Protecting students against violence
By LAURA WILCOX
November 15, 2006
The Mulkilteo Beacon
Olympic View Middle School is ahead of the game when it comes to student safety.
“The recommendations I make to most schools are already in place at Olympic View,” school resource consultant Martin Speckmaier told a recent Safety Forum at the school.
Consultant Speckmaier of Comprehensive School Safety, LLC – which provides advice and training to schools – says the latest and most alarming school-specific safety issues include weapons, bullies, targeted violence and a resurgence of youth gangs.
The forum’s purpose was to examine ways to help at-risk kids before it’s too late. In the last decade alone the number of targeted acts of violence – like the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 – has risen dramatically.
“The No. 1 finding in these cases is that the kids are not crazy and didn’t just snap,” Speckmaier said. “The act is an understandable – but certainly not condonable – reaction to risk factors in their lives.”
Risk factors include being bullied or harassed, not having meaningful adult relationships, not having an adult role model, and not having a real connection with school, family and society.
“This is what it’s all about – getting together before something happens,” the consultant said. He also warns that these risk factors can lead to another problem: gang involvement.
Resurgent gang activity has been a fact of life in recent years. Why?
Consultant Speckmaier said that when gangs were big in the 1980s, law enforcement put many of the members behind bars.
Result: decreased gang activity. However, he adds, those same gang members are now getting back out.
And with more immigration and what he calls “gentrification,” the poorer people are pushing into the suburbs.
So why might your child be at risk?
“Gang activity looks exciting for the some kids,” he said. “It’s glamorized.”
Before becoming a school resource consultant, Martin Speckmaier served as a police officer for 20 years, retiring in 2005. His police work included sexual assault investigations and criminal and narcotics investigations.
 “I used to have a ‘whack ‘em and stack ‘em’ attitude,” he said. “But after my work with several high schools, I now believe in prevention and intervention.”
Mayor Joe Marine, who was also present at the forum, thanked the parents in attendance for being there, “Your active participation is very commendable. It’s too bad the parents who need to be here aren’t here.”
The mayor also encouraged parents to talk to each other, “It’s not often people are caught in the act, but because a neighbor saw or found something,” he said.
Speckmaier said middle school is the perfect time to target troubled youth and reconnect them.
Martin Speckmaier can be contacted at (206) 853-2593.
The Comprehensive School Safety website is at www.school-safety-intervention.org.