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Happy birthday Nicholas L. Magistro!

Cruise continues despite suspected norovirus outbreak

<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; Don&#8217;t call them &#8220;active shooters.&#8221; They are mass murderers. Don&#8217;t publicize their names and faces; that&#8217;s their motivation. Armed officers in schools, lock down drills and police training sessions all improve school safety, but they address symptoms, not causes. And be prepared for worse, including mass killing on the school bus and in the day care center.</p><p>Those were some of the highlights of the opening address by retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. David Grossman during a school safety conference Monday. Passionate and quick with depressing numbers of those killed in school assaults, the creator of killology.com urged those present to be unsatisfied regardless of the success of safety precautions, and set the real blame primarily on &#8220;sick movies and sick video games.&#8221;</p><p>Grossman cited the 1999 killings in Columbine, Colo., when two students murdered 13 people. Writings by the two referred to the movie &#8220;Natural Born Killers,&#8221; which Grossman said they had watched multiple times &#8212; something impossible to do before the advent of VHS tapes and DVDs. He argued the rise in such killings coincides with the availability of violent games and movies.</p><p>&#8220;Please let&#8217;s stop calling these horrible mass murders shootings,&#8221; Grossman said. &#8220;Shooting is what happens on the range every day.&#8221; He also criticized the term &#8220;active shooter,&#8221; arguing the term applies to hunters as well as murderers, and killers have used knives and explosives as well as guns.</p><p>&#8220;Words have power,&#8221; Grossman said, suggesting failing to use the right words is a form of denial, avoiding the facts.</p><p>Grossman compared efforts to curb mass killings in schools with fire prevention, contending no school children have died in a school fire in the last 50 years because of money spent on fire-proof materials, pressurized sprinklers and automatic detectors and alarms, measures that &#8220;easily double the cost of construction.&#8221;</p><p>Yet similar efforts are not made to protect against violent crimes, Grossman said. Citing the 1984 killing of five people at a Jonesboro, Ark., middle school by two students who lured people out by opening a door and tripping a fire alarm, he said keeping doors locked is a fundamental safety precaution. But he also warned students should be able to get <em>into</em> a school quickly if something happens when they are outside for recess or a fire alarm drill.</p><p>Keeping guns out of the hands of children is important, Grossman said, &#8220;but it&#8217;s not what&#8217;s in their hands, it&#8217;s what&#8217;s in their heads and in their hearts.&#8221; To that end, he argued, potential killers shouldn&#8217;t see a way to succeed.</p><p>Along with locked doors, armed officers in schools, quick response by police and staff, preventing a successful massacre should include not giving so much media attention to mass killings.</p><p>&#8220;They do not want to die for nothing. They need a body count. They believe if they set a new record, they will get on the cover of Time,&#8221; Grossman said. &#8220;The media has blood on their hands every time they show us the names and faces of these killers.&#8221;</p><p>Grossman spent much of the day making presentations with regular breaks. His appearance was arranged with help from the Luzerne County School Safety Committee, a county-wide effort to address school violence and safety procedures. About 120 school and law enforcement officials attended.</p><p>Grossman concluded his opening remarks by focusing on how mass killings by juveniles have increased with the proliferation of violent games and movies, going from near zero decades ago to more than 60 killings in a single year in this country. He argued the killings have expanded as children exposed to violence get older, go to high schools and then colleges and predicted unless steps are taken there will be more such killings in more places, from day care to work settings.</p><p>&#8220;I pray I&#8217;m wrong,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">David Grossman, former Army Ranger and West Point pyschology professor, gives a lecture on new ways to prepare students and educators for school violence at the Mohegan Sun Casino &amp; Hotel Ballroom in Plains Township on Monday. 5/9/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL051016grossman1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>David Grossman, former Army Ranger and West Point pyschology professor, gives a lecture on new ways to prepare students and educators for school violence at the Mohegan Sun Casino &amp; Hotel Ballroom in Plains Township on Monday. 5/9/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL051016grossman2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">David Grossman, former Army Ranger and West Point pyschology professor, gives a lecture and Powerpoint presentation on new ways to prepare students and educators for school violence at the Mohegan Sun Casino &amp; Hotel Ballroom in Plains Township on Monday. 5/9/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL051016grossman2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>David Grossman, former Army Ranger and West Point pyschology professor, gives a lecture and Powerpoint presentation on new ways to prepare students and educators for school violence at the Mohegan Sun Casino &amp; Hotel Ballroom in Plains Township on Monday. 5/9/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Expert fears mass killings on school buses and in day care centers if changes are not made