A Violence Predictor Schools Should Heed

By Neal D. Barnard and Karen M. Pirozzi

Well before April's school shootings in Jefferson County, Colo., teachers, administrators, and parents struggled to find effective strategies against the wave of violence that has hit the nation's schools with tsunami force.

Peer-mediation and anger-management programs. Anti-bullying campaigns and parenting-skills training. Smaller schools, more psychologists, greater opportunities for counseling. These proposals and others, both concrete and philosophical, may prove effective in isolation or combination. But we can't ignore the tried and true as we seek the new and innovative. Identification of at-risk children remains a critical element of any plan to promote peace amid the chalkboards, desks, and lockers.

If we've learned anything from the common features of school shootings over recent years, we have learned their warning signals. One in particular has gone unheeded: abuse of animals. Whatever differences there may have been among Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Colorado, Kip Kinkel of Oregon, Andrew Golden of Arkansas, and Luke Woodham of Mississippi, they shared in common a history of killing and torturing animals before...