Northeast Community College hosted safety training geared toward school administrators, instructors and teachers from a nationally recognized expert on keeping schools safe.
Phil Chalmers, who is an American criminal profiler from Florida, spoke Friday, April 11, at two sessions at the Lifelong Learning Center on campus. Chalmers discussed a range of topics from ways to enhance safety to characteristics of people who have been responsbile for mass killings.
While it is complicated when it comes to things that school shooters have in common, some of the characteristics include someone who has been bullied, has a violent father figure or no father, is attracted to violence such as in video games, uses illegal drugs or alcohol, and may suffer from depression or mental illness.
Chalmers has interviewed hundreds of convicted killers, including school shooters and mass killers. Often these people come across as nice or blend in, hiding their motives.
His training is used across the country for law enforcement, the FBI and others. Many of the photos he showed were gruesome, which he shows to help school officials understand how these types of events unfold and how quickly they can occur. Many of the incidents are preventable, and he advises people to be more polite to one another.
These shootings happen everywhere from rural areas to heavily populated areas and can happen within “nice families.” Often there are signs, including warnings on social media or things the person said prior to the incidents, Chalmers said.
Safety training
Phil Chalmers held two training sessions geared toward educators at the Lifelong Learning Center in Norfolk on Friday, April 11. The national criminal profiler was in the region last week to help educate school officials and law enforcement about school shootings and serial killers. The event was made possible from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant. (Northeast Community College)
###