CHAPTER II
The Safe School Initiative found that targeted school violence is not
a new or recent phenomenon. The
earliest case that researchers were able to identify occurred in 1974. In that incident, a student brought guns and
homemade bombs to his school; set off the fire alarm; and shot at emergency
and custodial personnel who responded to the alarm.
The Safe School Initiative identified 37 incidents involving 41 attackers
that met the study definition of targeted school violence and occurred
between 1974 and the end of the 2000 school year. These incidents took place in 26 states, with
more than one incident occurring in Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Missouri
and Tennessee.
Analysis of the study findings
identified the following characteristics of incidents of targeted school
violence:
- In almost three-quarters of the incidents, the
attacker killed one or more students, faculty or others at the school
(73 percent, n=27). In the remaining incidents, the attackers used
a weapon to injure at least one person at school (24 percent, n=9). In one incident, a student killed his family
and then held his class hostage with a weapon.
- More than one-half of the attacks occurred during the school day (59
percent, n=22), with fewer occurring before school (22 percent, n=8)
or after school (16 percent, n=6).
- Almost all of the attackers were current students at the school where
they carried out their attacks (95 percent, n=39). Only two attackers were former students of
the school where they carried out their attacks at the time of those
attacks (5 percent, n=2).
- All of the incidents of targeted school violence examined in the Safe
School Initiative were committed by boys or young men (100 percent,
n=41).
- In most of the incidents, the attackers carried out the attack alone
(81 percent, n=30). In four
of the incidents, the attacker engaged in the attack on his own but
had assistance in planning the attack (11 percent, n=4). In three incidents, two or more attackers carried out the attack
together (8 percent, n=3).
- Most attackers used some type of gun as their primary weapon, with
over half of the attackers using handguns (61 percent, n=25), and nearly
half of them using rifles or shotguns (49 percent, n=20). Three-quarters of the attackers used only one weapon (76 percent, n=31) to
harm their victims, although almost half of the attackers had more than
one weapon with them at time of the attack (46 percent, n=19).
Perpetrators of incidents of targeted school violence chose a range of
targets for their attacks, including fellow students, faculty and staff,
and the school itself. These incidents were usually planned in advance
and for most part included intent to harm a specific, pre-selected target,
whether or not the attacker’s execution of the incident, in fact,
resulted in harm to the target.
Target and victim characteristics identified by the Safe
School Initiative were:
- In over half of the incidents (54 percent, n=22), the attacker had
selected at least one school administrator, faculty member or staff
member as a target. Students were chosen as targets in fewer
than half of the incidents (41 percent, n=15).
- In nearly half of the incidents, the attackers were known to have
chosen more than one target prior to their attack (44 percent, n=16).
- Most attackers had a grievance against at least one of their targets
prior to the attack (73 percent, n=30).
- In almost
half of the incidents (46 percent, n=17), individuals who were targeted
prior to the attack also became victims (i.e., individuals actually
harmed in the attack). However,
other individuals at the school, who were not identified as original
targets of the attack, were injured or killed as well.
Among these non-targeted individuals, over half were other students
(57 percent, n=21) and over one-third (39 percent, n=16) were school
administrators, faculty or staff.
See Appendix A for a list of the dates of the
incidents of targeted school violence examined by the
Safe
School Initiative.
See Appendix B for a list of the locations of
the incidents of targeted school violence studied under the
Safe
School Initiative.
“N” refers to the number of attackers
that corresponds to the reported percentage.
Unless indicated otherwise, when the finding
pertains to total attackers all N’s are out of a total of 41.
When the finding pertains to total incidents
(i.e., school-based attacks) all N’s are out of a total of 37 incidents.
While all the attackers in this study were boys,
it would be misleading to read the findings of this study as suggesting
that a girl could not or would not carry out a school-based attack.
For example, an incident occurred after the completion of this
study in which a girl shot her classmate at a parochial school in Williamsport,
Pa.
In addition, a well-publicized school shooting that occurred in
San Diego, Calif., in 1976 was carried out by a woman.
The San Diego incident was not included in
this study because the attacker was not a current or former student
of the school where she conducted her attack, but, rather, lived across
the street from the school.
These percentages include all weapons used (i.e.,
discharged) in the attack, and therefore total more than 100 percent.
For the purposes of this study, “grievance”
was defined as “a belief that some other person or organization
is directly or indirectly responsible for injury or harm to self and/or
someone whom the subject cares about.”
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