Lessons Not Learned

How the Oxford school massacre could have been stopped

- By Mark Follman

FAILING EFFORT

WHEN A 15-YEAR-OLD sophomore opened fire at Oxford High School last fall, terrified students and teachers fled for safety or barricaded classroom doors. Within three minutes of arriving at the building, police apprehended the shooter, but not before four students had been fatally shot: Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Justin Shilling, and Hana St. Juliana. Six other teens and a teacher were wounded. Countless others in Oxford Township, a community of 22,000 just north of Detroit, were traumatized.

Evidence emerged almost immediately that the alleged shooter had been signaling rageful intent to peers and adults around him-warning signs of a bloodbath that could have been avoided. I've tracked mass shootings for Mother Jones for the past decade and researched scores of cases for my new book, Trigger Points, which explores behavioral threat assessment, an emerging prevention method whereby mental health and law enforcement experts work together to intervene with people who are planning violence. By treating mental health problems and improving would-be attackers' educational, employment, or living circumstances, threat assessment teams have prevented dozens of potential shootings at schools and workplaces throughout the country, including a variety I learned about from leaders in the field and confidential case files.