Over the last 10 years, much attention has been focused on a growing trend toward deadly violence in schools. The school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas; West Padukah, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; and Littleton, Colorado stand out in our history as some of the most grievous acts of violence perpetrated by youth.
In this environment, school administrators, teachers, and other staff are challenged with the ongoing task of trying to keep their schools safe. Complicating this task are risk factors, such as the media, drugs, depression, alcohol, family stress, bullying, accessibility to guns, and others. All contribute to the perpetration of violence.
To more fully understand the scope of the underlying obstacles that exist, it is important to critically examine the incidents that have occurred. Perhaps, with careful analysis, we will be better able to detect what went wrong, why, and how future events might be avoided.
This portion of our web site was initiated as a source of information about some of the most disturbing violence that has been experienced in our schools. The information is presented in the form of a chronology of major incidents of violence or threats that have occurred at schools in recent years. These summaries were compiled from various newspaper articles. Though some information on the incidents was not always available, an attempt was made to capture a synopsis of the incident, including aspects such as precipitators, characteristics, motives, outcomes, and other contributing factors.