Violence in Our Schools

August 1, 2012 through July 31, 2013

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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)

I would like to thank all of the Survivors and others who have contacted me with information about school violence.  I really do appreciate the help, for without their help, several of these occurrences would not be here.

One other thing I would like to ask of those who read over this list of tragedies is this: If you can provide me with any more details of any of these incidents, I would greatly appreciate the information. Or, if you know of another violent act at a school that is not on this list, please forward that information to me as well.  The link to my e-mail is above.

Perry Hall High School, Baltimore, Maryland

Monday, August 27, 2012

The new school year brings more anxiety with yet another school shooting on the first day of classes.  This morning, 15-year-old Robert Gladden posted the following on his Facebook page: "First day of school, last day of my life."  He then took a pre-1968, legal-length, double-barrel shotgun from his father's home and disassembled it.  He took the parts to school, along with a bottle of vodka, in a black book bag and stashed them in a bathroom near the cafeteria.  After attending first and second period, Robert went off to lunch.  During this time, he entered the bathroom, took a couple sips of the vodka, reassemble the gun and then re-entered the cafeteria.  It was now around 10:45 in the morning.  He pulled out the shotgun and was able to fire off one round before he was subdued by a group of teachers, including school resource officer Jesse Wasmer.  Unfortunately, the one bullet did strike Daniel Borowy, 17-year-old student with Down syndrome.  During the struggle between our young assailant and the teachers, another round was fired, but no one was injured from that bullet.  The police arrived and arrested Robert.  He was seen, handcuffed and shirtless, being put into the back of a patrol car.  The paramedics also arrived and Daniel was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in critical condition.   Robert was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault.  No bail was set.  His father said his son had been bullied, but did not elaborate further.  Daniel sustained two broken ribs and a bruised lung.  By the middle of the week, he was still in the hospital, but could wiggled his fingers and toes.  In 2010, Perry Hall High School was voted one of America's Best High Schools by Newsweek magazine, and yet it still goes down in history as the site of a school shooting.

Source: Gather News - Baltimore School Shooting on First Day of Classes, Student Injured; WLS-TV Channel 7 - Perry Hall High School Shooting Charges Filed; Chicago Tribune - Baltimore Student Critically Wounded in School Shooting; ABC News - Baltimore Shooting Victim has Down Syndrome

Stillwater Junior High School, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Shortly before 8:00 this morning, 13-year-old eighth-grader Cade Poulos shot himself to death.  He was in one of the school's hallways near lockers and classrooms.  He used a handgun to shoot himself in the head.  The school's resource officer heard the gun shot from an adjacent hallway and secured the area.

Source: CNN - Boy Dies From Self-Inflicted Shot at School; Tulsa World - Stillwater Teen Shoots, Kills Self in Crowded School Hallway

Federal Polytechnic (College), Mubi, Adamawa, Nigeria

Monday, October 1, 2012

Last week the police raided the student halls in a sweep against Boko Haram Islamist sect militants.  During that raid, the police recovered dozens of bombs, knives, automatic assault rifles and even a rocket-propelled grenade.  The police arrested 156 people during the raid.  Between 10 p.m. tonight and 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, in an apparent retaliation, militants stormed the student halls, calling out names of several students.  The students were question and then some of them were shot to death, other students were not harmed by the militants.  Some students were hacked to death with machetes.  Another possibility that the police are investigating is that a dispute between rival political groups at the college over a student union election on Sunday led to the killings.  Apparently, this is not uncommon at colleges in Nigeria.  The police spokesman put the confirmed death toll at 25: 19 students from the school, three students from a health technology school, two security guards and a retired soldier.  However security sources and several witnesses put the death toll at 40 with the injured numbering 15.  All thee sources say that 25 people were killed in this attack, even breaking down that number like I have here in this entry.  These same news story also say that 26 were killed and none of them have been able to identify the extra person.  So, for statistical purposes, I'm counting the dead at 25 and the injured at 15. The student hall is located off campus, so I'm breaking my own rule by posting this entry to my list.

Source: NBC News - Slaughtered "One by One": Gunmen Kill at Least 25 at Nigeria College Residence; The (Lebanon) Daily Star - Nigeria Student Massacre Claims 26 Lives; Calgary Herald - Nigeria: Attackers Kill at Least 25 Students Near College in Troubled Northeast

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

This Halloween turned very scary for students at USC.  Around 11:45 this evening at a party at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, 20-year-old Brandon Spencer and former Crenshaw High School football star Geno Hall began arguing over an unknown topic.  Neither Brandon nor Geno attend classes at USC.  The argument quickly escalated and erupted in gunfire when Brandon pulled out a handgun and shot Geno three or four times in the torso.  University security officers, who were monitoring the party, chased Brandon, who holds an active security guard license, and another man from the scene toward a parking garage where they detained them.  Police were also able to recover a gun at this time.  Geno was taken to a local hospital and was listed in critical condition.  Three other individuals, none of which were USC students, were also injured, and taken to the hospital for treatment. On Monday, November 5, 2012, Brandon pleaded not guilty to four counts of attempted murder.

Source: Los Angeles Times - USC Shooting: 2 Suspects in Custody; 'No Pending Danger,' Police Say; ABC News - USC Halloween Party Shooting Leaves Four Injured; Los Angeles Times - USC Halloween Shooting Suspect is Security Guard; Huffington Post - Brandon Spencer, USC Shooting Suspect, Pleads Not Guilty to Four Counts of Attempted Murder

Casper College, Casper, Wyoming

Friday, November 30, 2012

In a third floor classroom of the World Physical Science building of Casper College today, Christopher Krumm, 25, killed his father, computer-science instructor James Krumm, 56, with an arrow, shot from a compound bow, to the head.  Christopher then stabbed himself, but still had enough strength to stab his father in the heart before dying.  About six students were in the classroom at the time, 9:06 a.m., and witness the horrific event as it happened.  The killer used a sharp-edged weapon, not a gun.  Earlier in the day, Christopher stabbed to death 42-year-old Heidi Arnold, a math instructor at the college and his dad's girlfriend.  Heidi was killed just outside the home she shared with James.  From the house, Christopher headed to Casper College to continue his killing spree.

Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - Instructor Killed; College Locked Down; WJLA Channel 7 - Wyoming Casper College Shooting: Three Dead in Campus Attack; Casper Journal - Homicide at Casper College; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - Arrow, Knife Used in College Attack

Chenpeng Village Primary School, Guangshan, Henan Province, China

Friday, December 14, 2012

Things went from bad to worse, considering the different outcome of the two acts of school violence that happened today.  Up first, in central China, 36-year-old Min Yingjun entered the home of an 85-year-old woman just before 8 a.m..  He then stabbed her with a kitchen knife.  Min left the house and  made his way to the school where he burst into a room as the students were arriving and slashed 22 students before being subdued by security guards.  Seven of the students were taken to the hospital with severed fingers and ears.  These students were between six- and 12-years-old.  No students, nor the elderly woman, died during this act of school violence.

Source: Daily Mail - China Stabbing: 22 Children and Elderly Woman Stabbed Outside Primary School by Chinese Knifeman; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - Chinese Slasher Injures 22 Pupils

Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut

Friday, December 14, 2012

Also this morning, albeit 13 hours later in the day, but at about the same time, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy, inside the home he shared with her.  He shot her in the face and was wearing black fatigues. He then loaded up her car with a 10mm Glock, a 9mm Sig Sauer and a .223-caliber, Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle and drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School.  When he arrived at the school, he left the high-powered rifle in the car and brought the handguns with him as he approached the school.  He fired half a dozen shots at the locked front door of the school and walked in through the busted doorway.  Adam then went into the office and opened fire on the staff, killing principle Dawn Hochsprung.  It was about 9:30 when he began his rampage.  A custodian ran through the halls shouting out warnings to the teachers.  Someone in the front office turned on the school's intercom so that the teachers, and inadvertently the students, could hear the start of the rampage.  This allowed the teachers time to huddle their students in the corner of their classrooms, or in closets.  Because of the teacher's quick action, several students were saved from harm and the flying bullets.  Next to the office is Room 10, first-grade teacher Victoria Soto's class.  She hid her students in the closet and bathroom inside the room just before Adam entered.  He shot and killed Victoria and moved on to another first grade classroom, not bothering to look for the students in their hiding places.  Adam killed 20 students, five teachers, the school principal and then himself, bringing the total death toll for this event to 28.   During his rampage, he wounded a woman who worked at the school.  The police arrived just after getting the call of an active shooter at the school.  By the time the first officers arrived on scene, they entered the building and found Adam dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Two of the students he fired upon were rushed to the hospital, but they died from their injuries.  Police said that over 100 rounds were fired in a short amount of time.  The Chief State Medical Examiner, H. Wayne Carver III, said that each person killed at Sand Hook had between three and 11 gunshot wounds.  He and his staffed worked all day Saturday and part of Sunday morning to do autopsies on each student and adult killed at the school.

THOSE WHO DIED:

Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - Slayer of Mom Kills 26 at School; Hartford Courant -'Probably the Worst I Have Seen' Medical Examiner Says of Sandy Hook Victims; Hartford Courant - Police Release Names of Newtown School Shooting Victims; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - From all Avenues: Sorrow

Taft Union High School, Taft, California

Thursday, January 10, 2013

At 9:00 this morning, gunfire rang through the halls of the science building at Taft Union High School.  A 16-year-old male student arrived late to his first period class.  He was carrying a 12-guage shotgun and fired it at a student he was targeting, another 16-year-old male student, who he claimed was bullying him.  Our young instigator then called out the name of another male student and fired twice more.  However, his aim was off and the bullets missed the target.  He then pointed the shotgun at teacher Ryan Heber and said he didn't want to shoot him.  During this, the remaining students in the room were able to flee.  Ryan and campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields began a conversation with the instigator and talked him into dropping the shotgun.  He was then taken into custody by the police.  The injured student was airlifted to Kem Medical Center in Bakersfield with a shotgun wound to his upper right chest.  He was listed in critical, but stable condition.  The teacher was treated at the scene for a pellet shot to the head.  A female student was taken to a local hospital and treated  for hearing loss as she was very close to the shotgun when it was fired.   The police plan to charge our young unidentified instigator with attempted murder. Taft Union High School was featured in the 1986 movie The Best of Times, starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell.

Source: Yahoo! News - Student Opens Fire at California High School, Wounding One; Yahoo! News - Student Tells Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

Hazard Community and Technical College, Hazard, Kentucky

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

A domestic dispute came to a deadly end this evening in the parking lot of Hazard Community and Technical College.  Dalton Stidham, 21, walked up to a car in the parking lot, pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and opened fire on the vehicle's occupants.  He killed Caitlin Cornett, 20, and her uncle Jackie Cornett, 53.  He also wounded Jackie's 17-year-old unidentified daughter.  There were about 30 students on campus at the time of the shooting.  The police arrived about 6 p.m. where Caitlin and Jackie were pronounced dead at the scene.  The teenage girl was flown to the University of Kentucky hospital for treatment.  Caitlin, a student of the college, had a child with Dalton and they were meeting at the school to exchange the child for visitation.  Dalton turned himself in and was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Source: Yahoo! News - 2 Killed in Shooting on Ky. College Parking Lot; NBC News - 2 Killed, 1 Injured in Community College Shooting in Kentucky

Price Middle School, Atlanta, Georgia

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Outside Prince Middle School, a 14-year-old male student was shot in the head by a 15-year-old unnamed male student.  It was just before 2 p.m. when the shots were fired from at .380-caliber handgun.  The school's resource officer, an off-duty police officer working part-time at the school, was able to disarm our young instigator.  The wound boy was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released by the end of the day.  A teacher also suffered minor injuries and was treated at the school.  Even though the school does have metal detectors, they were not operable today.  Police believe the shooting may have been gang related.  Police have charged the instigator with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm on school property. 

Source: Yahoo! News - Teenaged Student Wounded in Atlanta School Shooting; Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Shooting at Price Middle School; Atlanta Journal-Constitution - APS: Metal Detectors 'Not Operable' on Day of School Shooting

Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Georgia

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Rodriguez Jamarus Cofer, 18, and an unnamed 16-year-old had been at odds prior to today.  Rodriguez shot and wounded the 16-year-old in the hip.  Both fled the school.  While there were many present, most students were reluctant to tell police who the two students were.  Surprisingly, the next day, Friday, February 15, both returned to school as if nothing had happened.  When they did, the police arrested Rodriguez.

Source: Visitor to this web site

Lone Star Community College, Cypress, Texas

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

This morning on this sunny spring day, around 11:20, 20-year-old Dylan Quick carried out his longtime fantasy of stabbing people to death.  He went into the Health and Science Center building and the technology building at the college he was attending and began slashing his classmates.  Luckily, none of the students died, but 14 of them were injured.  Dylan Quick was tackled by students and faculty members, bringing the attack to an end.  Six of the injured students were taken to Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, six were taken to North Cypress Medical Center and two of them were treated at the college.  One of the injured students had to have pieces of the blade remove from their body at the hospital.   Dylan was arrested by the police and they found the knife handle in the backpack he was carrying.  He was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.  Dylan is also deaf.

Source: Yahoo! News - Student Charged in Texas College Stabbing Attack; Washington Post - 14 Hurt in Bloody Texas Community College Stabbing, 1 Suspect Arrested Running from Building; KHOU Channel 11 - Lone Star College Stabbing Suspect Charged with Aggravated Assault

Holt Middle School, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Friday, April 26, 2013

For an unknown reason, an unidentified female student brought a razor blade to school with her today.  A 12-year-old female student took the razor blade from the first student and then cut six of her classmates.  The police say the students were playing a game where three of the students wanted to get cut and the other three did not.  All six students had minor wounds that didn't require medical treatment.  The 12-year-old girl was arrested and charged with misdemeanor third-degree battery.

Source: Springdale Morning News - Police: 12-Year-Old Holt Middle School Student Cut Six Peers with Razor Blade

A Private Roman Catholic (High) School, Paris, France

Thursday, May 16, 2013

An unidentified man entered the courtyard of a private Roman Catholic school at just before noon today.  He pushed past two school employees who were challenging him and then shot himself in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.  About a dozen students witnessed the man commit suicide.  The gates to the school, which are normally closed, were open at this hour because it was lunchtime.  Students were either on their way home for lunch, or heading to the school's canteen to eat.  The school is in the upscale Seventh District of Paris and caters to students from nursery to high school.  Since the gates were open to allow the students to go home for lunch, I'm classifying this act of school violence as a high school.   

Source: New York Times - Intruder Commits Suicide at Paris School; The Age - Intruder Suicides at Paris School

Government Secondary (High) School, Mamudo Village, Yobe, Nigeria

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Early this morning, the radical group Boko Haram doused a dormitory in fuel and set it ablaze, while students were still sleeping inside.  The fire quickly spread and soon the whole building was afire.  29 students died in the blaze and English teacher Mohammed Musa was killed by a shot to the chest.  Musa Hassan, 15, woke up to gunfire.  When he opened his eyes, a gun was pointed at his face.  He put his right hand up for defense and gun fired, blowing off four of his fingers.  The shooter then moved on, leaving Musa maimed, but alive. With his right hand being his writing hand, he'll have to learn to write all over again. Dozens of students escaped the fire by running into the nearby bush, but have not been by early Sunday morning.

Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - Nigeria School Set Afire; 30 Dead

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