Last updated: October 29, 2002
School Violence

School Violence





Online resources/reports

  • Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
  • Center for the Prevention of School Violence
  • Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
  • Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2001 (Dept. of Education)
  • InfoPlease: Back to School Basics
  • National Campaign to End School Violence
  • The National School Safety Center - school crime & violence statistics
  • Partnerships Against Violence Network
  • School Safety Resources
  • School shootings have high profile but occur infrequently (CNN)
  • The School Violence Prevention and Response Task Force Final Report
  • Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center
  • Stopping School Violence
  • U.S. Dept. of Education Safe and Drug Free Schools Program
  • ``Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools'' 1996-1997. Published in March, 1998
  • Wisconsin School Safety Coordinators



  • Read More About It in the WSJ/TCT library

  • "The CQ Researcher", School Violence: Are American Schools Safe? 10/9/98, vol. 8, No. 38, pages 881-904.



  • Articles on school violence

  • Gilbert, Susan, "Expert offers solution to violence in schools," 4/1/01, New York Times
  • McQueen, Anjetta, "Zero tolerance is casting a wide net." 4/12/00, Associated Press
  • Monmaney, Terence, "Youth violence on downswing." 8/4/99, Los Angeles Times
  • Callender, David, "Dems, GOP split on on school safety priorities." 5/11/99, The Capital Times
  • Milfred, Scott, "In wake of Littleton, some schools are accused of overreacting." 5/11/99, Wisconsin State Journal
  • Ingersoll, Brenda, "Parents, schools worried: Can it happen here?" 5/29/98, Wisconsin State Journal
  • Hall, Andy, "Concern rises over violence in schools." 2/23/97, Wisconsin State Journal
  • Applebome, Peter, "Violence involving guns on rise in U.S. schools." 3/3/96, The New York Times



  • A list of major violent incidents at North American schools:

    October 28, 2002: Robert Flores Jr., 41, a student flunking out of the University of Arizona's College of Nursing, shot three of his professors to death, then killed himself.

    January 15, 2002: Two 16-year-old male students are shot and critically wounded at the Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhanttan. Police reportedly have a suspect in custody.

    January 11, 2002: A 17-year-old student who had just been suspended returns to school in Raymond, Mississippi, and holds the principal and assistant principal at gunpoint for about three hours. He releases the hostages unharmed.

    December 5, 2001: Corey Ramos, a 17-year-old sophomore at Springfield High, an alternative high school in Springfield, Massachusetts, stabbs Rev. Theodore Brown, 51, a school counselor, in front of other students. Brown dies a short time later in a hospital.

    September 12, 2001: A woman is critically wounded after being shot in the neck outside the Covington, KY, elementary school while children and teachers were leaving school for the day. Majorie M. McElfresh was arrested.

    March 30, 2001: A 10th-grader, Neal Boyd, is killed in the Lew Wallace High School parking lot in Gary, Ind., when a former student shot him in the head.

    March 22, 2001: An 18-year-old student, Jason Hoffman, opens fire at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, Calf., wounding three classmates and a teacher with shotgun pellets before he is shot and wounded by a police officer.

    March 7, 2001: An eighth-grade girl allegedly shoots a female classmate in the shoulder as the bullet ricochets off the floor in the Roman Catholic Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High in Williamsport, PA.

    March 5, 2001: Charles Andrew Williams, 15, kills two students and wounds 13 with a small-caliber pistol at Santana High School in Santee, California.

    May 26, 2000: A teacher, Barry Grunow, is shot and killed at Lake Worth, Fla., Middle School by a 13-year-old boy with a .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes.

    April 2000: Two 7-year-old girls in Lake Station, Ind., are suspended for plotting the slaying of a fellow first-grader. The two diagrammed the school and drew their plans in crayon and pencil. Authorities said the motive was jealousy.

    April 20, 2000: Four students and one staff member are wounded in a knife attack at Cairine Wilson High School in Orleans, Ont. The attack occurred on the one-year anniversary of the Columbine high school shootings.

    February 29, 2000:Kayla Rolland, 6, is shot to death in her first-grade classroom in Mount Morris Township, Mich., by a six-year-old classmate with a .32-caliber handgun. The boy who allegedly shot Kayla told police she had slapped him on the arm.

    December 6, 1999: Four students are wounded as a 13-year-old-boy opens fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson, Okla., Middle School.

    May 20, 1999: One month after the Littleton, Colo., shootings, T. J. Solomon, a15-year-old boy, opens fire at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga., with a .357-caliber handgun and a rifle, wounding six students before surrendering. He was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend.

    April 28, 1999: Two students are shot, one fatally, at the W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta. It is the first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The 14-year-old suspect had dropped out of school in order to begin home schooling.

    April 20, 1999: Two heavily armed male students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, go on bloody hour-long rampage at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 students and one teacher and wounding 23 others before committing suicide. They had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 students and blow up their school.

    June 15, 1998: Quinshawn Booker, 14, is charged as an adult for opening fire in a crowded hallway at Armstrong High School in Richmond, VA. Quinshawn, who allegedly was angry with another student, is accused of wounding a social studies teacher and a Head Start volunteer. He pleads guilty to five charges and remains in a school for troubled boys.

    May 21, 1998: Armed with three guns, 15-year-old Kipland Kinkel opens fire on a high school cafeteria in Springfield, Ore., killing one student and wounding 22 others. Another student died later. Kipland's parents are found dead in his home. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. He pleads guilty to four counts of murder.

    May 19, 1998: Three days before his graduation, Jacob Davis, an 18-year-old honor student, opens fire in the Lincoln County High School parking lot in Fayetteville, Tenn., killing a classmate who was dating his ex-girlfriend. Davis is sentenced to life in prison.

    April 24, 1998: Andrew Wurst, 15, opens fire at an eighth-grade dance in Edinboro, Pa., James W. Parker Middle School, killing a science teacher in front of pupils. Two students are wounded. The boy pleads guilty to third-degree murder and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison.

    March 24, 1998: Two boys fire on classmates from a nearby woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 10 others during a false fire alarm at the Jonesboro, Ark., Westside Middle School. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, are found guilty of capital murder. Both are committed to a state detention center under a juvenile sentencing law that will allow them to be released by their 21st birthdays.

    December 15, 1997: Colt Todd, 14, shooting from a nearby woods, wounds two students while they are standing in the Stamps, Ark. school parking lot

    December 1, 1997: Three students are killed and five wounded while participating in a prayer circle in a West Paducah, Ky., high school hallway. Michael Carneal, 14, is arrested. He pleads guilty but mentally ill to three counts of murder and six other charges related to the shooting. He is sentenced to life without possibility of parole for 25 years.

    October 1997: Iacob Marcu, 35, fatally shoots 31-year-old Natalie Rouleau, a teacher at a Montreal language school for immigrants who had taught him introductory French.

    October 1, 1997: Luke Woodham, 16, stabbs his mother to death at home and then goes to his Pearl, Miss., high school and shoots nine students. Two die, including his ex-girlfriend while seven others are wounded. Authorities accuse six friends of conspiracy, all said to be outcasts who worship Satan. Luke is convicted as an adult and is serving three life sentences.

    February 19, 1997: A 16-year-old boy, Evan Ramsey, takes a shotgun and a bag of shells to school in Bethel, Alaska, and kills the principal and a student and injures two others. He is serving a 210-year sentence.

    December 6, 1996: A 13-year-old student fires at least 15 rounds at Fort Gibson Middle School in Fort Gibson, Okla., wounding four classmates. Seth Trickey is convicted on seven assault charges but will not remain jail past age 19.

    November 19, 1996: A 13-year-old girl is shot in the head at school in Deming, N.M., and dies the next day. A 12-year-old boy pleads guilty.

    September 24, 1996: A 16-year-old boy is shot in the ankle in an apparent drive-by shooting as classes let out from Federal Way High School outside Seattle.

    July 17, 1996: A 13-year-old boy allegedly fires a shot into the ceiling at a middle school cafeteria in Renton, Wash., then orders summer school students onto the stage. The students scatter and no one is hurt.

    May 26, 1996: Nathaniel Brazill, a 13-year-old honor student, kills his teacher, Barry Grunow, on the last day of classes in Lake Worth, Fla. He is charged with first-degree murder.

    February 2, 1996: Barry Loukaitis, 14, opens fire with a hunting rifle in a Moses Lake, Wash., junior high school algebra class, killing the teacher and two students and wounding one student. He is convicted of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to two mandatory life terms without parole.

    October 1994: Two guidance counsellors at Brockton high school in Toronto are wounded by a student unhappy with his grades.

    June 1993: A teen is wounded outside Gladstone secondary school in Vancouver in a drive-by shooting.

    February 1990: A jilted teen shoots and wounds his estranged girlfriend at General Brock high school in Burlington.


    A partial list of major violent incidents at Wisconsin schools:

    April 2000: A 15-year-old Wisconsin Dells student is suspended after allegedly saying she was planning to blow up the school and to shoot students on the anniversary of the Columbine shootings.

    November 19, 1999: A 16-year-old Memorial High School student in Madison is arrested after threatening to kill other students with an assault rifle.

    May 17, 1999: A thirteen-year-old Cherokee Middle School student is arrested after alledgedly making a bomb threat that caused the authorities to evacuate the school.

    November 15, 1998: Five teens are arrested after police learn of their plot to kill educators and up to 20 students at Burlington High School. The five boys described their plot as a suicide mission.

    October 7, 1998: A 13-year-old Jefferson Middle School student in Madison threatens other students with a BB gun.

    May 27, 1998: Middleton senior, Brannon Holmes, is arrested after reportedly making threats to open fire on the Middleton graduation ceremony with a Chinese assault rifle.

    May 22, 1998: A 13-year-old O'Keefe Middle School student in Madison is jailed after threatening to shoot people at school. He did not have a gun.

    April 13, 1998: Michael T. Lareau, 16, of Wyocena, shoots custodian Ralph Pulver at the Pardeeville Elementary School. Lareau shot Pulver through a door and wounded him in the eye as the custodian was leaving work. Lareau was hoping to carjack Pulver's car with three other teens. Lareau was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

    February 18, 1997: A Madison West High School student aims a loaded semiautomatic handgun at another student after getting off the bus.

    December14, 1995: Five Lindbergh Elementary students in Madison, ages 9 to 11, are found to be carrying guns around school, including a loaded .22 caliber revolver.

    November 7, 1995: Matthew Dorman, 19, allegedly shoots a starter pistol or cap gun at the head of an East High School student in the school's parking lot. The student was not hurt.

    October 11, 1995: A 14-year-old Toki Middle School student threatens to shoot school staff with a BB gun he brought to school and attempts to stab the principal with a pen.