In the jittery two days after the deadly shootings at Santana High School, at least 11 California students were arrested and several more suspended for reportedly making threats against classmates or bringing real or fake weapons to schools.
Arrests--in Orange County, the Inland Empire and elsewhere in the state and nation--were made as teachers, students, parents and authorities sought to head off copycat violence after Monday's shooting in which a 15-year-old freshman killed two and wounded 13.
In Pennsylvania, an eighth-grade girl was arrested after shooting and wounding a classmate at a small parochial school 180 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Police said the episode stemmed from a long-standing grudge between the two girls.
On campuses in California and nationwide, the threats and arrests put students on edge.
"I have a feeling they are going to shoot up the school," said Randa Brinkley, 14, a freshman at a Riverside County high school where an arrest was made. "I'm kind of worried."
Psychologists and school officials said they were not surprised that the shooting at Santana High School might have spawned "copycat" threats or increased reporting of such threats.
But experts said a shooting like the one at Santana alone is not likely to make a child turn violent unless the youngster is already on the edge of despair.
It "opens the gate for those already thinking about walking through it," said William Pollack, a psychologist who teaches at Harvard Medical School.
Peter Sheras, associate director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project at the University of Virginia, said: "The desire to be known and visible promotes some of these copycat cases."
The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado spawned hundreds of copycat threats. In the four weeks after the shootings, more than 350 students were arrested on charges relating to threats against schools, school officials or students.
Among the incidents reported by authorities in California and elsewhere:
* At Perris High School in Riverside County, a 15-year-old boy was led off in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon after threatening to outdo the Columbine assailants. Officials said he had a 6-inch knife in his pocket. They said the student had boasted that he had learned to make bombs on the Internet and had scrawled swastikas on churches.
