School shooters often signal what they're about to do

+ how nacho food dye helps see through skin US Edition - Today's top story: Georgia high school shooting shows how hard it can be to take action even after police see warning signs [View in browser]( US Edition | 6 September 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Food insecurity jumps to 9-year high]( - [Why cemeteries like Arlington have rules]( - [Got rizz? Try our weekly news quiz]( Lead story As education editor, I get a ton of proposals to do stories about how to prevent the next school shooting – which sadly seems to always be right around the corner. But I can’t take them all, and on the morning of Sept. 4, while rejecting a pitch on the topic, I encouraged the scholar to “remain vigilant for opportunities when the time seems right” to do another school shooting story. It didn’t take long, unfortunately, as two minutes after I had sent my reply, a teenage gunman allegedly opened fire in his math class at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, killing two students and two teachers. When these shootings happen, they may seem to come out of the blue – like the one this week. But the truth is, they’re almost always [precipitated by warning signs of some sort](, according to school shooting experts James Densley and Jillian Peterson, who have written several stories for The Conversation on the topic. The challenge, they write, is knowing how to recognize those signs and what to do when you see them. [ [Our most interesting science stories each week. Sign up for our weekly Science Editors’ Picks newsletter](. ] Jamaal Abdul-Alim Education Editor Students kneel in front of a makeshift memorial on Sept. 5, 2024, in front of Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., where two students and two teachers were shot and killed the day before. Jessica McGowan via Getty Images [Georgia high school shooting shows how hard it can be to take action even after police see warning signs]( James Densley, Metropolitan State University ; Jillian Peterson, Hamline University School mass shooters often display warning signs well before they open fire. How can schools and police take preventive action to save lives? Economy + Business - [US food insecurity rate rose to 13.5% in 2023 as government benefits declined and food prices soared]( Michael Long, Oklahoma State University; Lara Gonçalves, Oklahoma State University This trend may surprise you, given the attention the public, policymakers, politicians and the media paid to food insecurity at the height of the pandemic. 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Health + Medicine - [As eastern equine encephalitis spreads, a neurologist explains how to stay safe during this latest outbreak of the ‘triple E’ virus]( Daniel Pastula, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Among those developing the brain swelling known as encephalitis, approximately one-third will die, with the rest likely to experience neurological problems. Trending on site - [College students in Austin, Texas, have dwelled in windowless rooms for years − here’s why the city finally decided to ban them]( - [Trump’s die-hard support may be explained by one of his most misunderstood character traits – ‘charisma’]( - [India’s new mega-dam will roil lives downstream with wild swings in water flow every day]( The Conversation News Quiz 🧠- Here’s the first question of [this week’s edition:]( Vladimir Putin's visit to Mongolia on Sept. 2-3 was more notable for what didn't happen than what did. What didn't happen? - A. Putin didn't wear a shirt during a formal dinner - B. 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