Shooting on the last day of school, another graduation shooting, and teacher planned to be the next school shooter
There was so much important school safety news this week that I needed to write a summary.
Yesterday morning, I published an article about shootings at graduations. My plan for this week was to release the first episode of my podcast on Monday and then my article about graduation ceremony shootings on Thursday to get ahead of this issue before the holiday weekend. While most high school seniors cross the stage in June, there had already been five shootings at graduations in May 2024.
Back in the spring of 2018 after 77 students and staff were shot during planned attacks in Marshall County, KY, Parkland, FL, and Santa Fe, TX, a school police officer stopped a planned attack during graduation rehearsal at Dixon High in Illinois. A 19-year-old former student fired several shots near the school gym where seniors were gathered for a graduation walk-through. The shooter was immediately engaged by a school police officer and both were wounded as they shot at each other. No other students or staff were injured.
As soon as I published the graduation article yesterday, there was a flood of really important news:
Two people were shot inside Skyline High School in Oakland, CA last night during a graduation ceremony. The shooting stemmed from a dispute between adults.
A man was fatally shot during a dispute with another attendee outside North Marion Middle School in Florida as students and parents arrived for the end of year awards ceremony.
A student was shot leaving West Jefferson High School in Louisiana on the last day of classes yesterday afternoon.
A high school chemistry teacher in Louisville, KY was arrested after telling students he would be the next school shooter and “that he only had a few days left to shoot up the school”.
Hartford Middle School in Michigan went on lockdown after students reported seeing a classmate with a gun and heard rumors that a planned school shooting was going to happen. Police searched the school, didn’t find a weapon, and told parents it was just a hoax. The next morning a gun was found at the school that police likely missed during the search!
An 8th grader was shot in the face outside Alger Middle School in Michigan at noon on Tuesday by a classmate. Per the injured student’s mother, the shooting was an accident while the kids were playing with a gun. The school does not have outdoor lunch or recess and it’s unclear why two middle school kids were outside the building during the school day. The mother of the victim said: “He walked right out their door. It’s terrible to me. The safety, the security of these children; it’s an understatement. They don’t know when these kids coming and going.” In response to the shooting outside, the school has installed metal detectors at the door for the remainder of the school year.
I want to take a little more of your time to dig into the shooting on the last day of school in Harvey, LA.
Shooting at dismissal on the last day of school
Without the K-12 School Shooting Database a journalist wouldn't know there have been 18 shootings at schools in New Orleans since 1979.
From The Times-Picayune:
A male student was shot across the street from West Jefferson High School in Harvey, LA during dismissal Thursday, sending panicked students fleeing into the street on the the last day of school.
Note 1: Cellphone video shows the wounded student on the ground in the school parking lot.
Katie Kwofo, 15, had just walked out of the school with a friend and was looking for her mom's car when she said she overheard two gunshots.
"We turned around and we saw a guy lying on the ground," Katie said.
The injured person was still moving, and other students ran to him to see if he was OK, she said.
Note 2: Looking at the google map, the student was shot at the school parking lot exit. This location is 400 feet from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. As I've said before, criminology studies since the 1970s find that the presence of an officer, armed person, or "capable guardian" has no impact on reducing violent crime.
Frightened, Katie, her friend and many of the students outside of the school took off running. Some darted back into the building, and a teacher began directing them to the gym for safety.
17-year-old was detained at his home later Thursday and the Sheriff's Office said he will be booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a count of attempted second-degree murder, possession of a weapon on school grounds, and possession of a weapon by someone under the age of 18.
The last time a Jefferson Parish student was shot was in 2007 when a 13-year-old died by suicide at John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, according to K-12 School Shooting Database Project.
The last time an Orleans Parish student was shot was in 2019 when an 11th grader at George Washington Carver High School was shot near campus and ran inside the school. There have been 18 shootings involving New Orleans students since 1979 either on or near campus or at school-sanctioned events, according to the database.
Five trends from this shooting
1. When there is a shooting committed by a student at dismissal, this usually means that the student was carrying a gun at school all day.
2. Parking lots are the most common location at a school for a shooting to occur.
3. Looking at the last 300 shootings, dismissal and sporting events are the most common time periods for a shooting on campus.
4. A fight escalating into a shooting is the most common situation.
5. When shots are fired during a fight, the shooter almost always flees making a lockdown pointless because the shooter is no longer on the campus.
Looking back at shootings in Louisiana
The Times-Picayune article references 18 shootings since 1979. I took a look back to see what happened and a shooting in September 2000 is one of the craziest cases in the K-12 School Shooting Database. Two middle school students got into a fight outside of Carter G. Woodson Middle School in New Orleans. For security, the middle school had metal detectors and a fence around the campus.
During the fight, a third kid—who was expelled from the school—tossed a gun over the fence to his friend. With the gun, Student 1 shot Student 2. Student 2 then wrestled the gun away and shot Student 1. Both of the students were critically injured.
This is why I include the shooter in the count of injured and killed because these kids were both the shooters and victims. Having zero victims for this case wouldn't make any sense.
Wrap-up
Have a safe Memorial Day weekend. If you are involved with school security, please take some time to think about the emergency plan for a shooting at a graduation ceremony and take efforts to keep attendees from bringing a gun to campus.
Last year a parent fatally shot himself during graduation while adjusted his concealed handgun. A simple message to parents like “even if you have a concealed carry permit, leave your gun at home during graduation” might save a life.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database. Listen to my new podcast Back to School Shootings, or catch-up on my prior interviews including Freakonomics Radio and New England Journal of Medicine.