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American Morning
Interview of William Pollack, Author of "Real Boys" Series
Aired January 07, 2002 - 09:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we have heard this morning, the Florida teenager who crashed his plane into a Tampa skyscraper may have been trying to reenact, in his own way, the 9-11 attacks. His suicide note is a disturbing reminder that so-called "copycat crimes" have become very common in this country, and those crimes, interestingly enough, are most often committed by young boys.
Our next guest has studied the psychology of boys, and written extensively about it in a series of books titled "Real Boys." Dr. William Pollack, its author, joins me now from Wash -- excuse me, from Boston. Welcome. Good to have you with us this morning, Doctor.
DR. WILLIAM POLLACK, AUTHOR OF "REAL BOYS" SERIES: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Doctor, I know there is not a lot of information out there about this young man, but fellow students described him as a very good student, a straight "A" student, a quiet boy. Earlier this morning, I spoke with the head of the flight school where he took lessons, and he was described as a polite young man.
What do you make of this profile that has surfaced so far?
POLLACK: Well, I think what it tells us is that there is no one profile of the young boy who is going to engage in a school shooting, or in a copycat activity, but there are aspects of their behavior that we may miss. They may look perfectly fine on the outside, but on the inside they may be seething with pain and hurt.
In the studies we've done on school shootings, and boys who have engaged in crimes, we find that many of them are suicidal, over three quarters of them may be depressed. That is not to allow what they do, these heinous acts, to be acceptable, but it means that there is something going on inside them that we don't hear, and the reason for that, that we found in our research, is that boys are pushed into a code of silence. They look nice, they smile, they say everything is okay, but inside they are in great pain and they are not allowed to express it, often the way girls are allowed to express it.
ZAHN: So Doctor, if this young man lived in these shadows, then you think it's -- easy for you to comprehend how out of the blue, seemingly, he could have committed this crime.
POLLACK: And it doesn't happen -- ZAHN: Or kill themselves in the process.
POLLACK: Absolutely, and most of these homicidal acts are actually suicidal acts as well, and it doesn't happen out of blue. I mean, it may take weeks, it may take months, but often it's what the Secret Service has pointed out to be targeted violence. In other words, that these boys know that they are going to engage in an act of violence because no one will listen to their pain, or their they are afraid to talk, or to connect to anyone.
In fact, boys who are connected to adults who can see the signs of bravado, disconnection, hurtfulness, will be helped, and the actions won't happen. Boys who are disconnected, or we say they look fine, then we find out a week later, well, in fact, they have been feeling down, disconnected, withdrawn for weeks but we didn't notice because they looked good on the outside.
ZAHN: Can you explain something else to us here this morning -- we -- once again, I spoke with the head of the flight school earlier this morning, and I asked him whether the student had at any point reacted to the 9-11 attack, and he said in fact he had, and he was very upset by them, and then we come to find out in the suicide note, he makes some sort of reference -- no one has a copy of this, but at least authorities have told us that he has some -- expresses some sort of empathy, or sympathy for Osama bin Laden. How can that be?
POLLACK: Well, there is an example, I mean, Paula, in the studies we did on school shooters. The Department of Education, and the Secret Service found that often the shooters had beforehand talked about a certain kind of pain, talked -- gotten in trouble before, spoken about similar incidents, and no one did anything about it.
So even though he expresses sympathy, what he is saying is, there is something about that event that is touching me inside, and someone better talk to me about it, and often with boys, we say "oh, boys will be boys," or "he seems like a nice kid, and let's forget about it," and we don't make that connection we need to make to protect him and to protect others before it is too late.
ZAHN: Well, I think your work has gone a long way on helping us better understand some of these very subtle signs that we as parents should be looking out for. Dr. William Pollack, thank you very much, and Dr. Pollack, I'm sure you will agree with this, hopefully at some point, we'll get some -- get greater insight into what happened from his mom.
POLLACK: I hope so, and we can study it then give it out to others. Yes.
ZAHN: Okay, thanks for joining us on day one of "American Morning." Dr. William Pollack joining us from Boston.
POLLACK: Thank you.
ZAHN: Appreciate your time.
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