Catching the Copycats.

• Author: Butterfield, Fox
• Position: Students arrested for planning violence - Brief Article

In the aftermath of the killings at Santana High School in Santee, California, on March 5, one development has encouraged the experts: Further tragedies were averted. Eight students at five schools in Southern California were arrested for planning violent attacks after other students who had heard about their threats informed the authorities. Across the country, both before and after Santana, similar warning signs--ranging from menacing e-mails to bomb diagrams to guns at school--have come to light before they turned into deadly disasters (see "See Evil, Hear Evil, Speak Evil," News and Trends, 3/19/01).

The hope is that the Santee shootings, which left 2 students dead and 13 people injured, were an aberration in a new trend of students coming forward with information. Several students said...