单项选择题

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SANTEE, CALIF -- When news broke about the mayhem and killing at Santana High School, Charles Williams frantically dashed to the school to make sure his 15-year-old son wasn’t hurt. As he searched the chaotic tableau of sobbing teens and panicked parents, Williams called a girl, "Do you know where Andy is" Her quiet reply: "With the cops."
Until that moment, Williams apparently had no idea what his son, Charles Andrew, had planned to that morning when he left their small apartment in this town northeast of San Digeo. But, sadly, others had a clue. The teen had bragged to several friends and at least one adult, 29-year-old Chris Reynolds, about his scheme to shoot his classmates. Some of his friends thought it was simply bluster from a kid. Yet two of them were so concerned that they patted Williams down that morning. They didn’t go far enough to find his father’s 22-caliber, long-barrel revolver in Williams’s yellow backpack.
Bombs and hit lists. Even before last week’s shooting, the collective culture had been changing. Last month, potential disasters were foiled in schools from New York to California because students reported their concerns. Just days after the Santana High School shooting, students tipped off police who arrested a handful of kids at several other California schools for allegedly making threats that included plotting to put a bomb on a teacher’s desk and drawing up a hit list of 16 students. "The climate is changing where young people are more willing to report threats, but that change is happening slowly." says Ron Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center. "Santee is certainly a lesson in that. We must continually work with young people about why it is in their interest to come forward."
That’s tough task, considering children are taught almost from kindergarten, not to tattle. No one wants to be an informer, but as Tom Hall, San Diego schools security chief, says, "We’ve got to get kids to understand that there is a proper time to tell. "A recent Secret Service study found that in more than three quarters of school shootings, the attacker told someone, almost always a peer, about his plan beforehand. Only twice out of 37 cases did that kid tell an adult. "We as lay people, kids and adults, don’t need to make the decision about whether someone is joking," says Marceta Reilly, superintendent of the Kansas school district where a student last month turned in three teens for an alleged plot to blow up the school. "It is important to turn it over to someone who can investigate it properly."
Overall, school violence is down, despite the outpouring of high-profile shootings that often produce imitators including many after Santee. No one wanted to take any chances in Elmira, N. Y. , where the entire town has worked to prevent another Columbina. Last month, students noticed an 18-year-old student acting oddly on the bus. After students told school authorities, an officer found 18 pipe bombs and a sawed-off shotgun in a green bag and a 22-semiautomatic pistol folded in his trousers. "We’ve tried to foster a new attitude: This is not snitching", says Chemung County District Attorney John Trice. "These are kids who have decided, ’I don’t want anyone to get hurt.’"
Bullies. Some classmates described Andy Williams as a friendly, quiet kid. But others said he was deeply troubled, disturbed by the separation from his mother, who had been divorced from his father for about 10 years. The youngster was also a frequent target of bullies. Experts believe the Santee shooting will fuel a redoubling of anti-bullying efforts that began after Columbina. Colorado is working on a bill that would require all schools to develop bully-prevention plans. A new law requires New Hampshire school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies. Oregon is considering a bill that would ban bullying.
Some parents and civil libertarians may worry that the Santee shooting will renew zeal for Columbina-inspired, but much criticized, zero-tolerance policies. Already last week, stories of students being suspended or arrested -- some turned in by fellow teens--were coming in from across the nation. And the schools’ new credo: Silence isn’t golden.
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