But in a land where gun control is politically impossible<\/a>, the only tangible help the Biden administration offers<\/a> schools are resources to conduct better behavioral profiling of students, doing so through a Secret Service center founded to study the psychology of presidential assassins. The push, supported by a bipartisan bill that would strengthen the role of the Department of Homeland Security in school violence, would turn America\u2019s schools into another adjunct of the national security apparatus, a veritable school for spies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n School shootings are indeed an epidemic in America, and Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 and injured 17 more in Parkland is a tragic example of yet another juvenile who fell through every social service safety net that American society had to offer. He is a poster child for the ease with which mentally ill Americans can acquire guns. But can the Secret Service really help to deal with the scourge, and is it the right agency to do so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Secret Service\u2019s National Threat Assessment Center, or NTAC, was created in 1998 to examine threats to the president and security at complex public gatherings. Its focus was expanded a year later to the psychology of school shootings after the Columbine shooting resulted in 15 deaths and horrified the nation. Today, NTAC is \u201ca multidisciplinary team of social science researchers\u201d who assist \u201claw enforcement, schools, government, and other public and private sector organizations to combat the ever-evolving threat of targeted violence,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Over decades, the NTAC has created desks in over a half-dozen Secret Service field offices<\/a>, staffed by domestic security strategists who conduct school visits and staff training that mostly focus on recognizing \u201cbehavioral\u201d traits that its study associates with mass violence. Last year alone, the NTAC touted<\/a> some 331 training sessions, and it brags that over the last five years, it has trained hundreds of thousands of school administrators and teachers. The demand for its assistance, the Secret Service says, is thanks in part to NTAC publications regarding threats to schools. In its most recent report<\/a>, \u201cImproving School Safety Through Bystander Reporting,\u201d the NTAC suggests schools encourage programs for students to report suspicious behavior, removing barriers that might impede any such tattletale reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor reporting programs to be a useful tool for intervention and prevention in K-12 schools, students and other members of a reporting community need to be aware of the importance of reporting, their role in reporting, what to report, and any resources that are available when it comes to reporting threats and other concerns,\u201d the NTAC report says. \u201cResearch finds that the fear of being ostracized, or experiencing other forms of retaliation, is a significant barrier to reporting. When students view reporting as \u2018snitching,\u2019 they are discouraged from coming forward with their concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another NTAC study<\/a>, \u201cAverting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools,\u201d studied nearly 70 averted attacks against schools, using demographic information to identify school shooters. Attributes tracked by NTAC include history of school discipline, contact with law enforcement, experience being bullied, mental health issues, alcohol and drug use, and the broadly defined psychological trauma \u201cimpacted by adverse childhood experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NTAC stresses that the goal of school monitoring of students and its suggested \u201csee something, say something\u201d practice is successful intervention. It is the same framework originally created to deal with international terrorism and now expanded to thwart domestic \u201cextremists<\/a>\u201d and government \u201cinsider threats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AP17228679127550-schools-ai-gun-detection-evolv.jpg\")