"I don't like Mondays," Brenda Spencer explained to a reporter in 1979 regarding her gun rampage at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, CA, which left two adults dead and eight children and one adult injured. "This livens up the day."

Spencer was 16 when she became the first child to commit a deadly school shooting in contemporary America. She remains the only girl to have done so. She was ultimately convicted on two counts of murder, and is currently serving two 25-to-life sentences. She will be eligible for parole in 2005.

When Caitlin Kelly, a journalist who has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, started research for her new book Blown Away: American Women and Guns (Pocket Books, 2004), she hadn't heard Spencer's story. At the time, though, Spencer's rampage was a huge story, even inspiring a hit song, 'I Don't Like Mondays,' by the Boomtown Rats.

Since then, other school shootings have shaken our view of schools as safe havens, and Kelly says that in interviews with young women and men growing up since Columbine, many expressed the fear that something similar could happen to them. Here, she shares her findings and opinions with Connect for Kids:

Have you found any one set of sociological influences for a child that might indicate he or she would take out their aggression at school?

Youth and Violence A recent survey by the Families and Work Institute asked kids about the bullying and school violence connection. Many kids described teasing as very real violence to them—it is a trigger for the physical violence that almost half of them were found to endure. The study also found that young people who have been harmed are much more likely to harm others. Read more here.

Kids who are lonely and disconnected have little investment in the system, one that appears to care little about them. As someone who was badly bullied in high school for more than two years, I personally know what that feels like. You see adults responsible for your well being, such as teachers and administrators, watching you suffer day after day—and you feel totally powerless to stop the abuse and also know that no one will do it for you. I can see how a student at the end of their rope, with access to a firearm, could feel that the only way to make their point is through unimaginable violence. If you have not experienced the daily torture of feeling loudly and publicly abused and hated by your peers, it's hard to comprehend how painful and isolating it is. The combination of being persistently bullied—and the lack of adult caring active intervention —is not a good one.

Is school-related gun violence really a fear for many teens today?

"When you talk to teens, some are very fearful about guns in their schools —yet do not know what to do about it. They know that even with metal detectors at their school doors guns get into schools every day anyway. I suspect students feel impotent and frustrated. They must place their trust in adults to protect them—who appear unable or unwilling to do so effectively. This likely erodes their trust on other levels as well.

You and I go to work fairly confident that no one in the next cubicle or the elevator is carrying a gun. What if we knew some of our colleagues were packing.

Practically speaking—if a student does go on a shooting rampage within a school, where can you flee to for safety? I'm being serious. Hallways are narrow with almost nowhere to hide; classrooms offer nowhere to hide. The physical environment itself is not reassuring.

Do you think that teens in rural areas feel the same way?

I suspect they do not. Guns are often much more a normal, everyday part of life for rural teens who grow up going hunting with their families or "plinking"— shooting at tin cans or other objects—on their own land. If they grow up with a gun, or several, in the home, the firearm loses—or never gains—much of the mythic appeal it seems to offer some urban teens who feel they need it to protect their status or turf. For thousands of teens—110,000 in the 4-H program nationally—a gun is as unremarkable a household item as a toaster or frying pan. They are taught to treat it with respect and caution and to enjoy its responsible use.

How do parents influence their children's feelings towards guns?

Parents who own guns and use them responsibly can inculcate similar values and attitudes in their children; many of the girls and women I interviewed made it very clear they were taught never to play with guns, to handle them only with an adult present and/or to stay far away from any gun they encountered, in their home or elsewhere. I spoke to many teens who had been told from earliest childhood how serious a responsibility it is to own a firearm; they would face severe punishment if they disobeyed their parents' instructions on how and when to handle one.

I am more concerned about parents who hate and fear guns and pretend that it's a subject, because of their own antipathy, they need never discuss with their own children. I disagree with this approach. Responsible parents know they need to discuss a number of difficult issues with their children—sexual activity, alcohol use and drug use among them—and that shying away from these can create more problems. Simply because a parent is vehemently in favor of gun control in no way guarantees their children will feel no curiosity about guns, or even want to try shooting.

Openness on the topic and a frank discussion of what it can mean to own or use a gun, whatever your feelings, seems a smart choice. Kids are fully aware of guns in this culture—they are everywhere: television, films, videos, the news, even on the streets of your neighborhood, depending where you live. They want information. It's better to get it from their parents than from a friend with a 9mm in their backpack.

The subtitle of your book is 'American Women and Guns.' Why did you choose to focus a lot on women, and, more specifically, girls?

When people think of guns, they normally think of men. Guns are not typically considered a female preoccupation or subject of interest. Yet 17 million women own one. And thousands of women are affected by gun violence every year: husbands and sons commit suicide; criminal violence continues unabated; women are statistically likely to become crime victims, so often feel a much greater sense of physical vulnerability. Guns have been part of American culture from colonial days and women have been affected by them on many levels, even if they never touch one or own one. I wanted to explore the larger culture of violence against women and the gun's role in this.

Girls are tomorrow's women—and their attitudes and beliefs are essential to understand and talk about. Three women a day are killed by their male partners; young girls starting to form social and sexual relationships with the opposite sex need to understand when and where to exercise caution. They face enormous social pressure to date-and-mate, even when it is hazardous to them.

What have you learn about kids and guns that most surprised you?

I was intrigued by how much young girls and teens enjoy hunting and recreational shooting. While some people might find it politically incorrect for girls to enjoy gun use, there are many girls—33,000 through 4-H programs alone—who love to practice their skills. They also really enjoy sharing an activity with their dads and male relatives and friends that wins them respect, especially from men.

What struck me in studying the school shootings in the suburban schools was how lonely and angry the teens were—and that in 81 percent of cases, other students knew an attack was being planned and told no one. This is truly extraordinary to me and I have seen little media attention paid to this silent complicity. If you know a fellow student is planning a massacre, how can you possibly not speak up? I would be very interested to see further research into this. Is this a lack of trust in school authorities? In parents or other adults? A fear of retaliation from the students planning the attack? A fear that their suspicions would be dismissed or minimized?

What do kids you interviewed for the book think about gun laws? Is there any consensus?

We didn't discuss the laws as much as their personal experience of guns, good or bad. The overwhelming feeling I got from speaking to teens, whether the convicted criminals I interviewed or law-abiding teens, is a frustration with adult impotence in the face of a large, ongoing problem of gun violence. Like everyone, teens and kids want to feel safe. They look to adults to create and sustain schools, and a society, that protects them -- which it clearly does not. The lack of rational debate on safe gun use or ownership hurts our kids. It's our job to protect them, and failing to effectively deal with gun violence continues to endanger them. And they know it.

Resources:

The School Violence Resource Center provides links to model prevention programs operating around the country.

Two sample chapters of Caitlin Kelly's 'Blown Away'[ are available at blownawaythebook.com

This Education Week story looks at 'Columbine: Five Years Later'

Rob Capriccioso is a staff writer for Connect for Kids.