COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Graffiti, gang symbols and slang are potential warning signs in schools of violence that could erupt.
They are trends that the Columbus Police Strategic Response Bureau studies closely.
Vandalism, bomb threats and gun threats are unexpected acts of violence that took the Pickerington Local School District by surprise, NBC 4's Ana Jackson reported.
"They had problems in Pickerington, which wasn't gang related, but certainly some of the things that were going on, we may have been able to provide some insight into," said Commander Jeff Blackwell, of Columbus police.
Blackwell said gang related or not, problems typically seen in the inner city are now stretching into the suburbs.
"We don't think the administrators, teachers and (school resource officers) have the right education background on gangs on the terminology on what they do (and) on how they fight," Blackwell said.
Detectives will host a seminar to teach suburban school districts how to identify problems before they get out of control.
"You can take kids from a wealthy suburban school. You can take kids from an inner city school. They tend to dress alike, talk alike, walk alike, act alike. So you cannot profile kids based on their appearance. You have to have more intel to really know what's going on," Blackwell said.
Black well said that intel can be anything from monitoring a Web site like Facebook to watching what kind of clothes students are wearing.
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