February 21–28, 2002

news

Kiddie Profiling

A DOJ-trained expert says bad kids can be spotted early and should be weeded out.

by Daryl Gale

The profiler: Dale Yeager says his system can identify problem children as young as 6. photo: Christina M. Felice

The statistics are ugly, but not surprising. According to data compiled by the Los Angeles County-based National School Safety Center, 30 percent of school-aged children are involved in bullying, either as victim or perpetrator. One out of three say they don’t feel safe at school, one in five high school boys took a weapon to school last year and 43 percent of high school boys say it’s OK to threaten someone if they make you angry. Just last month, a 12-year-old special education student at Penn Wood West Junior High School in Delaware County was allegedly raped in her classroom. Five of her classmates have been charged with sexual assault, and one has pleaded guilty. Can our schools ever be safe?

Yes, says Dale Yeager, although he admits that his solution is just as controversial as the problem and can be summed up in just one word with far-reaching connotations: profiling.

Yeager, a criminal analyst and Department of Justice-trained criminal profiler, runs Seraph, a security consultancy based in Berwyn, Pa. Yeager worked on both the JonBenet Ramsey and Columbine cases, and he’s trained law-enforcement officers for 10 years in spotting criminals. He’s even testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the issue of school violence, and he’s convinced that some of the same methods used to identify adult predators can be used to identify potentially violent kids as young as 6, even before they display any overt violent behavior.

"Profiling has gotten a bad rap lately, but the concept is based on good scientific principles," Yeager says. "It’s been corrupted in recent years by people with biases adding the issue of race, which is never a factor in real profiling. We’re looking at behavior patterns and human sociology, not skin color or nationality. The purpose is to better train teachers, administrators and school-security personnel in spotting not only weapons and drugs, but to be able to spot troubled kids and know what kind of trouble they’d get into."

Yeager says that we first need to drop the notion that no child should be left behind. He says it’s going to happen, and it should.

"We have to admit that some kids belong in the juvenile justice system, and not feel compelled to ‘mainstream’ children who pose a clear threat to classmates and teachers. The bad apples must be taken out. And while there certainly are environmental and societal factors that can determine aggressive behavior, the fact is that some people are just prone to violence."

According to Yeager, the bad apples can be lumped into two easily defined groups: the sociopaths, violent instigators who run the cliques and gangs and motivate others to acts of violence, and the psychopaths, loners who lash out violently out of anger or revenge. He says that the teens who shot their classmates at Columbine were social outcasts whose only friends were each other. Constantly teased and harassed, they fit the classic profile of potential psychopaths long before they brought guns to school. The idea, Yeager says, is to identify the gangs and cliques and their leaders, and to monitor and isolate the troublemakers.

"Violent kids must be extracted from the school environment before their behavior escalates," he says. "We can strike a balance between punitive and psychiatric action for them, and see that they get the help they need. That could include counseling, being placed in a discipline school or any number of interventions that have been proven to work. But the key, the big key, is to intervene early and force these kids to face reality and the consequences of their bad behavior as soon as possible. Chances are, if we don’t get these kids help before the age of 12, they’re going to be beyond our capacity to change. There’s only about a 35-percent chance, at best, that a violent child won’t become a violent adult, and that number decreases every year past the age of 9 or 10."

To that end, Yeager and his associates at Seraph have come up with a system of "instant profiling," which he says can help identify problem children as young as 6 and only takes a few minutes of being around the child. Instant profiling looks at the child’s body language, demeanor and interpersonal skills, adds "red flag" factors such as bed-wetting, starting fires or abusing animals, and determines how likely the child is to become a problem at school. Then, he says, administrators can step in and get the child started in counseling right away. He’d like to train 50 educators, administrators, counselors and school-safety officers from each state in his method, with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Justice.

"The DOJ has $45 million set aside for school safety," Yeager says. "The money is already in place, it’s just that school safety is a hot-button political issue, and teachers unions and school administrators are loath to admit that their people need training in this area. Sadly, the only reason we’re not doing this now is political pressure, money and power."

Those aren’t the only reasons, says Frank Cervone, executive director of the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia. The center is a pro bono program run by lawyers and dedicated to serving abused and neglected children. Cervone, who is also a law professor at Villanova, says that the idea of profiling kids is a dangerous one, considering the potential for abuse and litigation.

"We work with kids every day who would fit Mr. Yeager’s ‘profile,’" Cervone says. "These kids have been exposed to violence themselves in the home or in their neighborhoods, and have behavioral problems, some very serious. What these kids need is specialized therapy, to be sure, but the fact is that we as a society are failing to serve the kids we’ve identified already, let alone new cases. Add a lack of family involvement, the thin support of the school system when it comes to cases like these, and throw in a hot-button word like ‘profiling,’ and it’s a recipe for legal disaster."

Cervone says the answer is not in the identification of troubled kids, but in the support system for dealing with them.

"Right now, the answer is to expel bullies, but all that does is deny the bully a chance at a decent education, perhaps turning his life around. Chaining a kid to a post in the middle of the schoolyard so that he doesn’t hit other kids keeps the kids from getting hit, but it doesn’t address the problem of why the bullying started in the first place. The answer is to treat them as kids with problems that can be fixed, not treat them as potential criminals just waiting their turn."

Paul Hansen, spokesman for the School District of Philadelphia, says that the district isn’t familiar with Yeager or his methods, and it would therefore reserve comment until it knows more. Others are not so reticent about giving an opinion.

Hilda Quiroz, program developer of the National School Safety Center, heartily agrees with Cervone’s assessment, and she questions whether the powers that be can be trusted to implement any system of profiling fairly.

"Every school system wants to do right by their children, but profiling is a slippery slope," Quiroz says. "Can we trust the school system and law enforcement to use it fairly and impartially? As a former special ed teacher myself, I’m afraid some kids with simple learning disabilities will be misidentified and lumped in with kids who are violent. In fact, most teachers and administrators can already identify problem students without fancy profiling methods. The challenge is to strengthen the system of dealing with these children in ways that don’t harm their potential for good later on. I’m afraid it’s in the very real world of lawsuits and courtrooms that you’ll see this profiling thing played out."

Yeager says he has considered that possibility but says the issue is too important to hesitate on because of fear of potential protests or lawsuits.

"Our society must stand up to these kids and those who would shelter them as opposed to their victims," Yeager says. "There may be some protests, but someone has to step up to the plate. Violent kids do not become nonviolent adults."