School shootings don't just deprive children of their lives and innocence; they deprive parents of a sense of safety and security their parents and grandparents took for granted. June 7, 1960 Blaine, Minnesota Lester Betts, a 40-year-old mail-carrier, walked into the office of 33-year-old principal Carson Hammond and shot him to death with a 12-gauge shotgun. The next deadliest school shooting (based on fatalities) was the Sandy. For the mass shooting that occurred in 2023, see Killing of the Haight family. The early 1980s saw only a few multi-victim school shootings including; January 20, 1983 St. Louis County, Missouri the Parkway South Middle School, eighth grader brought a blue duffel bag containing two pistols, and a murder/suicide note that outlined his intention to kill the next person heard speaking ill of his older brother Ken. An 18-year-old gunman got out of his car and opened fire at the school. The previous "record holder" was the University of Texas massacre by Charles Whitman. Just after 7 am on April 16, 2007, there was an active shooter at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. The motive for the shooting was Kurd making a disparaging remark about Nicholson's daughter during her recital. Subscribe for free weekly updates from this History site. List of school shootings in the United States (2000-present) See also List of school shootings in the United States by death toll This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title List of school shootings in the United States. With 32 killed and dozens injured, the massacre at Virginia Tech remains the worse school shooting in the United States. Date Location Attacker (s) Casualties Description. A security guard spotted the young man and did nothing. Dixon calls it the "Enoch Brown Schoolhouse Massacre" (p. 223). A video was found shortly after the shooting of them apologizing to their parents for what they were about to do. As tragic as it was, Columbine wasn't the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. school, either. The officers fired into the crowd, killing three young men: Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding twenty-seven others. The testimony of the traumatized children didnt precisely agree, so the defense argued that Butler had mesmerized them with his presence. His wife, who had been a teacher at the school, had filed for divorce the week before. December 24, 1948 was the first accidental school shooting. One other student named Archie McCullough was wounded. Lawyers and state officials were skeptical, feeling if these allegations were true, they would have likely come out 20 years before. They exchanged words that were hard for witnesses to make out. It was learned that Spencers father gave her the rifle and 400 rounds of ammunition as a Christmas gift, none of which she requested. April 15, 1908 Asheville, North Carolina Dr. C. O. Swinney shot and fatally wounded his 16-year-old daughter Nellie in a reception room at Normal and Collegiate Institute. Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, The Subject Of This Netflix True Crime Doc Is Now Guilty Of Murdering His Wife & Son, Heres How To Watch The Alex Murdaugh Trial Live, Sophie Turners Joan Charts The Rise Of A Famous British Jewel Thief, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. The student then pulled out a 9mm assault rifle and opened fire. 1999-2000 (25 Homicides from school shootings in the U.S.). November 13, 1949 Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University freshman James Heer grabbed a .45 caliber handgun from the room of a Delta Tau Delta fraternity brother and shot and killed his fraternity brother Jack McKeown, 21, an Ohio State senior. The gunman escaped in the crowd of fleeing students, but was later arrested off campus. 1997-1998 (35 Homicides and 40 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. The Schoolmaster ran out, but she was dead instantly. In the modern era, the rarity of these events has been steadily decreasing, which may be caused by the confusion that surrounds gun laws and regulations. The Issue: Over the past two decades, 143 American public schools have experienced shootings during school hours that resulted in at least one fatality. When the prosecution pointed out that Butler could not even make a fist because of a childhood burn, the defense countered that Ward, a Harvard graduate and young author, was peaceable, gentle and kind. (Like Butler, Ward suffered from an infirmity, rheumatism, which caused him to use a crutch in court.) May 1, 1958: Massapequa, New York A 15-year-old high school freshman was shot and killed by a classmate in a washroom of the Massapequa High School. Its victim was a teacher. Published by Statista Research Department , Jan 4, 2023. On October 2, 2006, milk-tank truck driver Charles Carl Roberts opened fire on a small Amish schoolhouse in Bart Township, Pennsylvania. The newspapers reported that Allen was also Matt Wards best friend. On the morning of January 29, 1979, teenager Brenda Spencer took a break from shooting people through her window to answer the phone. After murdering his mother at their home, Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life. History of Now The 1927 Bombing That Remains America's Deadliest School Massacre More than 90 years ago, a school in Bath, Michigan was rigged with explosives in a brutal act that stunned the. Butler was revealed to have previously worked in the Ward mansion as a private tutor. November 24, 1946: New York City A 13-year-old student at St. Benedict's Parochial School, shot and fatally wounded himself while sitting in an audience watching a school play. Her memoir, reportedly titled A Mother's Reckoning, will be published next week, with profits going to mental health charities and research. It was later discovered that he had killed his wife and mother prior to the attack. A 15-year-old has killed four fellow students and injured seven others, including a teacher, in a high school shooting in the US state of Michigan. 2007-2008 (3 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) The shooting claimed the lives of Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, authorities said. Some health experts argued that it did not influence his behavior, while others suggested it might have contributed to his inability to control his emotions. On April 9, 1891,elderly James Foster fired his shotgun at a group of children playing in front of St. Mary's Parochial School in Newburgh, NY. The federal Safe School Initiative was formed after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre to help determine how to prevent future attacks. [11], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}394929N 774521W / 39.8246N 77.7559W / 39.8246; -77.7559. December 15, 1997 Stamps, Arkansas Two students wounded. December 22, 1868 Chattanooga, Tennessee A boy who refused to be whipped and left school, returned with his brother and a friend, the next day to seek revenge on his teacher. 409 shooters (19.9%) had no school affiliation. When the Columbine shooting happened in 1999, the survivors had no concept of what a school shooting was. In the earliest known school shooting in the United States that happened on July 26, 1764, 4 American Indians entered the schoolhouse, shot and killed the schoolmaster, and killed nine or ten children. The Post also told the story of a despondent Minneapolis . Seung-Hui Cho (23) opened fire at two locations on campus, first the dormitory, followed by an academic building where he locked the doors and went from classroom to classroom shooting at random. [6] Since then, motives have. The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 shooting at . According to newspaper accounts, he was killed by a group of men, probably Confederate raiders, who were trying to steal his enslaved people. March 4, 1958: New York City, New York "A 17-year-old student shot a boy in the Manual Training High School." [4] The warriors then clubbed and scalped the children. On Sept. 30, 1862, Ward walked out the front door of his plantation. First the 16-year-old shooter killed his grandfather and the grandfather's girlfriend before driving to Red Lake Senior High School, which he used to attend, and opening fire. There are very seldom reports of mass or multiple school shootings during the first three decades of the 20th Century, with the three most violent attacks on schools involving either arson or explosions. Who do you thinks doing the shooting?, The reporter then asked Why? and the answer Spencer gave would become famous. Dixon calls it the "Enoch Brown Schoolhouse Massacre" (p. 223). There were 51 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year , the most in a single year since Education Week began tracking such incidents in . Custodian Michael Suchar, a World War II veteran, was killed as he tried to drag Wraggs body away from the gunfire. Uvalde school shooting Essay: America's first modern mass shooting never really ended. Only two children survived. Data on the mass shootings that have occurred so far this year can be found here.. None of the children were killed, but many were injured. May 15, 1954 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Putnam Davis Jr. was shot and killed during a fraternity house carnival at the Phi Delta Theta house at the University of North Carolina. Immediately following the attack, the surviving students launched a push for stricter gun control. Until Matt and Robert Ward walked in, the schoolhouse on Chestnut Street in Louisville on Nov. 2, 1853, was engaged in the routine morning business of words, numbers and questions. An April 30, 1866 editorial in the New York Times argued against students carrying pistols, citing "pistols being dropped on the floor at balls or being exploded in very inconvenient ways. 242 individuals were held hostage at gunpoint. October 8, 1953: New York City, New York Larry Licitra, 17-year-old student at the Machine and Metal Trades High School, was shot and slightly wounded in the right shoulder in the lobby of the school while inspecting a handmade pistol owned by one of several students. A 15-year-old boy is in custody after three students died and eight were injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, authorities said. One by one, his students testified to how he had helped them. On July 26 . The majority of attacks during this time period by students on other students or teacher, usually involved stabbing with knives, or hitting with stones. [2][3] Two scalped children survived their wounds. Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children; nonetheless he was beaten with a club and scalped. In 1,259 incidents, there was one shooter . The incident was likely sparked by Wiseman's refusal to marry Barnett. 16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot, March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. What if they got the idea from what I did?. Her targets were children. 1995-1996 (29 Homicides and 35 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) It's been almost 17 years since teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people including themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. A boy of 12 has his pantaloons made with a pistol pocket; and this at a boarding-school filled with boys, who, we suppose, do or wish to do the same thing. February 24, 1903 Inman, South Carolina Edward Foster, a 17-year-old student at Inman High school, was shot and fatally wounded by his teacher Reuben Pitts after he had jerked a rod from Pitts' hands to resist punishment. The Ward trial began April 18, 1854, in nearby Elizabethtown, having been moved to an adjoining county because of the public outcry. Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children before being shot and scalped. The revelations about Matt Ward were more damning. As a result, national gun debates are being waged fiercely, an issue which deeply divides the American people. Tereaschinko was reportedly upset that Malakanoff refused to elope with him. Then in a quiet voice, Matt Ward demanded to see Mr. Butler, one of the teachers at the high school. Their demand for $300 million dollars came to an abrupt end when Doris accidentally set off a bomb, killing herself and injuring 78 students and teachers. There have been 71 mass shootings in the US this year - in just 6 weeks. School shootings in the United States more than tripled in 2021-22 school year, a new report reveals . The crime was never solved. getty. Kehoe found this a great financial burden and blamed these additional taxes for the foreclosure proceedings against his farm. Now considered the deadliest school shooting, the Virginia Tech attack was once the deadliest mass shooting in the US in general but now ranks third. May 21, 1998 Springfield, Oregon Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. July 22, 1950 New York City, New York A 16-year-old boy was shot in the wrist and abdomen at the Public School 141 dance during an argument with a former classmate. The teacher had just passed out. June 4, 1936 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Wesley Crow shot and killed his Lehigh University English instructor, C. Wesley Phy. July 4, 1940: Valhalla, New York Angered by the refusal of his daughter, Melba, 15 years old, to leave a boarding school and return to his home, Joseph Moshell, 47, visited the school and shot and killed the girl. This was deadliest act of mass murder at a school in the United States. Contributing writer, Timeline (@Timeline_Now); reader and excavator of generally good things. According to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, in the United States, from September 1986 to September 1990 (four year period): At least 71 people (65 students and 6 school employees) had been killed with guns at school. March 11, 1949: New York City A 16-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School was accidentally shot in the arm by a fellow student who was 'showing off' with a pistol in a classroom. Mass shootings are going to happen again. Though the earliest school shooting is dated back to July 26, 1764, the most infamous school shooting in U.S. history has been Columbine and unfortunately has been the blueprint for so many other offenders across the country. January 17, 1989 Cleveland School massacre of Stockton, California where 5 school children were killed and 29 wounded by a single gunman firing over 100 rounds into a schoolyard from an AK-47. December 16, 1988 Virginia Beach, Virginia Nicholas Elliott, 15, opened fire with a SWD Cobray M-11 semiautomatic pistol on his teachers at the Atlantic Shores Christian School. Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. Ultimately, it seems that virtually no conversation about gun violence in the U.S. would be complete without mentioning the mass casualties that have occurred at the hands of mentally troubled and otherwise disturbed young people on school grounds. The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indians entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). 2003-2004 (29 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Eyewitnesses had seen Ward shoot Butler. Foster's motivations wereunclear. Spencer continued to shoot at the students. On May 18 at 9:45 am, they detonated by way of alarm clock. We would advise parents to look into it, and learn whether shooting is to be a part of the scholastic course which may be practiced on their boys; or else we advise them to see that their own boys are properly armed with the most approved and deadly-pistol, and that there may be an equal chance at least of their shooting as of being shot.". May 6, 1940 South Pasadena, California. Public outrage led to a push for federal changes to gun laws, but the bill did not pass; however, a number of states have since amended their local laws. List of school shootings in the United States (before 2000), List of school shootings in the United States (2000present), "July 1764 Enoch Brown schoolhouse massacre commemorated", "The History and Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford and Adams", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enoch_Brown_school_massacre&oldid=1142038844, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 05:05. His students helped organize the service. The attack was the first documented shooting at a U.S. primary or secondary schoolhouse. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza (20) rocked the nation when, after killing his mother, he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He had a history of racist comments and supposedly had ties to white supremacists, often voicing his desire to shoot police and anti-fascist protestors. Overall, the bombings killed 44 people38 of which were schoolchildrenand left 58 injured. [5], Incidents such as these prompted the Pennsylvania Assembly, with the approval of Governor John Penn, to reintroduce the scalp bounty system previously used during the French and Indian War. In 887 incidents (43.1%), the shooter was a current student at the school. The Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre in 1764, is the first recorded case of school shooting in the US. On July 26, 1764, a group ofLenape American Indians entered a schoolhouse nearGreencastle, PA, and clubbed and scalped schoolmaster Enoch Brown and killed9 or 10 of his children (precise numbers vary). Only the brother survived. December 12, 1935 New York City, New York, Victor Koussow, a Russian laboratory worker at the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, shot Prof. Arthur Taylor Rowe, Prof. Paul B. Wiberg, and wounded Dr. William H. Crawford at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, before committing suicide. It's just one of the latest tragedies in a long. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged. November 2, 1853 Louisville, Kentucky A student, Matthew Ward, bought a self-cocking pistol in the morning, went to school and killed Schoolmaster Mr. Butler for excessively punishing his brother the day before. Most of the bloodshed occurred in the schools library where, shortly after noon, Harris and Klebold turned the guns on themselves. Her dad left the house around 7 a.m. Around 8:30 that morning, Spencer retrieved her .22 caliber rifle, equipped with a telescopic sight, and began firing across the street.