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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Scott Sells

Aired April 27, 2002 - 17:04   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Overseas now, and the aftermath of a deadly shooting spree at a high school in Germany. The city of Erfurt is struggling to come to terms with the shooting rampage yesterday. A 19-year-old student, who was expelled, fatally shot 16 people before turning the gun on himself. CNN's Chris Burns has the update now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grim procession of bodies from Johann Gutenberg high school, most of them teachers -- one-fourth of the school's teaching staff. Authorities say the 19- year-old gunman failed his college entrance exams last year and was expelled for pending fake doctor notes to skip school. They say he was obviously on a specific mission when he came back with two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

There were relatively few wounded in one of the world's worst school massacres, because, authorities say, the gunman was shooting to kill. "It was clear he was aiming at teachers," he says. "Many shots were head shots. He was obviously trained."

The training came from not one, but two firing ranges the youth belonged to. Authorities say he legally registered the guns and managed to amass ammunition.

Terinjia's (ph) conservative governor says he expects a debate over gun control, but he argues not to overreact to a freak incident.

"A lot of people have weapons," he says, "but most criminals don't have legal weapons."

On the streets, there are calls for even tougher gun laws.

"In any case, youth shouldn't get their hands on weapons so easily," says this man. "I can't understand how he could get those weapons. You see it in America and everywhere else. But it's terrible, terrible," he says.

Meanwhile, Erfurt remains in deep mourning. Friends and loved ones pay their respects. Among officials joining in, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. Officials are calling for a minute of silence Monday to remember those who died. (on camera): Authorities say they've yet to find a suicide note, and they're not ruling out that there could have been an accomplice. If it isn't easy deciphering this massacre, at least there's hope authorities can prevent the next one.

Chris Burns, CNN, Erfurt, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Now, what motivates kids to lash out in such a deadly way? Here to answer some of those questions with me now is Scott Sells, he is a family and marriage therapist and author of "Parenting Your Out of Control Teenager." Thanks very much, and here's the cover of the book right there. Thanks so much for joining us, Scott.

SCOTT SELLS, AUTHOR, "PARENTING YOUR OUT OF CONTROL TEENAGER": Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, what makes this so particularly tragic is so often we hear people say they really didn't see it coming. Yet at the same time, there seem to be common denominators. Not only the Germany case, but even in Columbine and even Pearl, Mississippi -- revenge seems to be what brings these kids to such tragic results.

SELLS: It is. And there's also, you know, what's happening that's an epidemic is a real loss of connection. These kids, almost their soul is being murdered because there's just not a lot of love in the family, a lot of nurturing. This kid was kicked out of school, so you also have that situation of rejection. And there's a code of honor on the streets right now where if kids get rejected, they want to retaliate. It's become an epidemic.

WHITFIELD: So it almost seems that so many parents and teachers feel like they're powerless, because unless they have open lines of communications with their kids, a lot of times these parents or the adult figures in these kids' lives don't even know that they're feeling so rejected.

SELLS: Exactly. I mean, parents are telling me all the time, they still love their kid but no longer like them anymore. And right now what it takes a village to raise a kid, and what we're finding is that parents are so disconnected with their kids. And there's a lot of lack of softness in the relationship. And right now in Loudon County, we're developing a parenting program that reaches every kid, and on difficult.net people are really going to for resources.

WHITFIELD: So how do you reach your kid? How do you try to open up those lines of communication, find out what is troubling you?

SELLS: Well, the first thing is of course communication, but also the other thing is that right now parents only spend eight minutes a day with their kid on the average, with the TV off and pure social chatting. And right now parents have no contracts at home, so there's no direction. So parents are always off the cuff. Their buttons are being pushed constantly, and also kids are saying to me all the time if the parents come down too hard on them, they may call child protective services. It's just becoming an epidemic.

WHITFIELD: And so at this juncture, we're also starting to see that some kids are expressing that they're afraid that some of their classmates feel like they're inspired by what they're seeing, these tragic images on television, and that they might be able to get that same level of attention if they were to carry out something so terrible. How do we address that issue?

SELLS: Well, first, you have to look at the warning signs. I mean, some of the warning signs are is this -- has this kid been abused? Is he in an outsider group? Is he being picked on? And in fact, if you look at Columbine and Pearl elementary, those kids constantly sent warning sign after warning sign, that they felt rejected, that nobody cared about them. They saw a lot of violence. They were saturated with violence, to the point where it became where they lost empathy for others. And it was just a matter of how can I retaliate? They had no remorse or guilt for what they did.

And the more you feel rejected -- and these kids will tell you over and over again that they feel a lack of attachment from their parents, that there's a disconnect. And when that happens, violence can occur.

WHITFIELD: And perhaps, do you see that even within schools, there has to be some sort of curriculum available for crisis management? How do you teach it? If their parents aren't able to reach them and these kids are spending an awful lot of time in school, perhaps they need to be learning about crisis management.

SELLS: Well, that's what we're doing in the schools right now. In Leesburg, Virginia, we are actually having a parenting group that connects social services, the schools, probation. It's the first of its kind to reconnect parents with the teachers and form a community, because the warning signs are clear, but right now we're not listening to them.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. All right. Thanks very much, Scott. And of course, the other side of that is a lot of administrators and teachers are saying, well, already we're feeling like we're having to do too much. We're strapped already. What more could we possibly be asked to do?

SELLS: Right.

WHITFIELD: Thanks very much. Scott Sells. The book is "Parenting Your Out of Control Teenager."

SELLS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much.

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