PARKLAND, FL - FEBRUARY 14: People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after ... [+]
As May approaches, this is a time of celebration and happy milestones for children, but many schools, communities, and families will also mark devastating milestones.
April 20, 2024, marked the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School (Littleton, Colorado) attack in which 12 students and a teacher were killed and 21 others were wounded before the shooters took their own lives. Two and a half decades later, survivors say they are still haunted by that day. According to this April 19, 2024 report by ABC News, “415 people have been killed in U.S. school shootings” since the Columbine tragedy.
This weighs on me. Last week, I told a college-aged colleague, Everett, that I was trying to shape a discussion around school shootings and his immediate response was a simple and wry, “Thoughts and prayers…” He didn’t even look up.
I was stunned by his response because those were the exact words I wrote months ago after the Perry, Iowa, school shooting. While trying to process yet another incomprehensible school shooting, my original notes stated:
- Thoughts and prayers (Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, 2012) ~ 20 first-grade children, 6 school staff
- Thoughts and prayers (Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, 2022) ~ 19 children, 2 teachers
- Thoughts and prayers (Perry High School, Perry, Iowa, 2024) ~ 1 child
- Thoughts and prayers (K-12 School Shooting Database)
I wrote those statistics with intense anger. Everett acknowledged them with a distressingly dry sense of reality and familiarity.
Active Shooting Statistics
These statistics address deaths directly associated with each event. The National Center for Education Statistics offers an explanation and robust data set of U.S. School Crime and Safety data. The School Shooting Safety Compendium defines school shootings as incidents in which “a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time of day, or day of week.” These statistics only address incidents at schools or school events, not incidents of violence that stem from school but occur away from school property or events.
Living with school violence is now a daily part of children’s lives. Prevention takes many forms, including participation in lockdown, active shooter, and armed intruder drills.
Active shooter drills in schools are a regular part of part children’s lives. (Photo by William ... [+]
An NPR/Ipsos poll found K-12 parents support at least one active shooter drill in schools each year, but there is debate about whether drills are helpful or harmful. One thorough study of children’s active shooter drill experiences reported over 60% of youth reported feeling “scared and hopeless” as a result of active shooter drills but also found students felt they knew what to do in a crisis.
Readers can use this PBS article to explore which states require mandatory active shooter training for adults and drills for school children.
In early 2018, Education Week, a significant source for K-12 information and news, began tracking and documenting “incidents of gunfire at schools that result in death or injury,” housing this information in one central location. According to the tracker on April 26, 2024, thirteen incidents have been recorded in 2024. A total of 195 shootings since 2018 have resulted in 126 people killed and 339 people injured. These statistics represent six and a half school years. That is exactly half of a child’s typical K-12 career.
Countless others were injured and impacted for life, including students and staff in the schools, families and loved ones, and entire communities. These statistics do not address incidents of violence that stem from school but occur away from school property or events.
What Is An Educator’s Role In An Active Violence Incident?
I was a Virginia middle school principal when the September 11 and 2002 Beltway Snipers attacks occurred. I had excellent training from my degree-granting institutions and, yes, leader preparation programs talk about school safety. Still, can any program of study help educators get ahead of scenarios such as 11 and 13-year-old children setting up and killing people exiting their school during a false fire alarm?
School leaders must learn quickly to reassure children and families about school safety. Can they ... [+]
As a school leader, I learned quickly to reassure children and families by saying, “The only thing more important to us than your learning is your safety” and “I would not be here either, if I thought it wasn’t safe.” I genuinely meant it, but knew I could never guarantee a child’s safety at school.
These moments stay with you.
Incidents of educators placing themselves in harm's way to protect children in their care exist far and wide. Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger survived after suffering multiple gunshot wounds while protecting his students. In attacks on their schools, Jean Kuckza in St. Louis and Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles in Texas died protecting children, according to reports.
Adding to the discussion regarding the responsibilities of educators, recently Tennessee, according to Education Week, “joined more than two-thirds of states in allowing teachers to carry guns in public schools,” although it appears few educators do so.
Educators face a wage gap penalty, a measure of how much less public school teachers are paid compared to other similarly educated workers (-24.6%). Recently, educators were included with other professionals facing “exploitation” due to assumptions of altruism, seen through a Hero Tax. Is exceptional personal sacrifice, including being killed at school, part of an educator’s expected job contract?
The Impact On Children Is Clear And Ongoing
A discussion published in the National Library of Medicine examines factors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and suggests the event was a “tipping point” for change and action. Hindsight tells us that may not be true. Tragically, thirteen years later, the U.S. Department of Justice was compelled to produce the Critical Incident Review: Active Shooter at Robb Elementary School report, detailing the event that led to the death of 19 students and 2 teachers, and the injury of at least 17 others.
Reports show the long-term impact on survivors and those who knew and loved students and educators who did not survive. A 2022 study led by Maya Rossin-Slater of Stanford University, Surviving a school shooting: Impacts on the mental health, education, and earnings of American youth, reports increased antidepressant use and absenteeism, as well as decreases in student enrollment and test scores for children who attended a school at which a shooting took place. The authors note, “Students exposed to shootings at their schools are less likely to graduate high school, go to college, and graduate college.” These students are less likely to be employed and more likely to earn less than peers in their young adult lives. The trauma is far-reaching.
People can, maybe should, pray for a way forward, but it must come with action. School violence and the protection of children and educators offer a complicated web of interwoven social factors. There is intense discussion about who is responsible—but those affected can tell you who pays the price.
