By every measure, 2022 was the worst year ever for school shootings
In 2022, there were 302 school shootings, more than any year prior. In fact, for the 2022 school year — fall in particular — there was a…
In 2022, there were 302 school shootings, more than any year prior. In fact, for the 2022 school year — fall in particular — there was a shooting pretty much every single school day. I’ve been tracking school shootings every day since Parkland in 2018 for the K-12 School Shooting Database, and I haven’t seen anything in the last five years like this past fall.
241 of these shootings involved staff and students. More victims were wounded and killed (332) in 2022 than any other year. 149 of the 332 victims were students; others were teachers, staff, parents, and community members attending sporting events. In the most horrific example, 19 students and 2 teachers were killed, and 18 others wounded in a planned attack by a former student at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX. Despite billions invested into security and police training, this was the second most deadly school shooting in US history.
This year also featured both of the worst-case scenarios for planned attacks. The Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC was a sniper firing 239 rounds at the campus during dismissal. At CVPA High in St. Louis, a former student who knew the campus was able to break a window to open a locked door. He knew the weakness in the school’s security and exactly what would happen when there was an active shooter reported on campus. He used that knowledge to get into the school with an AR-15 rifle where he killed two and wounded seven others before dying during a shootout with police inside a 3rd floor classroom.
As security increased during the school day, shootings after school and during sporting events became more common. As ESPN reported based on the K-12 School Shooting Database, there was a `quiet phenomenon’ of 35 shootings at school sporting events this fall, many wounding innocent spectators in the stands. Similarly, students were targeted leaving school buildings during 22 dismissal shootings this fall. More research is needed to understand if fortifying school buildings is displacing crime to vulnerable areas just beyond school doors.
School shootings are more than numbers of victims and headlines. It’s worth taking some time to explore some of the attacks and near misses that didn’t make national news.
January 14, 2022: Gaithersburg High School (MD)
An unarmed security officer saw a vehicle with out of state license plates idling in the school parking lot before classes began. When he approached the car, it sped across the parking lot toward the football stadium. The driver lost control and crashed down a set of stairs. The driver got out of the car with a loaded AR-15 and surrendered to the security guard. When arrested, the man claimed he was meeting someone to sell the gun. It remains unclear exactly what was about to happen if the guard didn’t spot the suspicious vehicle.
February 1, 2022: Rufus King High School (WI)
A fight over a social media post erupted in the school parking lot following a high school basketball game. Someone pulled a gun and fired into the crowd. Five girls ages 20, 15, 15, 16, and 17 were wounded. The shooter fled and was not identified.
February 20, 2022: McColm High School (MS)
Drive-by shooting targeted students and fans leaving a high school basketball game. A 6-year-old boy was killed and four others were wounded. Four teens were arrested and charged with capital murder.
March 4, 2022: Olathe East High School (KS)
After getting a tip that a student had a gun on campus, the assistant principal and school resource officer devised a plan to get the student out of his classroom and into an office without raising suspicion. Once they had the student in their office, they asked to search his backpack. The teen pulled out a handgun and shot the assistant principal and officer multiple times. The officer was able to return fire, critically wounding the teen and radio for help. No other students or staff were injured.
March 7, 2022: East High School (IA)
A 15-year-old boy was killed and two female students (16 and 18) were critically wounded during a drive-by shooting in front of the school at dismissal. 40 shots were fired by six teens inside three different vehicles. The teen killed was the target of the attack and both girls were bystanders. The school went on lockdown. All six teens were charged with first degree murder and attempted murder.
March 10, 2022: North Gardens High (FL)
Two teens, 17 and 18, fired shots from a vehicle in front of the school. Bullets pierced the school doors and classroom walls. One student standing in front of the school (believed to be the target) was critically injured. Two students inside a classroom were wounded. Shooters fled and fired at police during a vehicle pursuit. The teens had a pistol with a high capacity magazine and an AR-15 rifle, both modified for fully automatic fire.
April 6, 2022: Ripley Middle School (WV)
A 15-year-old student pulled out a loaded gun on the school bus. Before he could fire, multiple students subdued him and took away the weapon. The teen stole the gun from his older brother and was planning to execute a student who he had an on-going dispute with.
April 22, 2022: Edmund Burke School (DC)
Students crossing an elevated bridge at a private prep school in Washington, DC suddenly took fire from an automatic rifle fired by a deranged man hidden across the street in a 5th floor apartment. The shooter immediately proceeded to upload a video from his rifle scope to the unmoderated website 4Chan. The shooter’s terrible aim was an unorthodox miracle, as somehow no students were killed despite at least 237 rounds being fired prior to the shooter’s suicide. One student, a parent, a bystander, and a security officer (retired DC police officer) were critically wounded. A trauma procedure that had never been attempted before at GWU Hospital is credited with saving Officer Antonio Harris’ life. There is no known motive or connection between the assailant and the Edmund Burke School. I wrote about this attack in detail in April of this year (2022), and the unheeded implications of the nightmare scenario that sniper-style attacks on schools pose.
May 9, 2022: Riverside Elementary School (GA)
A 57-year-old woman fired 12 shots at a school bus in front of her house. Two shots were through the windshield and just missed the driver. Students on the bus were not injured. The driver told the students to take cover and kept driving to the school. The shooter was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree cruelty to children, five counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of certain felonies, and unauthorized discharge of a firearm near a public street. Prior to the shooting, neighbors said the woman had thrown rocks at the school bus and would walk in the middle of the street to prevent the bus from passing her.
September 27, 2022: Roxborough High School (PA)
After a lunch time dispute with players on the football team, 5 students waited in a car outside the stadium for a scrimmage to end. When the players left the stadium, the teens jumped out of the vehicle wearing ski masks armed with automatic weapons. They fired 90 shots, killing a 15-year-old and wounding 4 others. One attacker stood over a wounded player and attempted to shoot him in the head, but the gun jammed so he ran back to their stolen getaway car. 3 months later, two of the attackers still have not been identified or arrested.
September 28, 2022: Rudsdale Continuation High School (CA)
Two gunmen ran inside the high school during what police believe was intended to be a targeted gang attack. They fired multiple shots, wounding 5 staff members and killing a carpenter repairing a desk. The carpenter, David Sakurai, 64, had worked for the school system for almost 40 years. Shooters fled and were not identified.
October 24, 2022: Central Visual and Performing Arts High (MO)
A former student parked next to the school and broke a window to open a locked door. He entered the building with an AR-15 and 300 rounds of ammo, then quickly sprinted up to a 3rd floor where he fired shots in the hallway. Students heard gunfire and instead of locking down in classrooms, they jumped out of windows to get away from the building. One student was killed, a teacher was killed, and 7 students were wounded. The shooter was killed by police during a standoff in a classroom. Hundreds of rounds were fired and if students did disregard the lockdown plan and get out of the building on their own, the attack would have been far worse.
November 12, 2022: Jones High School (FL)
A 19-year-old recent graduate was killed, and two adults were wounded, when three teens fired shots into the crowd leaving a playoff football game at the high school. All of the victims were bystanders. Teen perpetrators were identified and arrested 4 weeks after the shooting.
December 6, 2022: Sugar Creek Consolidated Elementary School (IN)
During lunch, a 12-year-old student left the school and went to a nearby house where he retrieved a weapon. At the same time, the school resource officer and assistant principal were searching outside of the school for the missing student. When they spotted the student in a field behind the school, they heard gunshots. The school was locked down and the SWAT team was called. The student was arrested without anyone getting hurt.
December 7, 2022: Fuquay-Varina Middle School (NC)
As morning classes began, the teacher heard a gunshot and all of the students in the room took cover. She saw a 12-year-old student holding a gun and a bullet hole in the window. She walked to the student, told him to give her the gun, and then took the weapon away from him. While waiting for police to arrive, the student told the teacher that he hated the school and everyone in it. Student’s father was also arrested for failing to secure a firearm.
December 16, 2022: Benito Juarez High School (IL)
Four students were shot, two fatally, just outside the building at dismissal. Two boys, ages 14 and 15, both were shot in the head and died at the hospital. A 15-year-old boy was wounded in his thigh and shoulder, and a 15-year-old girl was grazed in her thigh. The shooter fled and has not been arrested.
Status Quo is Unacceptable
No two incidents are exactly alike, although some are strikingly similar. The unique circumstances of each situation illustrate how complex the problem is. There is no simple or singular solution that would stop all of these attacks.
The attacks in Parkland and Uvalde have given rise to a multi-billion dollar school security industry. We need to ask what “school security” really is and is not. Huge sums of money invested wantonly in this evidence-lacking, consensus-barren “field” cause more harm than good for students. Almost every school security solution has disadvantages that can have the deadly potential to make any active shooter situation far worse. Any investments in school security need to be carefully analyzed and coordinated with everyone who is involved in school safety. The best solutions, though incredibly complicated, are crisis intervention and threat assessment programs that stop shootings before they happen. The most important thing to remember is there’s nothing we can buy or build to stop the next school shooting.
We cannot accept the status quo that school shootings are a normal part of American life. It’s unacceptable for 19 children to be murdered while they hide under their desks in a classroom. Lockdowns and turning schools into fortresses doesn’t work. Children have little control over the decisions made by adults to keep them safe inside schools. As adults, we must realize that the things being done to protect children are not only failing, they are seriously risking making the problem even more lethal to their young lives.
David Riedman is the founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida. To support the K-12 School Shooting Database and The Violence Project, please donate.
Note: The K-12 School Shooting Database is a holistic picture of gun violence on campus and records events after hours on school property. Of the 302 shootings, only 61 happened on school property when the school was closed. Only 51 of the 332 victims had no relation to the school (such as someone who was shot during a drug deal in the school parking lot after hours). Even when the person shot was not a student or staff member, there is an effect on a community, and students worry about their safety when someone is killed on campus.