Every shooting at a school in February 2024
February was another busy month for school safety with shootings, averted attacks, and swatting at schools across the country. On February 8, a 14-year-old male student in Cincinnati, Ohio was arrested for plotting a school shooting at Mariemont High. The student was planning the attack with an adult who was arrested in Colorado Springs. They plotted to both kill students and kidnap others to rape. Hours before the student was arrested on campus, a police office interviewed him and then sent him to school. This incident highlights why school shooting prevention efforts sometimes fail to stop attacks when adults don’t take a reported threat seriously.
A week later, a student was arrested for plotting an attack at Ontario Christian High in Southern California. Police seized multiple semi-auto rifles, handguns, ammo, explosives, and a grenade launcher from his home. The student’s father was also arrested for illegally manufacturing 3D printed firearms.
There was also a ‘near miss’ at a high school in Mesquite, TX as three officers responded for a student in crisis and then fired 19 shots at him inside the school office.
February shooting locations:
Outside on School Property: 23 incidents
Inside School Building: 4 incidents
School Bus: 2 incidents
Off School Property: 1 incident
In February, dismissal was the most common time period for a shooting to occur on campus. While most training and drills focuses on students being inside a classroom when shots are fired, schools need to plan for incidents during all different times because of this distribution across the entire day.
The number of incidents so far in 2024 (59 total) aligns with 2023 (58 incidents in January and February). If this trend continues, there are likely to be ~350 incidents this year.
Some good news is that swatting continues to trend downwards compared to last year. On February 1, a 17-year-old in California was arrested for making hundreds of swatting calls. This arrest may impact the future rate of swatting incidents across the entire country.
Date: 2024-02-29, City: Jacksonville, State: FL, Time Period: Sport Event, School: First Coast High School
Narrative: Middle school basketball championships were being played at the high school when shots were fired in the parking lot.
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