Facts shed light on school shootings

Since 1963, 137 school shootings have taken place — 59 percent involved explicit targets, 90 percent featuring students as shooters with 69 percent of those targeting fellow students. Twenty-five percent involved random and mass shootings by students or former students. Seventeen percent of random school shootings were perpetrated by either external adults, insane kids with no affiliation to the school or were gang related.

This means that the vast majority of school shootings, 84 percent, have been associated with either school culture or school community.

What then are the implications? Three stand out. One, internal security requires a better understanding of students and staff. We need to be vigilant to the pressures they are under (imagined and real, justified or not) and to any institutional rubric that foments anger or desperation.

Two, schools with better trained staff, deeper communication with members of the school community, efficient and comprehensive protocol in handling the disaffected, and more flexibility and compassion offer the best chance at reducing school shootings.

Three, truly random school shootings are rare--only fourteen in fifty years in a country of 132,636 (as of 2010) K-12 schools, half by individuals who were certifiably insane or who had clearly snapped. Only seven incidents involved outside individuals that randomly visit their evil on school children. While seven is seven too many, focusing on external threats detracts from better intelligence gathering within schools. Lest we let paranoia take hold, we must remind ourselves that 99.90 percent of K-12 schools, including all LPOSD schools, have never once experienced a school shooting.

PETER KRIZ

Sandpoint