In July 1764, 10 Pennsylvania students and their teacher died in the very first school massacre. Brown and nine children were killed. It was reported that after Turner refused to date Colletta he handed her the gun and dared her to pull the trigger, telling her that the gun was "only a toy." 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. November 24, 1946: New York City A 13-year-old student at St. Benedict's Parochial School, shot and fatally wounded himself while sitting in an audience watching a school play. She was beaten to death, scalped, and the baby was cut out of her body. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. June 12, 1976 California State University, Fullerton massacre, where the school's custodian opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2. According to a 1987 survey conducted by the American School Health Association," 3% of the boys reported having carried a handgun to school at least once during the school year; 1% reported carrying a handgun on a daily basis.". 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. It was later discovered that he had killed his wife and mother prior to the attack. The majority of attacks during this time period by students on other students or teacher, usually involved stabbing with knives, or hitting with stones. February 23, 1943: Port Chester, NY Harry Wyman, 13-year-old, shot himself dead at the Harvey School, a boys' preparatory school. 18, a 13 year old lad brought a pistol loaded and capped, without the knowledge of his parents or school-teachers, and shot and injured a fellow classmate. Do you have a suggestion? [4] Settlers could collect $134 for the scalp of an enemy American Indian male above the age of ten; the bounty for women was set at $50. The stabbing was reportedly sparked over a dispute about a basketball game. I have to go now, she added. A boy who was in a fight earlier that day, pulled out a shotgun and opened fire injuring six students. 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). The shooter killed seven people at the school, including students, a teacher and a security guard, and injured five others. As they approached the female academy, the girls fled the schoolyard into the school where the gang followed swearing and shooting, firing several rounds into the front door. Spencer was denied parole at her most recent hearing in 2009. There was some kind of movement; some students tried to hide behind Butler. [2], A day earlier, the warriors had encountered a pregnant woman, Susan King Cunningham, on the road. Using this definition, the history of mass school shootings in the United States dates back to even before the U.S. officially became a country. This was considered one of the worst school shootings to occur at that time. Four women and a three-year-old girl died, one woman and a baby were injured but survived. On Saturday, Tim Throne, who heads the Oxford Community. On the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, a 15-year-old fatally shot four students and injured seven others at his high school in Oakland County, Michigan. Matt Ward was represented by 18 lawyers led by Sen. John J. Crittenden, a former U.S. attorney general and Kentucky governor. He then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. On April 20, 1999, two students gunned down 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 others before turning the gun on themselves. 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. Subscribe for free weekly updates from this History site. He then entered 3rd grade classroom and wounded six more students. When the prosecution pointed out that Butler could not even make a fist because of a childhood burn, the defense countered that Ward, a Harvard graduate and young author, was peaceable, gentle and kind. (Like Butler, Ward suffered from an infirmity, rheumatism, which caused him to use a crutch in court.) February 2, 1960 Hartford City, Indiana Principal Leonard Redden shot and killed two teachers with a shotgun at William Reed Elementary School in Hartford City, Indiana, before fleeing into a remote forest, where he committed suicide. It's just one of the latest tragedies in a long. Copyright (c) Minerva Webworks LLC All Rights Reserved. February 19, 1997 Bethel, Alaska Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16. The Post also told the story of a despondent Minneapolis . The school master and 10 children were killed.. 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. It was fun to watch the children that had red and blue ski jackets on, as they made perfect targets, she later said to a police investigator. Cho had a history of mental health issues, but had not been in contact with any support services since 2005. T hree men entered a schoolhouse in, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster and ten children. 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. School shootings don't just deprive children of their lives and innocence; they deprive parents of a sense of safety and security their parents and grandparents took for granted. For the mass shooting that occurred in 2023, see Killing of the Haight family. According to homeland security expert William Pelfrey Jr.as reported by VCU news, "Eighty or 90 percent of all the school shootings in the world happen in the U.S.". As police attempted to put out the fire, an officer was injured by a thrown piece of banister. 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. It was also the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, but it was surpassed in 2016 when 49 people were killed at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. 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. A little over three weeks later, new gun laws were passed in Florida. 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 . Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school. Seventeen others suffered gunshot wounds, while many more were injured from trying to jump out the window. 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. Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. October 17, 1961 Denver, Colorado Tennyson Beard, 14, got into an argument with William Hachmeister, 15, at Morey Junior High School. It was 14:30 when David Hogg heard the first shot. William Joyner and Allen Long were shot and wounded during the exchange of gunfire in their fraternity bedroom. Brenda Spencer leaves court, Oct. 1, 1979, in Santa Ana after pleading guilty to charges stemming from her shooting spree. On April 20, 1999, two disturbed teenage boys Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began a killing rampage at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. Between 2013 to 2021, there were 47 school shootings in the United States. One other student named Archie McCullough was wounded. 2004-2005 (20 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Even though he shot the Schoolmaster point blank in front of his classmates, he was acquitted. Until Matt and Robert Ward walked in, the schoolhouse on Chestnut Street in Louisville on Nov. 2, 1853, was engaged in the routine morning business of words, numbers and questions. 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 . A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as a shooting that kills four or more people, excluding the shooter or shooters. A boy of 12 has his pantaloons made with a pistol pocket; and this at a boarding-school filled with boys, who, we suppose, do or wish to do the same thing. Wives and mothers testified and fainted. It took place in 1764 when four Lenape warriors shot a Pennsylvania teacher in front of his students. Answer (1 of 7): the 1760s iirc, an attack by native americans on a schoolhouse somewhere on the western frontier. On July 26, 1764, a group ofLenape American Indians entered a schoolhouse nearGreencastle, PA, and clubbed and scalped schoolmaster Enoch Brown and killed9 or 10 of his children (precise numbers vary). It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Windows were broken, and the mob threatened to put the torch to other buildings. At least 71 people (65 students and 6 school employees) had been killed with guns at school. He had bought two self-cocking pistols the morning of the shooting at Dickson & Gilmore, a local gun store, and had a history of violent threats and angry letters to teachers. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions 2023 worldatlas.com, The Deadliest School Massacres In American History, The Deadliest Massacres In Canadian History. Oct. 1, 1997: A 16-year-old in Pearl, Miss., fatally shoots two students to death and wounds seven others after stabbing his mother to death. Ward then called Butler a damned liar! His brother Robert reached for a Bowie knife. The gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School - which teaches children. Klebold has had several years to reflect on her son's violent act and tragic death, but the story that follows her around has perhaps never been more relevant. The two most notable U.S. school shootings in the early 1970s were the Jackson State killings in May 1970, where police opened fire on the campus of Jackson State University and the Kent State shootings also in May 1970 where the National Guard opened fire on the campus of Kent State University. 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. Since then, hundreds have occurred, claiming many lives (Galvin). This loss of life is a national tragedy. October 10, 1906 Cleveland, Ohio Harry Smith shot and killed 22-year-old teacher Mary Shepard at South Euclid School after she had rejected him. In 1,259 incidents, there was one shooter . October 18, 1985 Detroit, Michigan During halftime of the homecoming football game between Northwestern High School and Murray-Wright High School. [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. The massacre at Columbine was at the time the worst high school shooting in US history. Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children; nonetheless he was beaten with a club and scalped. Yeah, Spencer said. A stray bullet also struck Deborah Faith Humphrey, 14, who died from her gunshot wound. 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 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). In 2007, a massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, left 33 people, including the shooter, dead and 17 wounded. While we often consider Columbine to be the first school shooting of the modern era, there were a shockingly large number of school shootingsbefore thattragic event. This article was corrected to reflect the year for the interview Brenda Spencer gave about the shooting. Foster's motivations wereunclear. Here are the 10 deadliest school shootings in American history: 10. March 23, 1907 Carmi, Illinois George Nicholson shot and killed John Kurd at a schoolhouse outside of Carmi, Illinois during a school rehearsal. 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 Indians entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). While theamount was high enough to render him legally insane at the time of the shooting, he did not receive a retrial. He asked a few short questions to confirm that the young girl was indeed the culprit. April 12, 1887 Watertown, New York Edwin Bush, a student a the Potsdam Normal School committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Earlier in the school year, certain professors and students raised concerns about Cho due to his angry and violent written class assignments. On Friday, Klebold's mother, Susan, gave her first-ever television interview, speaking with ABC News's Diane Sawyer. Spencers parents had divorced seven years earlier, and she lived with her father in a home littered with beer and whiskey bottles. November 12, 1966 Mesa, Arizona Bob Smith, 18, took seven people hostage at Rose-Mar College of Beauty, a school for training beauticians. The shooter, Claude Hubert, was never to be found but three other men were arrested in connection with the shooting. 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. After murdering his mother at their home, Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life. [9] In 1843, the grave was excavated to confirm the location of the bodies. First the 16-year-old shooter killed his grandfather and the grandfather's girlfriend before driving to Red Lake Senior High School, which he used to attend, and opening fire. [3], On July 26, 1764, four Delaware (Lenape) Native Americans entered a settlers' log schoolhouse in the Province of Pennsylvania in what is now Franklin County, near the present-day city of Greencastle. 2008-2009 (10 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) April 9, 1952 New York City, New York A 15-year-old boarding-school student shot a dean rather than relinquish pin-up pictures of girls in bathing suits. May 4, 1956 in Prince George's County, Maryland, 15-year-old student Billy Prevatte fatally shot one teacher and injured two others at Maryland Park Junior High School in Prince George's County after he had been reprimanded from the school. In 2018, Nikolas Cruz (19) opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On July 26 . According to the teacher, Foster struck the pistol Pitts had drawn to defend himself, thus causing its discharge. Her targets were children. 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. Variations on the name in sources include the "Enoch Brown massacre" and the "Enoch Brown Indian massacre". The Bath School Disaster is the worst school bombing in American history. The Virginia Tech School shooting in 2007 had the highest body count of any school shooting in US History to that date. Headmaster Elliott Speer was murdered by a shotgun blast through the window of his study at Northfield Mount Hermon School. 201 were severely wounded by gun fire. Only two children survived. [5], Incidents such as these prompted the Pennsylvania Assembly, with the approval of Governor John Penn, to reintroduce the scalp bounty system previously used during the French and Indian War. the first perpetrated by an american was in 1853, when a boy shot his school's headmaster as a favor to his brother, who'd complained that the headmaster had punished him too harshl. He turned the Cobray toward his classmates, but the gun jammed and he was quickly subdued by M. Hutchinson Matteson, a teacher, before he could fire another round. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza (20) rocked the nation when, after killing his mother, he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot, March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. 2005-2006 (5 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) The teacher had just passed out. Neither did most of America. 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. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. 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. 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. School shootings seemed like a new phenomenon, but they occurred for the majority of American history. On June 24, the Washington Post reported their calculation that school shootings increased in 2021. In his closing argument, Crittenden said that Ward had shot in self-defense and that the blood that flows in his veins has come down from those noble pioneers who laid the foundations for the greatness and glory of our state.. 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. 10-11 dead, 2 injured. Andrew Kehoe (55) methodically planned out his attack, spending months placing dynamite and explosives around the school. Smith escaped and committed suicide in a barn near his home two hours later. As of June 2022, there were 153 school shootings in total in the . Data on the mass shootings that have occurred so far this year can be found here.. The boy's father and another family member came to the school and talked to him over the intercom system. PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency . With every school shooting, I feel Im partially responsible, she said. 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. The bullet lodged in the wall just above the teacher's head. He enrolled at the University of Texas on a military scholarship, but was recalled to active duty due to poor grades. The massacre took only five minutes and 32 seconds. January 17, 1989 Cleveland School massacre of Stockton, California where 5 school children were killed and 29 wounded by a single gunman firing over 100 rounds into a schoolyard from an AK-47. From the Bath School disaster to Virginia Tech, the following six cases are the deadliest school massacres in American history. Americas young history is peppered with tragedy. [4] When the warriors returned to their village on the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country and showed the scalps, an elder Delaware chief rebuked them as cowards for attacking children. This livens up the day.. 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. In 2012, twenty childrenthe majority of whom were six or sevenwere killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 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 2019, eight people were killed and 32 were injured in 24 shooting incidents that occurred on. Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. The first U.S. school shooting was in 1853. February 15, 1933 Downey, California Dr. Vernon Blythe shot and killed his wife Eleanor, as well as his 8-year old son Robert at Gallatin grammar school and committed suicide after firing three more shots at his other son Vernon. The early 1980s saw only a few multi-victim school shootings including; January 20, 1983 St. Louis County, Missouri the Parkway South Middle School, eighth grader brought a blue duffel bag containing two pistols, and a murder/suicide note that outlined his intention to kill the next person heard speaking ill of his older brother Ken. It is also considered to be the event that has most shaped the modern gun control debate. Tereaschinko then shot himself in a failed suicide attempt. [3] John McCullough, a settler who had been held prisoner by the Delawares since 1756,[4] later described the return of the raiding party in his captivity narrative: I saw the Indians when they returned home with the scalps; some of the old Indians were very much displeased at them for killing so many children, especially Neep-paugh'-whese, or Night Walker, an old chief, or half king,he ascribed it to cowardice, which was the greatest affront he could offer them. 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 . From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. The very first recorded school massacre in the United States occurred in 1764. 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. In 2014, the school was demolished and replaced by a new one with a series of surveillance cameras. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. getty. A later investigation found other explosives under the south wing that failed to detonate. The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 shooting at . Only one shot was fired in order to detonate dynamite in the car. Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Glen L. Cump, "A Disquisition Portraying the History Relative to the Enoch Brown Incident". There were 51 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year , the most in a single year since Education Week began tracking such incidents in . October 20, 1956: New York City, New York A junior high school student was wounded in the forearm yesterday by another student armed with a home-made weapon at Booker T. Washington Junior High School. The first recorded school shooting in America dates back to 1764, during Pontiac's War. According to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, which tracks gun violence and other shootings on school grounds, there have been at least 94 gun-related deaths and more than 156 people injured as a result of more than 200 school shooting incidents since Sandy Hook. The attack was broadcast over the PA system, prompting teachers to take action in accordance with the lockdown protocol. It's been almost 17 years since teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people including themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. February 2, 1996 Moses Lake, Washington Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class. The student then pulled out a 9mm assault rifle and opened fire. She is scheduled for another in 2019. Charles Whitman (25) was a student and ex-Marine who would go down in history as the Texas Tower Sniper. On August 1, 1966, he fired down at the passersby below from the clock tower at the University of Texas in Austin.