School Violence Around the World
To report a threat of school violence before the instigator has a chance to act on his/her intentions, please contact Speak Up at 1-866-SPEAKUP (that is 1-866-773-2587)
School violence is running rampant through America's, and some international countries, school systems. Unless it is a major attack, school violence gets brief reporting in today's national newspapers and television stations. One has to be aware how quickly a school attack can happen and know where to look for the information. I hope this portion of my website on school violence will aid you, whether it be research, curiosity or something else.
I've broken down the Internet's most complete list of acts of school violence into corresponding school years (August 1 through July 31) below. Hopefully, these changes will allow you to see how school violence has increased over the years, despite the fact that several government reports, using "official" numbers, say that school violence is declining. Please note that I am not boasting when I say that this is the Internet's most complete list of acts of school violence. No other site that I know of tracks worldwide acts of school violence and presents them to you in such a detailed and statistical way.
Status on the List: After working hard on the list during the 2008-2009 school year, I've decided I'm not going to be updating the list on a weekly basis. It has become too much of a job with me sitting in front of my computer on Friday nights and Saturday mornings updating the events of the week. Tracking over 290 acts of school violence a year is very time-consuming, and there are other things in my life that I would like to do besides maintain my massive list. From time to time, I will post newsworthy acts of school violence and research the 100 or so acts that I know about that are not even on my list. (This is the same 100 or so acts I had planned to update when I took the 2007-2008 school year off, but never got the time to do so.) When I launched this site in August 2000, I thought I could keep it up in my spare time. Well, now that spare time has become a second job, and that is not what I intended. I'm sorry to disappoint all of you who have used my massive list for your research.
Webmaster's Note: I am no longer accepting requests to add
links or entries to this page. Maintaining this site is very taxing on my
mental faculties. I simply cannot maintain this site at the level that it
requires. Requests to be added will not be answered. Thank you.
In November 2016, I received an email from Eric Laurine.
He’s done extensive research into school violence. He provided me with Excel
spreadsheets that shows a different way to track acts of school violence. His
website is www.schoolshootingdatabase.com Please check it out to stay on top of school violence.
School Shooting Database for ALL SSS By School Year 2 SS-Mass School Shootings Binary
Before going any further, I would like to lay out how I obtain my data, and what I consider to be school violence:
School Violence: Any act of violence that results in the physical injury or death of any student, teacher, school administrator, school support staff, or visitor to a school while on school grounds. Please note that I stressed the word "on" in that sentence. For me, the violent act has to happen on school property, not across the street from the school, not a block from the school, not in the park next to the school, not in an off-campus college apartment building, but on school property. Of course with every rule, there are exceptions, and this one is no exception. For instance, the arson fire in Göteborg, Sweden on October 29, 1998, did not take place on school grounds. Even though, it is on my list.
School Functions off Campus: Any act of violence that results in the physical injury or death of any student, teacher, school administrator or school support staff, while at a school function not on school grounds. The perfect example of this definition is the James W. Parker Middle School prom dance shooting at Nick's Place in Edinboro, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1998.
School Buses: Any act of violence that results in the physical injury or death of any student or driver while on a school bus. If the attack starts on the bus and then continues when the students leave the bus, then I do count that. If the attack happens after the students have stepped off the bus and are on the street or sidewalk, then I do not consider it to be school violence. Also, I do not count attacks at school bus stops. A good example of school bus violence is the hijacking of a Chowchilla, California, school bus full of students on their way home on July 15, 1976.
My Sources: Before January 2003, most of entries came from the Dallas Morning News and the book Babyface Killers by Clifford Linedecker. At that time I started adding the source (newspaper/television station name and story title) from which I obtained my information. I do not include links to the news stories because newspapers and TV stations websites move their stories around after a while, and the link is broken. I'm offering you a starting point if you want to further research a particular act of school violence. Currently, I'm reviewing the first 100 stories from Google News using the search terms "school shooting" and "school stabbing." As time has gone by I've realized that newspapers and television stations do not always report the facts in their stories. Numerous times I've received emails with information that contradict what the newspapers and television stations report. In those instances, I have gone back and corrected the entry. Please do not be upset with me if information in any entry is wrong. I'm only as accurate as my sources, and many of those sources do not always report all of the facts (a sad, but true, statement).
Two great examples of this are: 1) the Mountain Park Baptist Church and Boarding (High) School shooting in Waynesville, Missouri on March 25, 1996. To put itself in the best possible light after the shooting, the school reported a totally erroneous story to the media. After a Survivor contacted me, I add the correct information. 2) the Guy B. Teachey Elementary School shooting in Asheboro, North Carolina on Friday, December 12, 2008. In the four news stories that I found, each one of them describe the fight and murder differently. If four different news sources (whose job it is to report the facts of the day) can't report the exact same details of one school shooting, there is no way in the world I can.
Survivor: Any student, teacher, school administrator, school support staff, or visitor to a school that survives an act of school violence on school grounds, a school function off-campus or on a school bus. Please note, I do capitalize Survivor when referencing them as a source of information. It is my way of honoring them for what they went through. Also, Survivors have sent corrections to my entries, and I post them with their consent. I do not post their name, or even forward their name to other Survivors, unless they allow me to. I do respect their privacy on my site.
Naming the Instigators, Those Who Died and the Survivors: I try very hard to add the names of all parties involved in an act of school violence. I do this because I feel that if you know the name of an individual, you will have feelings for that individual. Many sites say that a 15-year-old boy opened fire inside his school and wounded two students. But I strive to say that John Doe, 15, opened fire inside his school and wounded Jane Doe, 14, and Bob Smith, 14. With the names added to the entry, you have an identity to all these students who have been affected by school violence.
Violence
in Our Schools - Through the Years
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11-6-13 |
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12-24-11 |
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3-8-10 |
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11-8-08 |
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2-14-09 |
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3-1-08 |
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3-4-12 |
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1-19-08 |
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6-3-18 |
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5-24-20 |
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12-24-12 |
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1-19-08 |
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4-3-09 |
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1-19-08 |
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1-31-16 |
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6-3-18 |
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1-21-13 |
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8-17-13 |
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8-14-10 |
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7-16-11 |
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4-25-12 |
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1-31-16 |
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7-26-14 |
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9-18-15 |
School Violence Stats (Updated 9-4-16)
The "School Violence Stats" page takes all the numbers and puts them together into easy to read charts that show exactly how often, and how deadly, school violence is. You'll be able to compare occurrences per year, month and day. Other information includes the age and sex of the instigator, type of school (grades serviced at the school) and how many occurrences have happened in each state and country. The charts are rather shocking.
Date Stats (Updated 9-4-16)
This page deals specifically with dates. The page starts off with tables that lists every single day in which two or more acts of school violence happen on a single day. The next set of tables list the consecutive days of school violence. The last table will show you how many acts of school violence have happened on any day of the year.
The following maps came from the ISSA (see below). Years ago I had the idea to create a map of my own, but unfortunately, I don't have the HTML skill set. These two maps are not interactive, but hopefully, you will see how widespread school violence is in the world.
Map of School Violence in the Nordic Countries
Map of School Violence in Europe
School Violence in Sweden
School violence is by no means limited to the United States. The International School Safety Association is working in Europe to create a safe, secure school environment. The ISSA is based in Sweden, and the website is here. The founder of the ISSA recently created Peaceful Communication to aid in eliminating school violence. If you can read Swedish, you can visit the site (PAXCOM) by clicking here.
It's Not Always About the Gun (Updated 9-4-23)
Webmaster's Note: I am no longer accepting requests to add links or entries to this
page. Maintaining this site is very taxing on my mental faculties. I simply
cannot maintain this site at the level that it requires. Requests to be
added will not be answered. Thank you.
In an effort to expand my site, I added the "It's Not Always About the Gun" page just after the fifth anniversary of the Columbine massacre. This page offers links to help end schoolyard bullying, alcohol and drug use by teenagers and sexual assaults against teens by their classmates or family members. The page is designed to bring help and support of a Survivor of an individual attack so that the Survivor can began to heal.
School Violence Links (Updated 11-22-22)
The "School Violence Links" page provides you with what I believe are helpful links to preventing school violence and gathering more information about school violence.
Recommended Media (Update 7-28-12)
On this page, you will find books, magazines and other material that I have read and/or viewed and endorse. I believe the material will help my visitors better understand school violence.
If you can find a copy of the Good Housekeeping, November 1998, Vol. 227 Issue 5, turn to page118 and read "Look Back in Sorrow." It's a good article on what the Survivors of a school shooting go through.
A message from James Moore about my site. (Used with permission) (Last updated 1-19-08)
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