More than 387 U.S.school shootings have been recorded on the website http://www.stoptheshootings.org/since 1992.
We can now add one more to the list.
On January 10, 2013, a Taft Union High School student in CA was targeted and shot by a classmate.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the media's attention has turned, once again, to this particular phenomenon (not unique to the U.S., but perhaps more prevalent here).
Numbers are shocking, but the details are often forgotten as time goes on. Below is a partial list with details from infoplease.com.
Feb. 2, 1996
Moses Lake, WA. Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class.
Feb. 19, 1997
Bethel, AK Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16.
Oct. 1, 1997
Pearl, MS. Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan.
Dec. 1, 1997
West Paducah, KY. Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School.
Dec. 15, 1997
Stamps, AR. Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot.
March 24, 1998
Jonesboro, AR. Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods.
April 24, 1998
Edinboro, PA. One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged.
May 19, 1998
Fayetteville, TN. One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis.
May 21, 1998
Springfield, OR. Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home.
June 15, 1998
Richmond, VA. One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway.
April 20, 1999
Littleton, CO. 14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation's deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves.
May 20, 1999
Conyers, GA. Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend.
Nov. 19, 1999
Deming, NM. Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School.
Dec. 6, 1999
Fort Gibson, OK. Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School.
Feb. 29, 2000
Mount Morris Township, MI. Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun.
March 10, 2000
Savannah, GA. Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.
May 26, 2000
Lake Worth, FL. One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes.
Sept. 26, 2000
New Orleans, LA. Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School.
Jan. 17, 2001
Baltimore, MD. One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School.
March 5, 2001
Santee, CA. Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School.
March 7, 2001
Williamsport, PA. Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased.
March 22, 2001
Granite Hills, CA. One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman.
March 30, 2001
Gary, IN. One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School.
Nov. 12, 2001
Caro, MI. Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself.
Jan. 15, 2002
New York, NY. A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School.
October 28, 2002
Tucson, AZ. Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a student at the nursing school at the University of Arizona, shot and killed three female professors and then himself.
April 14, 2003
New Orleans, LA. One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at John McDonogh High School by gunfire from four teenagers (none were students at the school). The motive was gang-related.
April 24, 2003
Red Lion, PA. James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of Red Lion Area Junior High School before killing himself.
Sept. 24, 2003
Cold Spring, MN. Two students are killed at Rocori High School by John Jason McLaughlin, 15.
March 21, 2005
Red Lake, MN. Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, and then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead.
Nov. 8, 2005
Jacksboro, TN. One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at Campbell County High School and seriously wounded two other administrators.
Aug. 24, 2006
Essex, VT. Christopher Williams, 27, looking for his ex-girlfriend at Essex Elementary School, shot two teachers, killing one and wounding another. Before going to the school, he had killed the ex-girlfriend's mother.
Sept. 27, 2006
Bailey, CO. Adult male held six students hostage at Platte Canyon High School and then shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, and himself.
Sept. 29, 2006
Cazenovia, WI. A 15-year-old student shot and killed Weston School principal John Klang.
Oct. 3, 2006
Nickel Mines, PA. 32-year-old Carl Charles Roberts IV entered the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School and shot 10 schoolgirls, ranging in age from 6 to 13 years old, and then himself. Five of the girls and Roberts died.
Jan. 3, 2007
Tacoma, WA. Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of Henry Foss High School.
April 16, 2007
Blacksburg, VA. A 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, and then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded.
Sept. 21, 2007
Dover, DE. A Delaware State University Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other freshman students on the University campus. Brandon is being charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless engagement, as well as a gun charge.
Oct. 10, 2007
Cleveland, OH. A 14-year-old student at a Cleveland high school, Asa H. Coon, shot and injured two students and two teachers before he shot and killed himself. The victims' injuries were not life-threatening.
Feb. 8, 2008
Baton Rouge, LA. A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge.
Feb. 11, 2008
Memphis, TN. A 17-year-old student at Mitchell High School shot and wounded a classmate in gym class.
Feb. 12, 2008
Oxnard, CA. A 14-year-old boy shot a student at E.O. Green Junior High School causing the 15-year-old victim to be brain dead.
Feb. 14, 2008
DeKalb, IL. Gunman killed five students, then himself, and wounded 17 more when he opened fire on a classroom at Northern Illinois University. The gunman, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, was identified as a former graduate student at the university in 2007.
Nov. 12, 2008
Fort Lauderdale, FL. A 15-year-old female student was shot and killed by a classmate at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale.
Feb. 5, 2010
Madison, AL. At Discovery Middle School, a ninth-grader was shot by another student during a class change. The boy, whose name was not released, pulled out a gun and shot Todd Brown in the head while walking the hallway. Brown later died at Huntsville Hospital.
Feb. 12, 2010
Huntsville, AL. During a meeting on campus, Amy Bishop, a biology professor, began shot her colleagues, killing three and wounding three others. A year earlier, Bishop had been denied tenure.
March 9, 2010
Columbus, OH. A man opens fire at Ohio State University, killing two employees and wounding one other. The shooter had recently received an "unsatisfactory" job evaluation and was going to be fired on March 13.
Jan. 5, 2011
Omaha, NE. Two people were killed and two more injured in a shooting at Millard South High School. Shortly after being suspended from school, the shooter returned and shot the assistant principal, principal, and the school nurse. The shooter then left campus and took his own life.
Jan. 5, 2011
Houston, TX. Two people opened fire during a Worthing High School powder-puff football game. One former student died. Five other people were injured.
May 10, 2011
San Jose, CA. Three people were killed in a parking garage at San Jose State University. Two former students were found dead on the fifth floor of the garage. A third, the suspected shooter, died later at the hospital.
Dec. 8, 2011
Blacksburg, VA. A Virginia Tech police officer was shot and killed by a 22-year old student of Radford University. The shooting took place in a parking lot on Virginia Tech's campus.
Feb. 10, 2012
Walpole, NH. 14-year-old student shot himself in front of 70 fellow students.
Feb. 27, 2012
Chardon, OH. At Chardon High School, a former classmate opened fire, killing three students and injuring six. Arrested shortly after the incident, the shooter said that he randomly picked students.
March 6, 2012
Jacksonville, FL. Shane Schumerth, a 28-year-old teacher at Episcopal High School, returned to the campus after being fired and shot and killed the headmistress, Dale Regan, with an assault rifle.
April 2, 2012
Oakland, CA. One Goh, a 43-year-old former student at Oikos University, a Christian school populated by mostly Korean and Korean-Americans, opened fire on the campus, killing seven people and wounding several others.
December 14, 2012
Newtown, CT. Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six others at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. He killed his mother, Nancy, at her home prior to the massacre at the school. Lanza committed suicide after the rampage. The shooting was the second deadliest in U.S. history, behind the 2007 shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute that claimed 32 people.
After a school shooting occurs, typically a number of similar attempts follow shortly after. This is known as ‘The Copycat Effect’ and is perpetuated by media coverage of these tragic events.
Almost without exception, with each shooting, the usual suspects become the focus of inquiry: Gun control, media violence (including movies, music, and video games), bullying, etc. Rarely, if ever, do we find a vigilant focus on mental health and personal or parental responsibility, yet the age range of most school shooters is between 13 and 20.
Most school shooters are legally considered to be children under the guardianship of their parents.
Another point worth noting: What is seldom talked about in the media is that, between 2000 and 2010, more than 120 attempted school shootings were prevented thanks to the vigilance of parents, school administrators and law enforcement. So this type of tragedy can be prevented. But it demands, not a media focus on easily blamed targets (and the call for legislative intervention), but a refocus on the real issues.
What has changed in our culture in the past 20 years? What needs to change, now? Starting at home and within our communities?
Since Columbine, “The good news is that schools have become much better at averting these incidents since Columbine and Sandy Hook,’’ said Ken Trump, president of the school security consulting group. “The bad news is that we will always have incidents that will slip through the cracks when you’re dealing with human behavior.”
Human behavior -- a difficult thing to predict. However, watchful parents and other adults can do a lot to prevent these tragedies from happening.
Are we asking the right questions, beyond 'Why?' Are we taking 'right actions'?
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