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School shooting refers to gun violence at educational institutions, especially the mass murder or spree killing of people connected with an institution. A school shooting can be perpetrated by people who have a mental disabilty, expelled students, alumni, faculty members, or outsiders. Unlike acts of revenge against specific people, school shootings usually involve multiple intended or actual victims, often randomly targeted. Most of the school shootings that have occurred have ended up with the perpetrators killing themselves and others.

Definition

School shootings are typically differentiated from other kinds of school violence. Mass killings at schools like the Beslan school hostage crisis are usually described as acts of terrorism. In 1970, student protests and unrest at Kent State and Jackson State universities lead to fatal shootings by National Guardsmen and police.

In the United States, one-on-one public school violence, such as beatings and stabbings, or violence related to gang activity, is more common in some densely populated areas which tend to be impoverished sections of cities. Ghettos are commonly associated with school shootings; inner city or urban schools were much more likely than other schools to report serious violent crimes with 17 percent of city principals reporting at least one serious crime compared to 11 percent of urban schools, 10 percent of rural schools, and five percent of suburban town schools in the 1997 school year. Student-perpetrated school shootings in North America most often occur in overwhelmingly white, middle class non-urban areas. In some cases, the victims of the shootings are involved in bullying or other acts of violence and intimidation towards the perpetrators.

Profiling

School shooting is a topic of intense interest in the United States. Though companies like MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems sell products and services designed to identify potential threats, a thorough study of all U.S. school shootings by the U.S. Secret Service warned against the belief that a certain "type" of student would be a perpetrator. Any "profile" would fit too many students to be useful and may not fit the potential perpetrators. Some lived with both parents in "an ideal, All-American family." Some were children of divorce, or lived in foster homes. A few were loners, but most had close friends.

While it may be simplistic to assume a straightforward "profile", the study did find certain similarities among the perpetrators. "The researchers found that killers do not 'snap'. They plan. They acquire weapons. These children take a long, considered, public path toward violence." Princeton's Katherine Newman points out that, far from being "loners", the perpetrators are "joiners" whose attempts at social integration fail, that they let their thinking and even their plans be known, sometimes frequently over long periods of times. The shootings seem as though an attempt to adjust their social standing and image, from "loser" to "master of violence."

Many of the shooters told Secret Service investigators that alienation or persecution drove them to violence. According to the United States Secret Service, instead of looking for traits, the Secret Service urges adults to ask about behavior:

1. What has this child said?

2. Do they have grievances?

3. What do their friends know?

4. Do they have access to weapons?

5. Are they depressed or despondent?

One "trait" that has not yet attracted as much attention is the gender difference: nearly all school shootings are perpetrated by young males, and in some instances the violence has clearly been gender-specific. Bob Herbert addressed this in an October 2006 New York Times editorial. One female carried out a school shooting in an exceptionally rare incident.

Other killers such as Thomas Hamilton, a fully grown adult male, in Scotland attacked school children in his killing spree which lead to much debate about the safety of school children in Scotland. Hamilton was not a student but rather killed school children at a primary school. This came as shock to Scotland, as a school shooting to this extent had not happened there before, especially in a primary school.

Discussion

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gained infamy for killing 13 people at Columbine High School and then themselves. The shooting led to widespread panic across America; schools were fitted with metal detectors, guards were allowed to search students and their belongings and those deemed a threat were sent to psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. This had led to controversy and anger from both students and parents. Michael Moore, who directed the documentary Bowling for Columbine stated explicitly in his film that these measures were redundant and did nothing to help students, teachers and parents. In his documentary, Michael Moore also implied that school shootings are an American problem despite the fact that school shooting have occurred in many countries around the world. According to author John Lott, the United States has fewer school shooting related deaths per student than many European countries.

School shootings receive extensive media coverage and are infrequent. They often result in nationwide changes of schools' policies concerning discipline and security. Some experts have described fears about school shootings as a type of moral panic.

Notable Shootings

North America

USA

Canada

The World

Famous Cases

Impact

School shootings in the USA have to a larger extent influenced American society and culture, for instance the following lists numerous television, film and documentary, TV series that have featured at one time or another an incidence of school shootings or person(s) involved. Since so many of the shootings have occurred in the USA, it has impacted the USA more so than any other country. Industries such as music, film, literature and theatrics have been actively involved in portraying a killers behaviour, adding also to how victim's respond afterwards. Some critics however cite that this has led to stereotypical attitudes being attributed to killers. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold however changed many people's view on such stereotypes when they killed together, but nonetheless the stereotypes are very much in society in general. Many thought the killers who attributed to school massacres were loners but usually had a close group of friends to associate with. School shootings have also had a political impact, spurring some to press for more stringent gun control laws. However, the National Rifle Association is opposed to such laws.

References

1. National Center for Education Statistics' Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools, 1996-97.
2. "'Profiling' School Shooters". Frontline. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-03-17. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
3. "The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative" (PDF). 2002-05-01.
4. PBS article on murder profiles
5. Bill Dedman, Deadly Lessons: School Shooters Tell Why, description of Secret Service study. (October 15 2000) Chicago Sun-Times. Accessed April 8 2006
6. http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/opinion/16herbert.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fBob%20Herbert&oref=slogin
7. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gW9eeND6lpzUpgmD_jq7GRujvfRAD8UM94HG0
8. CNN (March 25, 1998). School shootings have high profile but occur infrequently.
9. Killingbeck, Donna. The Role of Television News in the Construction of School Violence as a 'Moral Panic." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8(3) (2001) 186-202
10. The Brampton Centennial Secondary School massacre was a school shooting, which occurred at Brampton Centennial Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. 16-year old gunman Michael Slobodian shot and killed a fellow student, a teacher and injured 13 other students before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide in a school hallway. It was the first school shooting in Canada.Slobodian is the first recorded high-school killer in the country
11. The St. Pius X High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on October 27, 1975, at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Robert Poulin, an 18-year-old St. Pius student, opened fire on his classmates with a shotgun killing one and wounding five before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. Poulin had raped and stabbed his 17-year-old friend Kim Rabot to death prior to the incident. A book entitled Rape of a Normal Mind was written about the incident.
12. The École Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen (all of them women) and injuring the other fourteen before killing himself.
13. The Concordia University massacre was a school shooting on August 24, 1992 that resulted in the deaths of four people at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The shooter was Dr. Valery Fabrikant, a former Associate Professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia and a colleague of the slain men.
14. The W.R. Myers High School shooting occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada when a 14-year-old walked into his school and randomly shot at three students, killing Jason Lang and injuring another. One dead, one wounded in Alberta school shooting, cbc.ca, November 10, 1999 This shooting took place only eight days after the Columbine High School Massacre, and is widely believed to have been a copycat crime.
15. The Dawson College shooting occurred on September 13, 2006 at Dawson College, a CEGEP in Westmount near downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The perpetrator, Kimveer Gill, began shooting outside the de Maisonneuve Boulevard entrance to the school, and moved towards the atrium by the cafeteria on the main floor. "The Montreal Killer Was a Death-Obsessed Goth". Toronto Daily News. 2006-09-14. Retrieved 2006-09-15. "Two gunmen open fire at Dawson College". The Gazette. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13. One victim died at the scene, while another 19 were injured, eight of whom were listed in critical condition with six requiring surgery. "Press Release". Service de police de la ville de Montréal. Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:21pm EDT. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) "UPDATE 7-Gunman kills one, wounds 19 at Montreal college". Reuters. Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:23pm EDT. Retrieved 2006-09-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) "Woman, gunman dead in Montreal school rampage". CBC News. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13. The shooter later committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, after being shot in the arm by police. ""Montreal gunman killed himself: autopsy"". CBC. Retrieved 2006-09-15. {{cite news}}: Text "date 2006-09-14 18:11 EDT" ignored (help)
16. Two 17-year-old Canadian citizens, whom the media can not identify under the provisions of Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, were arrested on May 27, 2007 and charged with the first-degree murder of a 15-year old student at the C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. Prior to one of the arrests, police had taken the unusual step of obtaining a judicial order to publish one suspect's name and photograph as he was considered armed and dangerous. Media reported his identity and photo, then had to take the stories off their websites after he was arrested hours later.
17. Two students were fatally shot by a 14-year old student at the Raumanmeri secondary school. The shooter had claimed to be a victim of bullying.
18. University student shoots and kills three and wounds two others before taking his own life.
19. The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed, in addition to the attacker, who committed suicide. It remains the deadliest attack on children in United Kingdom history.
20. The Sanaa massacre was a school massacre that occurred in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 30, 1997. Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri, 48, attacked hundreds of pupils at two schools, killing six children and two adults with an assault rifle. Naziri, whose five children attended the Tala'i school, alleged that one of his daughters had been raped by the school administrator. No evidence was found of this. Naziri was sentenced to death the next day and executed on April 5, 1997.
21. The Erfurt massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 26, 2002 at the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany. Sixteen people were killed before the perpetrator committed suicide. The victims comprised 13 school staff (12 teachers and one administrator), two students and one police officer. In addition, seven people were injured.
22. The Monash University shooting refers to a shooting in which a student shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five. It took place at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on October 21, 2002.
23. 16 year-old student shoots two of his teachers before taking his own life.
24. Three students killed and six wounded by a 15-year-old student in a town 620 miles south of Buenos Aires.
25. Sebastian Bosse, an 18-year old male, and former student, had fired shots with sawen off shotguns on campus, wounding three students and two faculty members. Pipe bombs that were set off had injured sixteen police officers and sixteen other people inside the school. The shooter then took his own life.
26. Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists on Thursday and about 200 were hurt in the violence that flared after a scuffle between students at a Beirut university. The opposition accused the government camp of starting the riots and the four dead included two Hezbollah students, who were fired at from rooftops.
27. The incident resulted in the deaths of nine people: five male students (ages 16-18) and one female adult student (age 25) the school principal, Helena Kalmi (age 61); the school nurse (age 43); and the gunman, Auvinen, himself, who was also one of the school's students. One other person suffered gunshot wounds, and eleven people were injured by shattering glass while escaping from the school building. The day before the incident, Auvinen posted a video on YouTube predicting the massacre at the school.
28. The Euro International school shooting occurred on December 12, 2007 at Euro International, a private secondary school in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. The gunmen were 14-year old Akash Yadav and 13-year old Vikas Yadav, who were both students at the school, shot and killed a 14-year old student.

See also

• School violence
• List of school related attacks
• Moral panic
• Youth subculture
• Bullying

External links

• The Depressive and the Psychopath: The FBI's analysis of the Columbine killers' motives
• Schoolboy killing stuns Canada (The Guardian)
• Crime Library article about school shootings
• BBC timeline of US school shootings
• Indianapolis Star: School violence around the world (November 2004)
• The Scene of the Crime Was the Cause of the Crime - Excerpt from Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion -- From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond by Mark Ames.
• Dreading Columbine - Sociological exploration of suburban school shootings.
• Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence
• Teaching Kids to Kill
• Chronology of School Shootings
• Held Hostage at Case Western
• School Shootings and White Denial

Reports

• Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech Report of the Review Panel
• U.S. study of school shootings, "The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative"
• Advice for safe schools, Threat assessment in schools: A Guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates
• School Violence

• Spree shootings
• Murder in the United States
• Crime in Canada
• Education issues