davis Medical Center, doesn't rule out the possibility that media violence may have an influence over children's behaviors. On the other hand, Scott says that no one can know, with any certainty, if gun availability and the exposure to violent video games and movies are fueling the juvenile-violence problem. More importantly than those issues, says education professor Jon Sandoval, is the need to build relationships among schools, families and communities to reach troubled kids before they resort to acts of physical violence. He serves as the principal investigator for the Healthy Start field office, a program for reaching out to troubled, at-risk students based at the Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools office at UC Davis. He is also the co-author of Preparing for Crises in the Schools: A Manual for Building School Crisis Response Teams, a book triggered by the 1989 mass shootings at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton. "The 'acting up' kids get the lion's share of attention, while others remain hidden in the first several grades because they aren't the squeaky wheel in the classroom," Sandoval says. "It's often the quiet ones who are sinking into destructive patterns." Identifying the at-risk kids Identifying those students at risk of employing impulsive, violent behavior is one of the best ways to prevent a crisis, he says. And the sooner they can be identified, the better. He applauds the state for reducing class size in first through third grades and says it may be a significant step toward identifying, early on, kids who need extra help in their social or mental development. In his early experiences as a school psychologist in Richmond elementary schools, Sandoval says the "fringe" kids often had learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder or suffered from depression. These situations can be treated with a combination of medication, if needed, and behavioral modification techniques. "We encourage teachers to experiment with classroom structure and provide more opportunities for periods of physical activity to get rid of tension," he says. Overwhelmed by problems Sandoval notes that children may ultimately exhibit violent or socially deviant behaviors when they are unable to deal with their problems. Daily pressures and crises can overwhelm children. Feelings of isolation, peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol, hormones going haywire -- all of these factors combined at a key developmental period in young lives can form a ticking time bomb for adolescents if the warning signs are not detected and addressed. "Teaching social problem-solving skills at an early age can also help kids feel in greater control of their emotions," he says. "We can't separate the mental health of a student from his or her success in learning skills and acquiring knowledge." Peer education is another important tool in violence intervention. Kids of all ages need to feel comfortable reporting concerns about their classmates, Sandoval says. They need to feel free to talk with a counselor or trusted adult who can take their concerns to the appropriate source -- a teacher, parent or law enforcement official. A huge cost to society "Lack of intervention comes at a huge cost to society," Sandoval says. "Kids who resort to acts of physical violence as adolescents are often the same people who end up in the nation's criminal system as adults." However, Sandoval is quick to note that most cases of juvenile angst don't lead to murder, and that juvenile violence is not on the rise though the recent media attention to the problem gives a contrary impression. Psychiatrist Scott agrees. "In reality, incidents of juvenile violence both on and off the school campus are down," says Scott, who provides educational and training workshops for schools and mental health providers on assessing risks and developing intervention plans for juvenile violence. He also directs the forensic psychiatry training program at UC Davis, providing instruction to other psychiatrists on issues related to juvenile violence. 1992-93 was twice as deadly He points out that statistics from the National School Safety Center show the 1992-93 school year to be twice as deadly as 1998-99 with 54 campus deaths compared to 24 this year. What remains troubling, Scott says, is that although there has been no significant increase overall in school deaths in the past two years, mass homicides have increased. Both Sandoval and Scott agree that the overall decrease in school violence does not dilute the need for programs to avert not only the few yet devastating mass homicides but the more prevalent occurrences of assault and suicide. Unfortunately, the unthinkable and unexpected can always occur and Sandoval's experiences have made one thing clear-if crises are bound to happen, being prepared to deal with them helps immensely. Forming a crisis-intervention team Ten years ago, two of Sandoval's colleagues, Sharon Lewis and Stephen Brock, were helping the Lodi district form a crisis intervention team. No one realized how soon their expertise would be needed. On Jan. 17, 1989, a gunman stepped onto the schoolyard at Cleveland Elementary School in nearby Stockton and killed five students, injuring another 29 students and one teacher. The day after the shootings, Lewis and Brock met with the Stockton Unified School District to help develop a crisis team. Their experiences in counseling children and staff, dealing with parents and talking to reporters evolved into a manual. The following year, Sandoval, Lewis and Brock expanded the manual into a workshop titled "The School Psychologists Role in Developing and Implementing a Crisis Intervention Plan," which they presented at the annual Convention of School Psychologists. Offering schools guidelines The overwhelmingly positive response they received at the meeting prompted them to collaborate on their book on preparing for crises in the schools. The book offers guidelines for developing an intervention plan, crisis counseling and security procedures, as well as methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the crisis response team. Sandoval refers to it as a road map for people to create a meaningful plan for their own school. "The goal in dealing with a crisis is to help students and staff handle what is happening and deal with it sufficiently to move on with life," Sandoval says. "The curriculum we're developing is designed to help people learn how to do that. "We can never really eliminate the chances of juvenile violence happening, although we hope prevention at least lowers the probability of these occurrences," Sandoval says. "But there will always be deranged people who fall outside the patterns."