Differing data on school shooting casualties since 2013, were there 188 or 1,229?
By Katherine Schweit
"How do law enforcement agencies count school shootings and mass shootings? It seems many news stories use different numbers..." I get asked that plenty, mostly from people who are frustrated and frightened of the seemingly ever-rising numbers. The worst part is that these numbers scare away serious conversations as people opine that they can do nothing to impact change.
Understanding the numbers is the first step to ending gun violence. Take a look at two very credible databases that tally those killed and wounded in schools since 2013 to understand how they come to such widely differing numbers of casualties. One database finds a total of 188 casualties. The other tallies a total of 1,229. If that seems a wide divide, consider that around the same time, U.S. News and World Report reported that there were 346 school shootings in 2023 in the U.S. alone.
In this blog, I will share one news agency you may or may not be following, NBC, and explain how that organization counts casualties and school shootings. It is a trusted news organization and a system of counting worth looking at. But first, here is more on differing data sets.
3 Maryland middle-schoolers charged with antisemitic hate crime
The teens, all students at Plum Point Middle School in Calvert, allegedly displayed swastikas and made Nazi salutes.
By Martin Weil, March 25, 2024
Three students at a southern Maryland middle school have been charged with hate-crime violations in connection with acts that included Nazi salutes, the Calvert County state’s attorney said.
The students, all 13 years old, attend Plum Point Middle School in Calvert, according to a statement posted by the office of the prosecutor, Robert Harvey.
The statement said they have also been charged with harassment.
The students “displayed swastikas, made Nazi salutes, and directed offensive comments to a classmate because of the classmate’s religious beliefs,” the prosecutor’s statement said, quoting charging documents.
Philly police will notify schools about students found at traumatic events under pilot program
By Dale Mezzacappa | March 25, 2024, 5:06pm EDT
One day earlier this school year, a fifth grader came to school and was acting a little off. His motivation was down, his attention elsewhere, and his behavior unsettling.
It turned out he was traumatized because he had seen his father murdered the day before, said Brandy Blasko in the district’s office of school safety.
Unfortunately, this kind of scenario is not that uncommon in Philadelphia schools. In response, the city school district and police department have unveiled a $1 million program to help students deal with such trauma.
Police and Security Officers Keep Leaving Their Guns in School Bathrooms
There have been several recent incidents involving armed officers who forgot to take their guns with them after using the bathroom on a K-12 campus.
By Robin Hattersley, March 26, 2024
Over the past four months, there have been at least four reports of an armed school security officer or law enforcement officer accidentally leaving their gun unattended in a school bathroom or other K-12 campus area.
Just last week in Indiana, a school protection officer who worked for the Vigo County School Corp. was fired for forgetting his firearm in a bathroom at Honey Creek Middle School. The gun was found by a student, who promptly notified school officials about the unattended firearm.
Ed Department should ban federal funding for K-12 surveillance tech, civil rights groups say
The uptick in AI-driven school surveillance technologies is a “dangerous new chapter in the school-to-prison pipeline,” a coalition of 41 groups wrote.
By Anna Merod, March 21, 2024
Improving school safety and mental health continue to be top of mind for district leaders. As a result, it’s become more common for schools to tap into surveillance technologies to address these issues.
But this letter — cosigned by organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and GLSEN — signals a growing movement to more critically examine and perhaps stop or slow the use of AI and other big data technologies in school surveillance.
More schools, for instance, are relying on AI weapon scanners and AI video surveillance cameras to detect if someone is bringing a gun into the building. This particular technology saw an uptick in interest in the K-12 sector following the May 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, according to AI security company leaders.
Are Gas Stations The New Pharmacies? Tall Cop Says Stop
Why are more and more gas stations becoming pharmacies? Gas stations are not 21+ and don’t raise suspicion because of their everyday use. The drug world cares about one thing and one thing only: money. They are willing to make money at any expense, even if it means marketing to kids buying candy.
Schools don’t need a warrant to search students on safety plans for weapons, Colorado Supreme Court rules
Ruling stems from 10th grader who brought gun to Denver’s John F. Kennedy High School in 2019
By Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, March 25, 2024, 4:28 p.m.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday broadly affirmed that school safety plans give officials the right to search students on campus without a warrant, finding that staff at a Denver high school acted lawfully when they searched a 10th grader who brought a loaded gun to school on his third day of classes in 2019.
School safety plans that require students be searched daily drew significant attention last year after a 17-year-old student who was subject to such a plan shot and wounded two administrators at Denver’s East High School during his daily search.
From Bricks to Belonging: Cultivating Safe and Secure Learning Environments Through Understanding, Planning, and Reflection May 14-15, 2024 Bayfront Convention Center 1 Sassafras Pier, Erie, PA 16507
The Pennsylvania Department of Education Office for Safe Schools, in collaboration with valued partners, is pleased to sponsor a day-and-a-half school safety learning opportunity. The conference agenda was created to provide an engaging opportunity for school and district-level administrative teams to explore aspects of how physical, psychological, and emotional safety work together to create safe, secure, and supportive learning environments for staff and students. The conference will explore opportunities to build and maintain self-care practices, enhance school climate, build staff resiliency, learn from past school safety incidents, explore how to create safe learning environments with intentionality, processes, and practices, and finally provide active engagement through a swatting tabletop exercise. The conference is intended for district-level administrative teams to attend together to work and collaborate around effective manageable responses and practices to a variety of school safety concerns impactive all school entities.
Identifying and Responding to Anonymous Online Threats
April 23, 2024, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time | Virtual
Research conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that approximately four in 10 Americans have experienced online threats and harassment. This alarming statistic highlights the importance of equipping your team with the skills to identify online and anonymous threats to schools/communities (i.e. swatting and bomb threats).
Join us for a complimentary educational session where we will discuss anonymous online threats and how to identify them. With the proper tools and skills, your team can effectively provide support to individuals when these threats are encountered.
Discussion topics:
How to analyze language used in anonymous online threats.
Utilizing Boolean search operators to accurately assess the level of risk associated with a threat.
Verifying the authenticity of images associated with a threat and how to assess its credibility.
Assessing platform-specific identifiers to better understand the nature and origin of a threat.
Exploring common online platforms where threats are frequently encountered.
The Southeast Summit will focus on bridging relationships to implement a “whole community” approach to school safety. It truly takes a diverse team to ensure the safety of our schools, so gather your team and join Safe and Sound Schools for this exciting event!
The establishment of an external door and window numbering system can be extremely valuable to emergency responders and will also assist your students and staff in acclimating themselves to door locations in case of an emergency. Request a free copy of our updated Model Door and Window Classroom Numbering System Guide.
