Colt Gray attacked Apalachee High School on 4 September 2024.

However, one week before the attack his family contacted the school and stated that they were worried about his mental health. In text messages between family members they describe Colt as having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts.”

His mother, Marcee Gray, stated that she told the school she wanted, “Colt to be admitted to an impatient treatment.”

She also stated that, ”Colt was on board with it.”

Deborah Polhamus, Colt Gray’s grandmother personally met with a school counselor the day before the attack and requested help.

After the visit, she texted a relative and said, “The boy starts with the therapist tomorrow.”

Why is this important:

Gray was supposed to start therapy on the same day that he attacked the school. Is there a connection or is it just a coincidence?

When we insert ourselves into the lives of dangerous students we are also by default inserting ourselves onto their path to violence. We hope that our positive efforts will slow them down, provide stability, and get them to move backwards instead of forward on the Path to Violence.

However, sometimes the school attacker will get nervous or afraid that the increased assistance and intervention is going to prevent them from carrying out their plan or that they’re going to be found out and stopped and miss their chance. So instead of slowing down they speed up.

Did this happen with Colt Gray?

It’s well known that people who feel they are out of options are more dangerous. It’s certainly the case with animals—don’t ever corner an animal because they are more likely to attack you.

Gray’s family contacted the school one week before the attack. They requested he be put in inpatient treatment. His grandmother visited the school one day before the attack and was able to get therapy scheduled for the next day.

Without a doubt, Gray was coming under intense scrutiny, more accountability, and tighter control—all of which he needed!

But to Gray, did it feel like he was running out of options—being cornered?

For the record, his family did the right thing. I will always side on the side of action and engagement, but we must consider how the student sees our intervention.

Kip Kinkle was also on the Path to Violence. He was planning and preparing to attack his school. He was found with a gun in school and everyone intervened in his life. They all did the right thing, but did Kip see it as if he was quickly running out of options?

The same day his gun was discovered, Kinkle murdered his parents after he overheard his father trying to enroll him in a military academy. The next day he attacked his high school. He was never planning to attack the day he did—that was never his plan. He sped up.

Did the same thing happen with Gray?

Important points to remember:

1. Try to See it From Their Point of View.

I was a cop, our one son was a cop, another son is a cop, and still my wife cries if she’s pulled over. She’s lived her entire life around them but to her, police officers can be scary.

Many people might not believe it, but for some young people and their families—principals, teachers, counselors, and social workers can be scary. Especially when they’re all together in one room and you’re sitting across the table from them after you’ve screwed up.

Parents can be scary.

Whether the student and the family has a valid reason to be afraid or no reason at all, we must consider how they see us and those trying to help. For students who are on the Path to Violence, it’s especially important to know because it could determine if and when they attack.

Just take a moment and ask yourself—how do they see it—how do they see my help?

If you can, try to do anything and everything to lower fear and anxiety while increasing clarity, support, and hope.

2. Give Options:

If you can, try to give options. This is a good strategy to use with any student, but especially for those who we feel are on the Path to Violence.

For example, a student comes into your office for any reason—give them options. You can sit in that chair or that chair. You can stand or sit. You can talk to me or Mrs. Sanders. The thing to remember about giving options is that you only give options that are 1) safe and 2) acceptable to you.

If the student needs to sit down, they need to sit down, but I really don’t care which chair they sit in. I want them to feel like they still have some options or control over their lives—even if it’s only a little bit.

If I need to have a student hand over their backpack, because it’s the safest thing for everyone, then the student must hand it over. However, I’d first try, “You can put your backpack on that chair or on my desk—which would you prefer?”

People tend to do better emotionally when they have options. If you can, give them options.

3. Go Fast and Don’t Stop:

The moment that a threat is observed, reported, or discovered; you’ve inserted yourself onto the potential path to violence. Go fast and don’t stop!

The threat may think you’re just minutes away from stopping them and therefore they may expedite their attack. Even though the truth is that you’ve gone home because it’s 11:30pm and you have no idea who wrote the threat on the bathroom wall.

Because they may feel like they’re out of options, go fast and don’t stop.

4. Adjust your security measures.

If you send a student home, don’t be afraid to adjust your security measures.

The last thing they saw was how you have things set up. If they are on the Path to Violence then they would have planned and prepared to defeat those policies and procedures. If you can, make adjustments such as adding additional personnel outside in the parent and bus loop, park the SRO’s cruiser in a different spot, have the bus drivers step out of their buses and stand by the door as the students are getting out, and be much more visible!

After a school attack in another state, I pulled a table up to the main doors and sat there all day. I drank coffee, did my reports, and personally opened the door for every person entering the building. I greeted them, talked to them, and answered questions.

If the threat returns to the building, the goal is to show them that things have changed and it’s not like it was when they left. It’s going to be harder now. You hope that it will force them to delay their attack because now they have to plan again or you give them such a strong message of ownership that they believe they won’t be successful and don’t even try.

If you do this you will also send a strong message to your staff that you’ve got this, you’re taking it seriously, and you’re taking the necessary steps to prevent it.

5. Include the parents.

There is a long list of parents, wives, and other family members who were murdered first, before their loved one attacked the school. Please include the parents in your safety plan. Do whatever you can to make sure they are also safe.

I wish we knew how Colt Gray saw his intervention. I think it’s important in understanding what happened at Apalachee High School. Did he see it the way we saw it, as loving help, or did he see it as if he was quickly running out of options and had to act right now?

If I’m not being clear, let me say it once again—it is never wrong to respond, intervene, and attempt to manage students who may be on the Path to Violence. In fact, we have a duty and obligation to do so. We just need to be careful how we do it because these are not normal students. These students are planning and preparing to conduct a mass murder and what do, or don’t do, may make all the difference in when or if they try it.

Engage, engage, engage—just be prepared, committed, and mindful.

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