The Dec. 16 capturing at Plentiful Life Christian College in Madison, Wis., has shocked the nation, not just for its horror however for its distinctive profile. This time, a teenage woman opened hearth inside her faculty, killing a instructor, one other scholar, and apparently herself, and injuring six others. Though feminine faculty shooters are exceedingly uncommon, the patterns that result in such tragedies are painfully acquainted.
College shootings are a uniquely American disaster. In response to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks each time a gun is brandished or fired on faculty property, there have been 323 such incidents on school property in 2024 alone.
The general public’s consideration typically focuses on the gender of the perpetrators. After the March 2023 mass capturing on the Covenant College in Nashville, the shooter’s transgender identification was a lot mentioned. After different faculty shootings, “poisonous masculinity” has been highlighted, together with the well-documented proven fact that the majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by men and boys.
In our lately launched K-12 school homicide database, which particulars 349 homicides dedicated at Okay-12 colleges since 2020, solely 12 (3%) of the perpetrators had been feminine. There have been some notable circumstances involving feminine faculty shooters. In 1988, a female babysitter walked right into a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Sick., and informed the scholars she was there to show them about weapons; she opened hearth, killing an 8-year-old boy and wounding 5 different college students.
In Rigby, Idaho, in 2021, a 12-year-old girl plotted to kill 20 to 30 classmates. Armed with two handguns, she walked out a WC and started firing within the hallway, wounding two college students and the custodian. A instructor heard the photographs, left their classroom, and hugged the shooter to disarm her.
The earliest case in our data was in 1979, when a 16-year-old woman opened hearth at Cleveland Elementary College in San Diego, killing two and injuring 9. This was when the American public was first launched to a feminine faculty shooter. Her notorious rationalization for her actions — “I simply don’t like Mondays” — is etched in popular culture. Nevertheless it was much less a couple of flippant perspective and extra about despair. At a parole listening to years later, the shooter admitted the reality: “I wanted to die.” She noticed her assault as a method to be killed by police.
Her story displays what we now know: Most faculty shooters are suicidal, in disaster and pushed by a mixture of hopelessness and rage.
A long time of research reveal a constant set of truths. College shooters are usually insiders, which means they’re present or former college students. They know the routines, safety measures and weaknesses of their colleges. And whereas investigators don’t but know what led to the Madison capturing, faculty shootings are virtually by no means spontaneous acts of violence.
As an alternative, normally, faculty shootings are the fruits of a profound unraveling, a final and horrible cry for assist. Greater than 90% of the perpetrators present clear indicators of a disaster within the months or weeks main as much as their assaults — despair, temper swings, agitation, isolation or an lack of ability to handle day by day life. And crucially, greater than 90% leak their plans ahead of time, sharing warnings with friends, posting ominous messages, and even voicing their intent outright.
With every faculty capturing, we have a tendency to focus on particulars: the uncommon feminine shooter, the high-profile bloodbath, the fast response of authorities. But when we step again, we are likely to see the identical story repeated repeatedly. A scholar insider. In disaster. Suicidal.
Lastly, there may be entry to weapons — the bridge between disaster and disaster. As of Tuesday afternoon, we don’t know the place the Madison shooter received the gun she used. In Wisconsin, it’s illegal for someone under the age of 18 to own a firearm, though there are exceptions.
In practically each faculty capturing, the weapon is obtained from the shooter’s residence or from a complicit grownup. This was true in 1979 when the Cleveland Elementary shooter used a rifle given to her by her father as a Christmas gift, and it stays true within the knowledge right this moment. When firearms are saved securely — locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition — the chance of impulsive violence drops dramatically. But this primary precaution is way too typically ignored.
Mother and father and guardians should perceive their function in stopping tragedy. Protected gun storage is the only, only means to make sure that weapons don’t fall into the fingers of teenagers in disaster. Many states have applied legal guidelines holding adults accountable when their firearms are accessed by minors. For the needs of that law in Wisconsin, a toddler is outlined as somebody 14 or youthful. The shooter was 15.
On the identical time that households should be vigilant, colleges should foster environments the place college students really feel secure reporting troubling habits with out worry of punishment or stigma. This yr alone, a number of teenage women have made threats of violence in opposition to their colleges, generally coming alarmingly near taking actual motion. On Sept. 7, a 15-year-old woman in Temperance, Mich., was arrested after sending a group text threatening a school shooting at Whiteford Agricultural Colleges. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 26 in Austin, Texas, a tip to the FBI led to the arrest of a 17-year-old girl, disgruntled and brazenly plotting a capturing at her former elementary faculty. In March, an 18-year-old woman was taken into custody after threatening to “shoot up” a school in Knoxville, Tenn.
But if we merely criminalize threats with out intervening meaningfully, we threat amplifying the very grievances that result in violence. We should tackle the broader tradition of despair and anger that usually fuels these assaults. Social isolation, bullying and untreated psychological well being points usually are not trivial adolescent struggles — they might be precursors to violence for many who see no different means out.
College shootings shouldn’t be remembered for the novelty of any of their particulars, however as reminders of what we already know and what we will forestall. We can not erase the trauma that these occasions trigger, however we will act on the teachings they provide. The warning indicators are often seen. The instruments for prevention exist. And each faculty capturing we fail to cease is a tragedy we might have prevented.
James Densley is a professor at Metropolitan State College and co-founder of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline College. Jillian Peterson is a professor at Hamline College and co-founder of the Violence Prevention Challenge Analysis Middle. David Riedman is a professor at Idaho State College and creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
