WNT: Transcript
Feb. 9 -- Cornell University professor James Garbarino talked with ABCNEWS' Bill Redeker about school violence. This is a transcrip of his interview.
James Garbarino: The biggest change is that kids around the country have a better appreciation that they have some responsibility for letting people know when they find out dark things about other kids and that is the surest way to prevent or thwart these things before they happen.
WNT: What is the impact of Columbine on school security?
James Garbarino: The impact was that it changed the conscientiousness of adults and kids all over the country. It's a bit like what happened with some of the high visibility child abuse cases. People, physicians, counselors who 40 years ago who worked with kids but never saw a child abuse case all of a sudden now can see it in front of their eyes.
The lens through which people view disturbing behavior on the part of kids has changed and that is why some of these incidents are coming to fruition.
WNT: At the same time, what has not changed among kids?
James Garbarino: What hasn't changed is the underlying dynamic that's producing the violence. That is, we have twice as many kids who are seriously troubled as we did 25, 30 years ago and those kids have access to a widerange of dark images, on the Internet, through the videos, video games. All that is a very dangerous combination which we are seeing week after week.
WNT: What's driving this pheomenon of kids trying to kill kids?
James Garbarino: I think that the underlying causes haven't changed because we really haven't done enough to provide mental health services in the schools and because the nastiness and viciousness of the imagery kids are exposed to. If anything, it has gotten worse. Some of these kids are idolizing Eric and Dylan and it's almost like a second generation of the dark side of adolescent culture coming about and we really haven't found an effective way to intervene and put a stop to it.
It's difficult to understand where such deep anger comes from considering so many of these kids are just barely in their teens.
