MSNBC - May 1999 - By Craig Staats

May 21 - After every school shooting, students, teachers and parents wonder why. An educational software firm is offering a free, on-line survey that it says could help schools diagnose problems before bullets fly.

The San Francisco-based firm, Ripple Effects, which specializes in technology-based training software, announced a free, Web-based "School Safety Profiler" Friday that it says can help schools find if they have underlying problems that could lead to violence like in Littleton, Colo., or Conyers, Ga.

"Some schools are putting a lot of resources into metal detectors to see who's carrying guns to school," said Ripple Effects President Alice Ray. "That's awfully late in the equation to try to stop violence."

The survey-designed to identify known warning signs of potential violence-covers five areas: discipline and school climate, respect for people, including ones perceived as different, the presence of drugs or alcohol and the presence of or access to weapons.

Both students and educators can see the results for their school, and can compare educator and student perceptions.

Schools that participate get an on-line report, complete with bar graphs, showing how students and teachers answer the questions. Eventually the firm plans to add some analysis too, summarizing what it thinks the results show.

Sarah Berg, Ripple Effects' vice president, said teachers and students in three or four school districts already are logging on to complete the on-line survey. "It's a medium kids trust," Berg said.

Since the Littleton shooting the company has seen more interest in its' software, she said "we keep hearing from schools that needed a way to find out what their problems were," Berg said. "I think people very much want to know what they can do to prevent these things, beyond just metal detectors."

Along with the "School Safety Profiler," the company offers learning software designed to help teenagers. One program - "Ripple Effects for Teens," is designed to adolescents cope with their problems and build social and emotional skills.

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