Alarming Behaviour

Is this alarming behaviour? It’s 1998. Two teenagers are making a home video. They use coarse language but laughing at the same time. Perhaps this is not alarming behaviour, but it might be cause for concern in combination with other factors.

You probably know where this tragic story ends. On 20 April 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered twelve fellow students and a teacher and then committed suicide.


Fortunately, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s actions were aberrations. Perhaps this tragedy might have been prevented if all the pieces of the puzzle had been put together earlier. That is what this course is about: how to recognise alarming behaviour, how to discuss it with the student and, above all, how to share information both inside and outside your institution, to compile a complete picture of a situation.