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. March 4, 1958: New York City, New York "A 17-year-old student shot a boy in the Manual Training High School." Immediately following the attack, the surviving students launched a push for stricter gun control. Lawyers and state officials were skeptical, feeling if these allegations were true, they would have likely come out 20 years before. He had a history of racist comments and supposedly had ties to white supremacists, often voicing his desire to shoot police and anti-fascist protestors. He entered a study hall classroom and opened fire, hitting two fellow students. From the very first school shooting in the 18th century, to sniper Charles Whitman, who enacted the actualfirst school mass shooting in modern UShistory, toBrenda Spencer,a female shooter who not only defied the "loner white male" stereotype but also inspired a pop song by the Boomtown Rats. Peakes was reportedly upset that the APS had rejected a pamphlet he had written. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) On the morning of January 29, 1979, teenager Brenda Spencer took a break from shooting people through her window to answer the phone. (In 1840, a University of Virginia teacher had been shot by a student. The bowling alley was owned by the late Harry K. Floyd. He then proceeded to shoot them in the head with a 22-caliber pistol. The Enoch Brown Massacre is thought to be the earliest known killing to occuron school property in what would one day become the United States. May 20, 1999 Conyers, Georgia Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend, 2000-2001 (19 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) May 1, 1992 Olivehurst, California Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and wounded 10 in an armed siege at his former high school. Four Lenape warriors. 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. March 15, 1884 Gainsville, Georgia In the middle of the day, a group of very drunk Jackson County farmers left the Jug Tavern drinking and shooting their revolvers as they headed down the street driving people into their homes. getty. At least 71 people (65 students and 6 school employees) had been killed with guns at school. After a prison breakup, she heated a paperclip to engrave the words pride and courage into her chest, but when pressed about their significance, she insisted she wrote in runes the words unforgiven and alone., At her 2001 hearing, Spencer also, for the first time, expressed public remorse for her actions. The bullet lodged in the wall just above the teacher's head. He was discharged in 1964 and returned to university a year later. The attack was the first documented shooting at a U.S. primary or secondary schoolhouse. June 12, 1887 Cleveland, Tennessee Will Guess went to the school and fatally shot Miss Irene Fann, his little sister's teacher, for whipping her the day before. Teachers from all over the country came to Butlers funeral. For the mass shooting that occurred in 2023, see. Education in the United States during COVID-19, History of Education in the United States, Primary School and Kindergarten Incidents, College and University School Incidents , History of School Shootings in the United States. Who do you thinks doing the shooting?, The reporter then asked Why? and the answer Spencer gave would become famous. I have to go now, she added. 1996-1997 (23 Homicides and 25 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, also called Newtown shootings of 2012, mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, that left 28 people dead and 2 injured. 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. After a nearly seven-hour SWAT negotiation, Spencer left her house, surrendered, and was arrested. With every school shooting, I feel Im partially responsible, she said. Subscribe for free weekly updates from this History site. Law enforcement toxicology tests showed no sign of intoxicants in either Spencers blood or urine. Seminole High School - Sanford, Fla. An 18-year-old student was shot three times on the Seminole High School campus on Jan. 19. The Ward trial began April 18, 1854, in nearby Elizabethtown, having been moved to an adjoining county because of the public outcry. Three students were shot to death and five critically injured before a gunman took his own life Monday at Michigan State . On the morning of January 29, 1979, teenager Brenda Spencer took a break from shooting people through her window to answer the phone. West Nickel Mines Shooting. On July 26, 1764, four Lenape American Indian warriors entered a log schoolhouse of white settlers in what is now . Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children; nonetheless he was beaten with a club and scalped. As a result, national gun debates are being waged fiercely, an issue which deeply divides the American people. He then fled the school grounds and shot and wounded himself. After her case was moved to Orange County to keep it from becoming a spectacle, Brenda Spencer pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to 25 years to life. May 24, 1879 Lancaster, New York As the carriage loaded with female students was pulling out of the school's stables, Frank Shugart a telegraph operator shot and severely injured Mr. Carr, Superintendent of the stables. When a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, it rattled Newtown, Conn., and reverberated across the world.Since then, there . The Bath School disaster was a pair of bombings that took place in 1927 at Bath Consolidated School in a small township in Michigan. December 24, 1948 was the first accidental school shooting. December 1, 1997 West Paducah, Kentucky Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School. May 22, 1968 Miami, Florida Ernest Lee Grissom, a 15-year-old student at Drew Junior High School, shot and seriously wounded a teacher and a 13-year-old student after he had been reprimanded for causing a disturbance. I dont like Mondays, she said. 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. 2003-2004 (29 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) A service revolver was found by his side. 409 shooters (19.9%) had no school affiliation. The community and country were shocked to see this teenage girl with long wavy hair and large glasses as the source of such evil. Eight children and a police officer were injured, and two men custodian Michael Suchar and principal Burton Wragg were killed in what is considered the first modern school shooting in the United States. September 26, 1988 Greenwood, South Carolina In the cafeteria of the Oakland Elementary School 19 year-old James William Wilson Jr., shot and killed Shequilla Bradley, 8 and wounded eight other children with a 9-round .22 caliber pistol. After a horrifying ninety minutes, four law enforcement officers surrounded Whitman on the observation deck and shot him. 2002-2003 (14 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) [3] Settlers could collect $134 for the scalp of enemy American Indian male above the age of ten; the bounty for women was set at $50. He left behind a wife and infant daughter. Matt Ward, 28, whose father was a six-time Kentucky state representative who lived in an $80,000 mansion with nine enslaved Black workers, was arrested along with his brother, who was 19. His students helped organize the service. Spencers parents had divorced seven years earlier, and she lived with her father in a home littered with beer and whiskey bottles. November 27, 1951 New York City, New York David Brooks, a 15-year-old student, was fatally shot as fellow-pupils looked on in a grade school. For the college football player, see, "Enoch massacre" redirects here. 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. Dixon calls it the "Enoch Brown Schoolhouse Massacre" (p. 223). September 24, 1937 Toledo, Ohio 12-year-old Robert Snyder shot and wounded his principal, June Mapes, in her office at Arlington public school when she declined his request to call a classmate. The Wards scattered. The Virginia Tech School shooting in 2007 had the highest body count of any school shooting in US History to that date. Top 10 Alcohol Consuming Countries In The World, The Biggest Heists and Bank Robberies in American History, 2007 Colorado YWAM and New Life shootings, University of Arizona College of Nursing Shooting. And in 1764, during Pontiac's War in the colonial era, four Native Americans killed a schoolmaster and around 10 students in. The motive for the shooting was Kurd making a disparaging remark about Nicholson's daughter during her recital. 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. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. This loss of life is a national tragedy. He entered through a window and immediately took down the principal and school psychologist. The teacher had just passed out. The Issue: Over the past two decades, 143 American public schools have experienced shootings during school hours that resulted in at least one fatality. The 17-year-old was in environmental science class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida. [3] The warriors then tomahawked and scalped the children. June 13, 1889 New Brunswick, New Jersey Charles Crawford upset over an argument with a school Trustee, went up to the window and fired a pistol into a crowded school room. The very first school shooting occurred in the 1700's in the United States at the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764. The U.S. ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, per the Gun Violence Archive.The year before saw 611. They often result in high death tolls and unimaginable grief for those involved. 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. In August of that year, a 25-year-old man named Charles Whitman went on a 96-minute shooting spree from an observation deck at the University of Texas-Austin, killing 17 people and wounding 31 others in an attack that sounds eerily reminiscent of the stories that you're all too used to hearing today. Adams then shot and killed himself. On the morning of April 20, 1999, Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17) entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Enoch Brown school massacre. The master, surmising their objective, prayed them only to take his life and spare the children, but all were brutally knocked in the head with an Indian maul and scalped."[5]. Law enforcement arrived within minutes, but sadly, Lanza managed to kill twenty childrenthe majority of whom were six or sevenand six school administrators before killing himself. According to a survey conducted by The Harvard School of Public Health "15% said that they had carried a handgun on their person in the past 30 days, and 4% said that they had taken a handgun to school in the past year." An article from the New York Times reads, "Another "Jesse James" Gang - "Word was brought to the Fifth Police Station to-night that a number of boys were using the Concord-street School-house for some unknown purpose, and a posse of officers was sent to investigate. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan. From the Bath School disaster to Virginia Tech, the following six cases are the deadliest school massacres in American history. This massacre happened during Pontiac's War. Copyright (c) Minerva Webworks LLC All Rights Reserved. In 1885, the area was designated Enoch Brown Park, and a memorial was erected over the grave. The massacre took only five minutes and 32 seconds. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school. What started out as an ordinary day at a south Florida high school ended in gunfire and death in Parkland, Florida - about 20 miles northwest of Fort Lauderd. They were gathered outside in the parking lot of Grover Cleveland Elementary, about 150 feet away, waiting to be let into school. His wife, who had been a teacher at the school, had filed for divorce the week before. Following the massacre, it was reported that they had also planted a bomb that failed to detonate. January 29, 1979 Grover Cleveland Elementary School Shootings, California, where a 16yr old girl opened fire with the rifle, a gift from her father, killing 2 and wounding 9. 1998-1999 (25 Homicides from school shootings in the U.S.) Only two children survived. The first victim, was fatally shot in the stomach, and the second victim received a non-fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen. [8], Settlers buried Enoch Brown and the schoolchildren in a common grave. List of battleships of the United States Navy. 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. We hope you will join our fight AGAINST the costly and deadly. "The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). Foster's motivations wereunclear. The shooter, Claude Hubert, was never to be found but three other men were arrested in connection with the shooting. Eyewitnesses had seen Ward shoot Butler. 10-11 dead, 2 injured. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. The first known mass shooting in the U.S. where students were shot, was on April 9, 1891, when 70 year old, James Foster fired a shotgun at a group of students in the playground of St. Mary's Parochial School, Newburgh, New York, causing minor injuries to several of the students. April 15, 1908 Asheville, North Carolina Dr. C. O. Swinney shot and fatally wounded his 16-year-old daughter Nellie in a reception room at Normal and Collegiate Institute. Date Location Attacker (s) Casualties Description. When the school originally opened in 1922, local taxes were raised as a means to pay for it. The first U.S. school shooting was in 1853. November 26, 1985 Spanaway, Washington A 14yr old girl shot two boys dead then kills herself with a .22-caliber rifle at the Spanaway Junior High School. Following the massacre, President Barack Obama addressed the nation with tears in his eyes. April 27, 1936 Lincoln, Nebraska, Prof. John Weller shot and wounded Prof. Harry Kurz in a corridor of the University of Nebraska, apparently because of his impending dismissal at the end of the semester. Earlier in the school year, certain professors and students raised concerns about Cho due to his angry and violent written class assignments. However, in my opinion, nothing is more tragic than mass school shootings and the loss of innocent lives. 17-year-old Robert Ross was shooting a target near the lake on school property. 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. November 12, 1966 Mesa, Arizona Bob Smith, 18, took seven people hostage at Rose-Mar College of Beauty, a school for training beauticians. More than a century earlier, on July 26, 1764, a teacher and 10 students were shot dead by four Lenape American Indians in Greencastle, Penn., in what is considered the earliest known U.S. mass. Mr. Long reported to the police that, while the three were drinking beer at 7 a.m., Davis pulled out a gun and started shooting with a gun he had obtained from the car of a former roommate. Doctors prescribed him all sorts of medication. His parents were later found dead at home, June 15, 1998 Richmond, Virginia One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. When Ward ran out to stop them, he was wearing a blue coat, which might have made them think he was a Union soldier. May 20, 1988 Winnetka, Illinois 30yr old Laurie Dann shot and killed one boy, and wounded five other kids, in an elementary school, then took a family hostage and shot a man before killing herself. The majority of attacks during this time period by students on other students or teacher, usually involved stabbing with knives, or hitting with stones. The deadliest school massacre in U.S. history took place 95 years ago. Want to leave a comment? I shot a pig [a policeman], I think, and I want to shoot more. By the end of her sniping assault, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer had shot 11 people. He then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The boy fled for the 2nd floor, were he encountered the janitor, and he shot him in the head. Cruz had recently been expelled for disciplinary reasons and was currently enrolled in a different school in the same district. The earliest known school shooting in the United States took place in 1764 and was known as the Pontiac Rebellion School Massacre; out of 13 children enrolled in the . Variations on the name in sources include the "Enoch Brown massacre" and the "Enoch Brown Indian massacre". Sporting trench coats, they opened fire, killing twelve students and one teacher. Jhavon McIntyre was injured but survived the attack. Kuhns had reportedly been courting Dellamea for over a year but the relationship was ended when Dellamea discovered that Kuhns was already married. . Her dad left the house around 7 a.m. Around 8:30 that morning, Spencer retrieved her .22 caliber rifle, equipped with a telescopic sight, and began firing across the street. Answer (1 of 7): the 1760s iirc, an attack by native americans on a schoolhouse somewhere on the western frontier. The Enoch Brown school massacre[1] was "one of the most notorious incidents"[2] of Pontiac's War. What if they got the idea from what I did?. 2008-2009 (10 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) April 17, 1956 New York City, New York 18-year-old Henry Smith, a student at a Bronx vocational high school, is stabbed to death by 16-year-old Randolph Lawrence, a fellow student. Testimony also showed that Brenda and her father slept on the same mattress on the floor. [6] 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. During the 19th century, there were 49 K-12 school shootings, 207 K-12 school shootings nationwide throughout the 20th century, and since 2000 there have been 152 K-12 . PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency . On the other end was a reporter from the San Diego Tribune. The first recorded school shooting in America dates back to 1764, during Pontiac's War. School shootings are a distinctly American phenomenon. On the other end was a reporter from the San Diego Tribune.He asked a few short questions to confirm that the young girl . Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Glen L. Cump, "A Disquisition Portraying the History Relative to the Enoch Brown Incident". "The first recorded school shooting took place on July 26, 1764, in a schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, in which "four Lenape American Indians shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown and nine to ten children," and in the 1800s at least 13 school shootings were reported (K12 academics, 2014-2018, para."