July 4, 1940: Valhalla, New York Angered by the refusal of his daughter, Melba, 15 years old, to leave a boarding school and return to his home, Joseph Moshell, 47, visited the school and shot and killed the girl. Character witnesses remarked that Spencer would often talk about guns, and that she would shoot at cans and birds for fun. Whitman also murdered his wife and mother earlier that day before continuing on to the university not unlike Adam Lanza, who shot and killed his mother before opening fire at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. On July 26, 1764, four Delaware (Lenape) American Indian warriors entered a settlers' log schoolhouse in the Province of Pennsylvania in what is now Franklin County, near present Greencastle. Following the massacre, President Barack Obama addressed the nation with tears in his eyes. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. [4] The warriors then clubbed and scalped the children. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. November 12, 1966 Mesa, Arizona Bob Smith, 18, took seven people hostage at Rose-Mar College of Beauty, a school for training beauticians. West Nickel Mines Shooting. The mid to late 1970s is considered the second most violent period in U.S. school history with a series of school shootings, most notably were; December 30, 1974 Olean, New York, Anthony Barbaro, a 17-year-old Regents scholar armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. December 16, 1988 Virginia Beach, Virginia Nicholas Elliott, 15, opened fire with a SWD Cobray M-11 semiautomatic pistol on his teachers at the Atlantic Shores Christian School. 2004-2005 (20 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) According to the U.S. Department of Education, in the 1998-1999 School Year, 3,523 Students (57% High School, 33% Junior High, 10% Elementary) were expelled for bringing a firearm to school. Subscribe for free weekly updates from this History site. Spencers assault lasted 15 minutes, before a police officer and a security guard risked their lives to drive a garbage truck in front of Spencers house, blocking her line of sight and attack. It is also considered to be the event that has most shaped the modern gun control debate. May 1, 1992 Olivehurst, California Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and wounded 10 in an armed siege at his former high school. Brown and ten children were killed. The attack was broadcast over the PA system, prompting teachers to take action in accordance with the lockdown protocol. The shooting claimed the lives of Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, authorities said. In a 2001 parole hearing, Spencer also revealed that her father subjected her to regular sexual assault. Spencers parents had divorced seven years earlier, and she lived with her father in a home littered with beer and whiskey bottles. The gunman escaped in the crowd of fleeing students, but was later arrested off campus. A security guard spotted the young man and did nothing. As police attempted to put out the fire, an officer was injured by a thrown piece of banister. Butler, 27, with a trim black beard, was adored by most of his students, some of whom were as young as 13. On Saturday, Tim Throne, who heads the Oxford Community. It was a lot of fun seeing children shot, she told law enforcement, admitting how she liked to watch them squirm around after., Law enforcement investigations uncovered wave after wave of disturbing information. November 2, 1853 Louisville, Kentucky A student, Matthew Ward, bought a self-cocking pistol in the morning, went to school and killed Schoolmaster Mr. Butler for excessively punishing his brother the day before. In 1,259 incidents, there was one shooter . An April 30, 1866 editorial in the New York Times argued against students carrying pistols, citing "pistols being dropped on the floor at balls or being exploded in very inconvenient ways. Deaths, however, were down. He qualified as a sharpshooter and served for eighteen months at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. "We thought there was . On June 24, the Washington Post reported their calculation that school shootings increased in 2021. According to the teacher, Foster struck the pistol Pitts had drawn to defend himself, thus causing its discharge. They were gathered outside in the parking lot of Grover Cleveland Elementary, about 150 feet away, waiting to be let into school. In 2018, Nikolas Cruz (19) opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Only the brother survived. Pontiac's War, Pontiac's Rebellion or Pontiac's Conspiracy, began in 1763. After William H.G. Michael Carneal was 14 years old in 1997 when he fired on a prayer group, killing three; his request has been . 2008-2009 (10 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Custodian Michael Suchar, a World War II veteran, was killed as he tried to drag Wraggs body away from the gunfire. It's just one of the latest tragedies in a long. The crime was never solved. Cruz had recently been expelled for disciplinary reasons and was currently enrolled in a different school in the same district. The deadliest school massacre in U.S. history took place 95 years ago. Brad Ricca is an Edgar Allan Poe Award-nominated author of several books of nonfiction. After killing his own wife, Kehoe drove his truck up to the school and fired a rifle at metal debris and additional dynamite hiding in the backseat. Her targets were children. December 12, 1935 New York City, New York, Victor Koussow, a Russian laboratory worker at the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, shot Prof. Arthur Taylor Rowe, Prof. Paul B. Wiberg, and wounded Dr. William H. Crawford at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, before committing suicide. July 14, 1952 New York City, New York Bayard Peakes walked in to the offices of the American Physical Society at Columbia University and shot and killed secretary Eileen Fahey with a .22 caliber pistol. Cruz was charged with seventeen counts of premeditated murder. (In 1840, a University of Virginia teacher had been shot by a student. On July 26, 1764, a group of Lenape American Indians entered a schoolhouse near Greencastle, PA, and clubbed and scalped schoolmaster Enoch Brown and killed 9 or 10 of his children (precise numbers vary). Three students were shot to death and five critically injured before a gunman took his own life Monday at Michigan State . March 11, 1949: New York City A 16-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School was accidentally shot in the arm by a fellow student who was 'showing off' with a pistol in a classroom. When cornered by police, he shot himself in a suicide attempt but survived and served 30 years in prison. According to Ward, she was threatened with a razor by Lipscomb during an argument over a fountain pen, and in the ensuing struggle the gun went off. May 6, 1940 South Pasadena, California. 2003-2004 (29 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. On July 26, 1764, four Delaware (Lenape) Native Americans entered a settlers' log schoolhouse in the Province of Pennsylvania and killed the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and ten students. October 2, 1953 Chicago, Illinois 14-year-old Patrick Colletta was shot to death by 14-year-old Bernice Turner in a classroom of Kelly High School in Chicago. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. The defense called some 70 witnesses, including two sitting members of Congress. I asked for a radio and he bought me a gun, Spencer reflected. March 6, 1884 Boston, Massachusetts As news of Jesse James reached the east coast, young kids started to act in the same manner. November 20, 1952 New York City, New York "Rear Admiral E. E. Herrmann, 56 years old, superintendent of the Naval Post-Graduate School, was found dead in his office with a bullet in his head. Wards lawyers said he had acted in self-defense after Butler had struck him. Even more startling was news that the week before the shooting, Spencer told classmates she was about to do something big to get on TV.. Spencer was denied parole at her most recent hearing in 2009. May 18, 1927 Bath, Michigan School treasurer Andrew Kehoe, after killing his wife and destroying his house and farm, blew up the Bath Consolidated School by detonating dynamite in the basement of the school, killing 38 people, mostly children. July 26, 1764. In July 1764, 10 Pennsylvania students and their teacher died in the very first school massacre. February 26, 1902 Camargo, Illinois teacher Fletcher R. Barnett shot and killed another teacher, Eva C. Wiseman, in front of her class at a school near Camargo, Illinois. Ward then called Butler a damned liar! His brother Robert reached for a Bowie knife. [3] Four children were taken as prisoners. A freshman caught Cruz loading his rifle in the bathroom and told a staff member, but they, too, failed to act. A database of mass shootings compiled by Mother Jones going back to 1982 counts 123 such incidents in which at least three people were killed, not including the gunman. Do you have a suggestion? This loss of life is a national tragedy. Feb. 19, 1997: A 16-year-old boy takes a shotgun and a . In the modern era, the rarity of these events has been steadily decreasing, which may be caused by the confusion that surrounds gun laws and regulations. The Bath School Disaster is the worst school bombing in American history. The very first recorded school massacre in the United States occurred in 1764. The testimony of the traumatized children didnt precisely agree, so the defense argued that Butler had mesmerized them with his presence. Their demand for $300 million dollars came to an abrupt end when Doris accidentally set off a bomb, killing herself and injuring 78 students and teachers. September 24, 1959: New York City, New York Twenty-seven men and boys and an arsenal were seized in the Bronx last night as the police headed off a gang war resulting from the fatal shooting of a teenager Monday at Morris High School. Since then, hundreds have occurred, claiming many lives (Galvin). 16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine. A 16-year-old student killed his grandfather and the man's companion at their Minnesota home, then went to nearby Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before shooting himself. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. March 2, 1987 Missouri an honours student Nathan Ferris, 12, killed a classmate and then himself. His first shots struck teacher Karen Farley in the arm; when she went down he killed her at point blank range. With lyrics like And he can see no reasons / because there are no reasons, it topped the U.K. charts for four straight weeks. The student then pulled out a 9mm assault rifle and opened fire. (In 1840, a University of Virginia teacher had been shot by a student. While not a new phenomenon -- one of the first reported school shootings occurred during the 1840s when a student shot and killed his professor John Anthony Gardner Davis, the . St. Mary's Parochial School Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 2004-2023 K12academics.com All Rights Reserved. May 21, 1998 Springfield, Oregon Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. William Nangle, age 14, and Sidney Duncan, age 12, were captured, but the other five or six escaped, among them the one who who did the shooting. Neither did most of America. [2][3] Two scalped children survived their wounds. On July 26 . And 2019 had 417. 2006-2007 (38 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) The Courier-Journal reported that Matt was upset with Butler because he had beaten his other brother, William, with 5 or 6 licks with a leather strap the previous day in school after William had been caught eating chestnuts in class. The boy's father and another family member came to the school and talked to him over the intercom system. He killed fourteen people and injured 31 others. Though in a 1993 interview, Spencer claimed that the morning of her attack she had drunk whiskey, smoked marijuana, taken PCP, and had hallucinatory visions of commandos outside her window in combat gear. In 2014, the school was demolished and replaced by a new one with a series of surveillance cameras. During the nineteenth century at least 36 school shootings took place in the US. March 23, 1907 Carmi, Illinois George Nicholson shot and killed John Kurd at a schoolhouse outside of Carmi, Illinois during a school rehearsal.