Despite the tragic school shootings we've read and heard about in the past few years, fewer than 1 percent of homicides among school-age youth are associated with school, according to the Center For Disease Control's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. For young children, home is a far more dangerous place, with adult family members posing the greatest threat of injury and death. Indeed, many children who act out violently are signaling that they have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect. In young children, excessive and continuous anger, frequent temper tantrums, irritability, impulsiveness, inability to tolerate even minor frustrations and aggressive behavior, including habitual fighting, must be taken seriously. And being cruel to animals, setting fires, destroying property, being obsessed with violent media or habitually making violent threats when angry are always red flags.
Many children have resilient personalities.
Children with such problems often need a multilevel intervention. It didn't happen. Later, charged with arson in an apartment-building fire, he was remanded to the juvenile corrections system. Community involvement can work, too. Even simple steps can help.