By Linda Taaffe

Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier

Sheriff’s campaign emphasizes the importance of reacting quickly

Last week’s cover story featured Michelle Houde, the De Anza student who played a role in thwarting a would-be bomber’s plans for the Cupertino campus. This week, we look at efforts to get more residents to act immediately in such emergencies.

Two highly publicized school attacks with very different outcomes over the past three months have spurred a national campaign urging others to take more responsibility in preventing violence.

In the first case, two local photo clerks called police to report what appeared to be nothing more than suspicious photos. This ultimately led police to uncover a 19-year-old student’s alleged plan to bomb De Anza College just a few hours later. The second case, at a Southern California high school, ended in tragedy after more than 50 students and at least one adult allegedly heard their classmate’s threats to bring a gun to campus, yet no one spoke out.

Both Michelle Houde and Kelly Bennett, the two photo clerks who tipped off police to various photos of bombs and shotguns, have said the photos were so disturbing, the call to police was a reflex, without thought.

“Anyone would have done the same thing. The photos were that bad,” Houde said recently.

Yet the subsequent shooting in Southern California proved that not everyone would react in a timely manner to something that, in retrospect, should have been considered suspicious. And if Houde and Bennett say their response was more of a reflex, can people really be trained to do what’s right?

The campaign

Law enforcement officials say people can be trained to make a difference.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith launched a national Public Service Announcement last week telling people they can help avert violence if they look for clues that could be warning signs of future violence.

“Contrary to popular belief, there is no way to pick out a potential shooter by their looks or behavior, but before most incidents, the attackers speak of their intentions. This is what investigators call leakage … they tell someone,” she said in the announcement.

Smith attributed the prevention of a possible tragedy to the quick actions of Michelle Houde and Kelly Bennett, the two photo clerks who tipped off police to the photos of an arsenal.

“The difference between the outcomes of the planned bombing at De Anza College and the shooting that was carried out at Santana High School in Southern California, is that law enforcement was notified of the first threat, but not the second,” she said.

De Anza psychology professor Charles Ramskov said a dozen different experts will give a dozen different reasons why someone reacts to crisis in a particular way, but agreed that people can be trained, to a certain degree, to respond to the warning signs of potential violence.

“Anyone can be a hero. We’re not looking at special traits or something you’re born with,” he said. “Like most animals, there are warning signs someone gives, before they are going to attack. You need to pay attention.”

The professor said a person’s response to a potential threat is more directly related to his or her perceived responsibility in a particular situation.

When there are more people included in a situation, there tends to be what he calls a “dispersion of response,” which means those involved feel they have less responsibility than if they had been in the situation alone.

In the case of Houde and Bennett, he said, both women probably felt a strong sense of responsibility, knowing that if they did not call police, they could potentially be responsible for the negative outcome.

Houde’s mother, Janet, said she believes Michelle and Bennett would have called police in any situation that night, but the choice was more clear cut with each reaffirming the other’s gut feeling.

Ramskov’s theory is also supported by the second case in Southern California, where none of the 50 people who heard their classmate’s alleged threats felt sole responsibility to notify police. Each apparently waited for another to make the call that never came.

Ramskov said strong community ties is another factor in reacting.

Resident reaction

This could explain the high level of resident response in Los Altos that police have often referred to. Former community services officer Noreen Sorg said residents are the city’s best resource in preventing crime. She said Los Altos seems to have a high number of residents who watch over their neighborhoods and don’t hesitate to call police when they see something suspicious.

“People here are really responsive,” she said during an interview earlier this year. “They have an interest in the integrity of Los Altos.”

This probably accounts for why one Los Altos resident turned his morning commute into a high-speed chase last October after he discovered a man allegedly breaking into his neighbor’s car. The University Avenue resident was on his way to work when he saw a man rummaging through his neighbor’s unlocked car, according to police accounts. As he drove back toward his neighbor’s house to investigate, the alleged burglar sped past him. The Los Altos man followed the burglar down El Monte Avenue toward Los Altos Hills until the burglar lost control of his car and spun into the bushes near the Interstate 280 on-ramp. Police arrested the Sunnyvale man for possession of stolen property after they found stolen phones and computer equipment during a search of his apartment. The items ultimately linked him to other local burglaries, police said.

Police credit a Los Altos couple for saving a jogger from what could have been the first reported random rape in Los Altos last October. Police arrested a 21-year-old Saratoga man in the process of allegedly attacking a Los Altos woman just after Roni and Tom Nelson reported screams coming from a van parked in front of their Springer Road house.

Roni said she was throwing a plastic bottle in the recycling bin along the side of her house when she heard what sounded like rustling or running through the shrubs on the other side of the fence and a frightened woman pleading with someone to leave her alone. That was followed by the sound of a van door shutting and more muffled cries, she said.

Roni said the woman’s pleas were so chilling, she will never forget them.

“I felt then that something bad was definitely happening,” Roni said. “There was no question when I heard her say, ‘I’ll give you anything you want. Leave me alone,’” Roni said.

Roni raced across the yard and back into the house to tell her husband to call 911. When he went out front with a pencil to write down the license number, there was no one in the front seat but the van was shaking, Roni said.

Police said time was critical and it was important that the Nelsons didn’t hesitate to call 911.

“We don’t know what the consequences could have been. Springer is a main thoroughfare. … He could have taken her anywhere from here,” said former Community Services Officer Noreen Sorg shortly after the incident.

“It was scary,” Tom said. Both said if they were thrown in the situation again, they would react the same way. Watching out for others is part of their community responsibility, they said.

The Los Altos City Council presented the Nelsons a good Samaritan award.

Bill Crawford, high school resource officer for Mountain View, said getting people to react to potential violence is really an education issue.

“We’re trying to define the difference between snitching and reporting a crime,” he said. “I think we’re really entering an era where it’s not OK to talk about guns in an airport, yell ‘fire’ as a joke, or talk about killing and guns in high school. … It’s not taken as a joke anymore.”