US Schools As Shooting Fields, 338,000 Children Killed Since 1999

Schools in the United States of America have been turned into shooting ranges, in which racists and white supremacists – as well as people affected by Nazi behavior – coldly committed massacres over the past decades, and thus turned their anger into fatal bullets that pursued their colleagues either in the classrooms or schoolyards.

The latest statistics on the number of child victims in American schools

In the aftermath of the massacre that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, the Washington Post revealed that the number of children who have been shot in the United States since the Columbine High School crime in Colorado In 1999. It said that about 187,000 children were killed.

However, after only 5 years (i.e. the current year 2023), and despite the epidemic that led to the closure of many schools for almost a year, the number has skyrocketed and exceeded, as 338,000 children were shot dead.

While it is still unlikely that any student will be exposed to a school shooting, what is worth knowing is that in recent years, shooting incidents in American schools have been on the rise.

During 2017, the average number of school shootings was 11 per year, and it never exceeded 16 in one year. However, starting in 2018, incidents of violence and crime began to gradually escalate.

And in 2020, although the Coronavirus forced schools to close for several months, which led to a decrease in the number of shootings, when the students returned to attend their classes again, 42 schools from kindergarten to the twelfth grade were exposed to shootings in 2020, 2021 alone.

While 46 schools suffered similarly, the following year, reflecting the significant and dangerous increase in gun violence in the United States as it emerged from the epidemic.

For the year 2022, it was the worst in terms of school shootings in history, as 46 acts of violence (shooting) occurred during school hours, and 34 students and adults were killed, while more than 43,000 children were exposed to shootings in the places they go to learn or have fun, according to the “Washington Post”.

Who is most targeted for killings?

On the ground, according to statistics, almost all of the lethal massacres were committed by white gunmen, a fact that left much of the public with the false impression that school shootings almost exclusively affected white students. Therefore, non-white children were more likely to experience gun violence on school campuses. In other words, more than twice as much for Hispanic students, and more than three times for black students.

In contrast, in schools with a majority of black students, the killers usually target a specific person, which limits the number of people who are shot.

It is worth noting that black students make up 16.6% of the American school population – and they were subjected to shootings at school at twice that rate, while the percentage of white students is about 56.7%.

School actions to protect children

American students cannot escape the panic and fear caused by the daily thought that someone could open fire on them in their classrooms at any moment. Accordingly, and in a country where gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents, American schools have taken a number of steps and measures aimed at ensuring the safety of their students.

Moreover, regardless of the dead and wounded, the children who witnessed the killing of their classmates in front of their eyes, or hid behind closed doors to escape from a gunman firing indiscriminately, were severely traumatized that will accompany them for many years.

Hence, American schools have required millions of children to pass through metal detectors, or to undergo active shooting exercises intended to prepare them for the threat of mass murder. So, by one estimate, school systems employ as many as 20,000 staff resources nationwide, trying to keep their buildings safe.

Although the issue of whether the exercises harm students more than they help them remains a point of discussion between those in charge of schools and official authorities – and it requires more research – but due to the lack of best practices followed globally, schools take significantly different, and sometimes random, approaches to prepare students at potential risk.

In one case, in Texas, parents of elementary school students complained that mishandled drills caused their children to bed-wetting and begged for special locks to keep “bad adults” out of their bedrooms.

“This is a clear and pressing public health issue,” said Stephen Schlossman, a child psychiatrist and assistant professor at Dartmouth College.

“We have very good data that children who are close to frightening circumstances, such as those that lead to school closures, are at risk of enduring symptoms. This includes everything from decline in academic and social progress, to depression, anxiety, lack of sleep and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a second incident, at another school, a 12-year-old boy was so terrified that he wrote a will, with his home address and his mother’s name at the top of the page, and said, “I’m sorry for anything I’ve done.” He continued, “I’m scared to death.”

Where do gun shooters come from?

In practice, young shooters rarely bought firearms on the street or stole them from strangers’ cars or homes, because they didn’t need to. In 86 percent of the cases examined by The Washington Post, children found guns in the homes of their friends, relatives, or parents.

Most importantly, the statistics also determined that children were responsible for more than half of all school shootings in the country, and showed that none of these crimes could have been committed, and these children would not have had access to firearms.

Source Almayadeen translated by Almasirah English website