Every shooting at a school in March 2024

Arrival and dismissal continue to be the most frequent time periods for a shooting on campus, further complicating school security plans focused on locking down inside classrooms.

March was another busy month with 24 shootings on k-12 campuses, the Oxford, MI school shooter’s father being convicted of manslaughter, launching a new open access Tableau dashboard for the K-12 School Shooting Database, and my project last year with The Economist being named a finalist in the global media awards.

There was a notable averted school shooting plot in March. A 12-year-old student threatened to commit a school shooting in Springfield, MA and posted a photo on social media holding a gun. When police attempted to investigate, the student’s mother refused to allow police to search her home. When police executed a search warrant, they found two unregistered firearms and arrested two adults.

In March 2024, there were 24 incidents which is a substantial decrease from 2022 and 2023.

Aligning with a lower number of incidents, there were also fewer victims than 2022 or 2023. Last March, 7 people were shot at The Covenant School in Nashville, TN. So far this year, there has been one planned attack with multiple victims at Perry High School in Iowa.

While the number of shootings on school property are down for March 2024, it is important to remember that 11 students were shot in Philadelphia while waiting for SEPTA buses after school. These shootings were off school property and are not included in the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Even though shootings at city bus stops don’t meet the criteria in my methodology, these are high impact incidents for students. Brandon Lopez, 16, is a member of the chess team at his high school in Philly. He was caught in the crossfire when dozens of shots were fired at a group of students waiting for the SEPTA bus after school. Unlike yellow buses in the suburbs, city kids take public transit.

The shooting in March that happened on campus took place across a variety of locations including parking lots, front areas of schools, playgrounds, and athletic facilities such as basketball courts and football fields.

Shootings occurred at all different time periods of the school day. Following the trend from the last 2 years, shootings when the school building opens before classes start, afternoon classes (meaning a student has probably been carrying a gun all day inside the school), and during dismissal are the most common time periods.

The location and time periods of these shootings continue to create a challenging environment for school security. Adding security checkpoints or a “single point of entry” can create crowds of students waiting to enter or exit the building. This increases risk by concentrating students into the same area if a shooting happens during arrival or dismissal.

Following the same patterns since 1966, handguns were the most common type of firearm used on campus in March.

For comparison, more than 90% of the shootings at schools during the month of March over the last 10 years were committed with handguns.

While effort is being focused on legislation to change age requirements and limits availability of semi-automatic rifles, handguns pose a much bigger problem for schools. Unlike a rifle, handguns can be concealed and carried throughout the school day. This means that a fight can quickly escalate into a shooting if a teenage student is carrying a handgun. A student can also sneak a handgun into a school to commit a pre-planned surprise attack (like Rigby Middle where a 12-year-old girl with a handgun planned to kill 20-30 students).

Looking at 230 planned attacks at schools since 1966, more victims have been killed and wounded with handguns than rifles or other types/combinations of firearms.

If parents, teachers, and school officials want campuses to be safe and free from the risk of a shooting, meaningful efforts need to be taken to reduce the availability and ease of teens carrying handguns. In March, IPVM reported that a prominent school security vendor has failed to disclose to schools that their multi-million dollar AI-powered metal detectors do not reliably detect handguns.

My Substack Articles in March

If you missed any of my articles in March, I covered a wide array of school safety topics:

• New Questions One Year After Covenant School shooting in Nashville

• Global Media Award Finalist: Inside a month of America's school shootings

• New school shooting dashboard created by Tableau's 'Data for Good' award winner

• Wild fight between teacher and school security has implications for arming staff

• Were the Oxford school shooter's parents guilty of material support to terrorism?

• How do AI security products being sold to schools really work?

• What's the 'Use of Force Continuum' for armed teachers?

• Near Miss Report: Police shoot at student inside Mesquite, TX high school

Paid subscribers can see descriptions of each incident in March and read my exclusive near miss reports. Why is this content only available to paid members? It takes me a lot of time to update the database every day and write articles each week. Each paid subscription helps support my work and I’m grateful for everyone who has upgraded.

Summary of Incidents in March 2024

3/26/2024 Turner County High School, Ashburn, GA

• Shots fired on school tennis court