Ten shootings in 2023 that every school official should know about
When evaluating a school's security plan or a new product, how many of these 10 incidents would be prevented or mitigated? Would any have worse outcomes?
What is a “school shooting”? There is no legal or commonly agreed upon definition. I believe that it’s anytime a gun is fired on a school campus. Looking back at 2023, there were ten shootings that highlight why it’s important for school officials to consider a wide variety of circumstances.
Shootings don’t just happen when students are inside a classroom. There were shootings during arrival, dismissal, and after school events. The perpetrators ranged from a six-year-old child to parents and adult former students. Some shootings were premeditated attacks while others were spontaneous in the heat of an argument. Shootings took place at the front door, in the parking lot, inside the school office, hallways, and at the football field. (more about the trends in 2023)
I want school officials who make policy decisions—superintendents, principals, police chiefs, school board members—to ask themselves these questions as they read about the incidents:
What systems or procedures could have prevented this shooting?
Did locking down the school make the situation better or worse?
Would an armed staff member be able to stop the shooting, or would they create a new risk of unintentionally shooting other students/bystanders?
Does the current emergency plan account for this situation?
Note: These ten incidents are only a few examples of the 345 shootings on k-12 campuses in 2023. Every shooting has a profound impact on the entire school community and no incident is more important than any other. These shootings were selected because they represent a variety of different circumstances.
Franklin High - Rochester, NY (Jan. 5)
Just five days into 2023, shots rang out as students arrived before first period classes started at Franklin High. Following security procedures, guards heard the shots and locked the front doors to the building. At the same time, a masked gunman was chasing a teenage student across the campus toward the now locked front doors. Two teenage girls, who were unaware of the situation, also arrived at the locked front doors and tried to get into the school.
The teen being chased and both girls ended up trapped at the entry way into the school. Both girls banged on the locked door and yelled to the guards for help as the gunman approached them. The masked shooter raised his gun and pulled the trigger, but the weapon malfunctioned, and he ran away from the school.
Richneck Elementary - Newport News, VA (Jan. 6)
The day after the attempted execution at Franklin High, a six-year-old student intentionally shot his teacher inside a classroom. Right after the shooting, the child said, “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I did it. I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to recently unsealed police search warrants.
As shocking as it was to hear that a young child fired a gun at school, this wasn’t the first time. I wrote in The Conversation:
This is the 17th shooting involving a student under the age of 10 at a school since 1970 – the first year for which my database keeps track. Most of these shootings were not intentional. But in 1975, a 9-year-old student at the Pitcher School in Detroit was in a fight with a 13-year-old, left campus, got a rifle from his house and came back to the school and shot the student in the head, killing him.
In 2000, a 6-year-old boy fatally shot his 6-year-old classmate, Kayla Rolland, in their classroom at Buell Elementary School in Michigan while their teacher lined up other students in the hallway. The shooting followed a dispute on the playground.
Ridgeview Junior High - Pickerington, OH (Feb. 2)
At 10:00am during morning classes, a school resource officer and detective were dispatched to the campus when a student’s mother and stepfather arrived after some type of incident off-campus. When the detective went into the school office to speak with the stepfather, the man pulled a handgun and took his own life. The child (student) and mother were not in the room, but were in the vicinity. No one else was injured in the incident but the gunshot was heard throughout the building.
Even though the shooting had been witnessed by a police officer and nobody else was injured, the school still went on lockdown for multiple hours. Students were eventually evacuated to the nearby high school, dismissed to their parents, and classes were cancelled the next day.
Covenant School - Nashville, TN (March 27)
Three students and three adult school staff members were killed by a former student armed with multiple weapons.
Nine months later, an official report and timeline of events has not been released. No recommendations or lessons learned have been shared with other schools to help respond more effectively or prevent a future attack.
After shooting at schools across the country, this critical information remains hidden from the public (and other school officials) because police department don’t want to admit fault and school systems try to settle privately instead of allowing others to learn from these failures.
Lenoir City High - Lenoir City, TN (May 12)
A parent attending graduation accidentally shot himself in the leg while adjusting a concealed handgun. The single gunshot wound was fatal.
When these graduates witnessed a death just as their time as students comes to an end, does the school have any responsibility to provide mental health or emotional support services? Are schools even allowed to provide services to teens who aren’t enrolled as students?
Huguenot High - Richmond, VA (June 6)
A student and his father were killed, and 5 others were wounded during a targeted attack outside the graduation ceremony. The shooter was a current student on a behavior plan that restricted him to virtual classes. He had been close friends with the victims killed but other students reported they had been in a recent feud.
Richmond Schools commissioned a 3rd party report of the incident and then decided not to release it to the public.
School board members used words like 'shocking,' 'disturbing,' and 'disappointing' to describe the findings.
“I don't fully have words to describe how damning a report this is," Richmond School Board member Jonathan Young said. "My jaw hit the floor. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't know how bad."
“The missteps that happened here are alarming," Richmond School Board member Kenya Gibson said. "At best, there is some negligence that needs to be addressed. At worst, we were misled."
Margolin Hebrew Academy - Memphis, TN (July 31)
A former student with a handgun attempted to enter the school at 12:20pm. He was unable to open a locked door to the office so he walked out of the building, fired shots in the parking lot, and then fled in a vehicle. He was shot by officers during a pursuit.
There were no students on the campus at the time of the shooting. Friends of the shooter described him as a quiet and friendly person who had a history of mental illness. During the week prior to the shooting, he posted “manic-seeming and erratic” messages on social media.
High School Football Season (Aug - Nov)
There were 39 shootings at high school football games this fall. Here is my full article about it.
Lincoln Bassett School - New Haven, CT (Nov 8)
A custodian arriving at Lincoln Bassett School—while morning classes were already in session—noticed a man armed with a gun who appeared to be “distraught” outside the school. The custodian approached the individual and was successful in “de-escalating the situation”.
New Haven Police Department responded and found the armed man lying naked on an area of concrete in front of the school. He was taken in an ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital “under a committal for a psychiatric evaluation”.
New Haven police said “students were indoors and did not witness the event” and “They were safe at all times. We are grateful for the courageous intervention of the staff member.”
A quick thinking staff member was able to recognize a dangerous situation and defuse it without anyone getting hurt. Would this situation have been different with armed staff members at the school?
Northeast Early College High - Austin, TX (Dec 5)
An armed man ambushed a police officer sitting in his patrol car in the school parking lot during morning classes. The school went on lockdown for multiple hours while police searched for the suspect. He was arrested two days later at a location away from the campus.
The shooter was a former US Army soldier and shot 9 people in two cities.
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David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio and the New England Journal of Medicine.