And while Congress is financing a national phone number for anonymous reporting of concerns about students, nearly all schools and the police have been given no training in assessing which people are planning an attack. We want to offer any assistance we can to prevent this from happening again. So the Secret Service has shed some of its secrecy, and begun forming the National Threat Assessment Center, the formal name of the team. Working from a warren of desks two blocks from the White House, the group of fewer than a dozen members has widened its research to celebrity stalking, then to workplace violence and now to school slayings. Seemingly far removed from presidential assassination, these rare events with powerful social consequences have several elements in common.
Killers study security.
They acquire weapons. They often study the history of assassination. They plan their escape or their death. The goal, agency officials say, is to develop training materials for police and school officials. Later this month the agency will convene a group of principals, counselors and other school officials in the Midwest to discuss its research.