December 27, 2001 Thursday

Shaken but Unharmed, Mass. School Says, 'The System Worked'

Pamela Ferdinand, Special to The Washington Post

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.

This is the nightmare: Five teenagers, guns smuggled in the folds of black trench coats, waiting for homeroom to let out. Waiting for teachers to dismiss 3,300 kids into the belly of a high school. Then detonating explosives and loading weapons, shooting as many people as bullets and agility permit, snapping photographs of the dead and grinning at the living. Damage inflicted, climbing to the roof and smoking marijuana, maybe dropping acid, before taking aim one last time. And firing at each other.

This is the reality: Five teenagers, very much alive, facing criminal charges of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of ammunition. Some of them saying it was all talk, this plot to perpetrate another Columbine, just words. And a high school, untouched but shaken, grateful it escaped becoming the nation's next infamous headline.

"We're celebrating a success that nothing happened," New Bedford High School Headmaster Joseph S. Oliver said on a recent weekday, as a video surveillance camera above his desk showed black-and-white images of empty hallways and locked doors during class period. "The system worked."

Other school districts nationwide, on alert to recognize warning signs of potential homicidal rampages, have turned their attention to New Bedford High. In a city where so much has gone wrong, many wonder, how did something go so right?

One reason may be that New Bedford, unlike other communities, had no illusions about the potential for violence and so was prepared for the worst.

"You can't have the feeling that it couldn't happen here. We're saying just the opposite: It could happen here," said Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. "What we were led to believe would work did work, and it prevented what could have been a horrific tragedy."

New Bedford began implementing extra security precautions at its public schools more than two years ago after two students calling themselves the "Trench Coat Mafia" killed a dozen peers and a teacher before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. But if this alleged plot looks as if it could have been a repeat of that crime, it would have taken place in an altogether different environment.

Unlike Littleton, a relatively affluent suburban Denver community, New Bedford is an industrial port city in perpetual economic crisis, where unemployment stands consistently 50 percent higher than the state average, the annual average income is below $ 30,000, and more than half the residents have not made it past eighth grade.

Sixty miles south of Boston, this city of about 93,000 has a heavily immigrant population and the largest fishing fleet on the Eastern Seaboard. Although it inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," New Bedford is also known as the origin of an unknown "Highway Killer" in the late 1980s and the barroom gang rape immortalized by Jodie Foster in the movie "The Accused."

A recent spate of gang-related shootings left several teenagers dead or wounded, and despite revitalization efforts including an arts revival and new businesses, narcotics are so prevalent that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration opened an office here last year.

"It's a city that has been in economic decline for half a century, and nobody has yet hit the formula to solve that problem," said Clyde Barrow, director of the University of Massachusetts' Center for Policy Analysis in nearby Dartmouth. "The high school, in many respects, is a reflection of the city."

New Bedford High School is the second-largest in the state, stretching for one-fifth of a mile. Despite its size, hallways are immaculate, and student movement is orderly. One-quarter of the students are nonwhite, and many come from low-income, single-parent households. Parental involvement is limited; at one open house this year, only 20 people showed up.

Last spring, New Bedford police seized a sawed-off shotgun from the home of a 15-year-old junior high school student who threatened to kill a teacher and was arrested. A month later, an 18-year-old New Bedford High student was arrested after police found explosives and machine gun bullets in his home.

By then, administrators were being supplied with two-way radios, classroom intercoms and crisis management plans. About 100 video cameras were installed. New Bedford police received building blueprints, and the SWAT team conducted simulations in the school after hours. School officials attended violence prevention workshops, and in September, two police officers began working full time inside the school.

"All of this was already done," said New Bedford Public Schools Superintendent Joseph S. Silva Jr. "This was already in place."

Law enforcement authorities have learned in recent years that encouraging students to share information with adults is an important key to averting school violence. A Department of Education study found that in almost three-quarters of 37 school shootings since 1974, the assailants divulged their plans, often to peers.

The first rumor of a massacre at New Bedford High School surfaced in mid-October when a student told one of the school resource officers, Willie Coates, that he had overheard a 16-year-old classmate talking about shooting students and teachers because he was "sick of all the jocks and preppies making fun of the way he dressed."

Coates spoke to the teenager, who accused another youth of masterminding a murder scheme and trying to recruit him, according to a police incident report. That youth denied he was plotting anything.

"We didn't jump to any conclusions," said school resource officer Stephen Taylor. "We're not in the business of ruining kids' lives."

As Taylor and Coates continued to investigate, they heard a similar rumor among other students. The investigation was propelled forward after a teenage girl confided in her favorite teacher.

Amylee Bowman, then a troubled 17-year-old who aspired to join the Marines, had come to regard her English instructor as a mother figure and increasingly began to fear for her safety, police records indicate.

Rachel Jupin, who has six children of her own, is the type of strict teacher with a soft touch students visit at home after school. She took Bowman to church on Sundays and began to sense the teenager was upset. In early November, Jupin told a school administrator that Bowman had warned her of a plot to harm students and teachers.

The school resource officers contacted Bowman, but she told them that if she leaked information, "she would have to move to another country." But the next day, Bowman broke down in Jupin's kitchen and told her the rumor was true.

Bowman, who had transferred to another school, confessed to police that she had been involved in a murder plot planned for the next school year, according to an incident report. Students would shoot as many people as possible in a military-style operation captured by the hallway video cameras. When it was over, they planned to party on the rooftop, then kill one another, Bowman told police.

"She didn't want anyone hurt. She didn't want me hurt. She didn't want any of the kids hurt," Jupin said in an interview at her home.

Soon after, a janitor found a threatening note that mentioned a Monday and weapons being loaded in L.L. Bean backpacks. Police made three arrests that Saturday, Nov. 24. Two other suspects, including Bowman, turned themselves in later that week. The five included the two boys who had first been questioned about the alleged plot.

Investigators also seized ammunition, knives, Nazi photographs, bombmaking recipes and drug paraphernalia from several suspects' homes, court documents show. In one 15-year-old's bedroom, police took pictures of graffiti showing the initials T.C.M. (Trench Coat Mafia), "I hate the world," "everyone must die" and "kill everyone." In the bedroom of another 15-year-old boy, they found a hangman's noose and a gas mask. No weapons linked to the alleged plot have been recovered, police said.

In a tape-recorded interview with police that prosecutors played in court, an alleged plotter said he wanted the death toll to surpass Columbine.

"Just to see what the shock would be of New Bedford. Just shooting, killing. Just to see the publicity. See how big it would get," said Eric McKeehan, 17. He added that he had changed his mind when he and his younger brother realized they would wind up dead or in jail.

McKeehan was released on bail and placed on house arrest. Bowman also was released and placed on probation. Two of the juveniles remain in custody. Another awaits psychological testing. All maintain their innocence.

Massachusetts law defines "conspiracy" as a meeting of minds that does not require an overt act. In this case, the murder plot was "very real, very serious, very dangerous," said Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.

But friends of the five adolescents say the alleged plot never would have happened. Recently at "the Corner," a gathering spot behind the school, the group played hackysack, smoked cigarettes and sang. One girl said students had threatened to kill her. Others said they are increasingly harassed.

"Just because they were talking about Columbine doesn't mean they would do it," said Tim Roberts, 16, a sophomore.

The kids were all guilty of just "being stupid," said a defendant's mother.

"It's venting by some angry, frustrated teenagers who just wanted to be left alone and not be picked on by other groups at the high school," said W. Alan Zwirblis, a public defender representing McKeehan. "You just say the word 'Columbine,' and people are going to get nervous and people are going to get scared. I don't see any real substance to the so-called plot."

Nonetheless, an entire community got the jitters. Immediately after the arrests, 40 percent of the students -- more than 1,300 kids -- stayed home. After McKeehan was allowed to return home with an electronic monitoring device, 100 students walked out in protest. City officials hired a public relations firm while school administrators consider whether to introduce metal detectors and identification cards.

"I told my children they basically have to be very aware of their surroundings, and if they feel any way in danger or uncomfortable, they have to leave the school," said Marie Amaral, whose 17-year-old son led the walkout. "They have my permission to leave."