This diagram (which is not exactly to scale) illustrates the approximate distribution of spree violence in grade levels 0 – 12 in the United States. More than half of all US pre-college killing sprees take place in high schools. Combined with middle schools, they account for about 2/3 of all spree violence in 0 – 12 schools. Most of the remainder takes place in elementaries, with only a tiny percentage hitting preschools in the USA (internationally, preschools are targeted more often, particularly in China and Brazil).
High school and middle school attacks typically (but not always) start where students are gathered in large groups, especially the cafeteria at lunch time, or just before / just after school. Attacks on elementaries tend to start on the playground, or at the entrance.
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Perpetrators
High school killers are almost always current students; most of the remainder are students who have been recently expelled, or left the school within the previous two years or so. The same applies to junior highs. Current students are problematic because they “belong” there. All our efforts to fortify a school against “stranger danger” are for naught against the insider threat, who is already there, in a classroom or cafeteria, when the attack begins.
Stranger danger applies more to elementaries and preschools, which are most often attacked by an adult who is mentally ill.
Isn’t it all crazy?
Mass murder, especially of children, is, in and of itself, “bat poop crazy” (BSC). When I describe elementary and preschool attackers as mentally ill, that highlights one area where we are falling down in prevention. For one thing, mental health does not receive nearly the same level of our resources, nationally, that physical health does. Also, if the federal HIPAA act could be repealed, giving NICS access to mental health records, that might make it slightly more difficult for people who are BSC to purchase guns.
Cleveland spree 2.0
The nut job who shot up Cleveland Elementary in Stockton, CA had had a long history of drug addiction, previously committed weapons violations, and was clearly violently unstable, but was able to purchase the firearms he brought to the attack, despite California having a preexisting background check requirement, because his felonies had all been pled down to misdemeanors, and his mental health records were not available to the background check system.
California also had a 15-day waiting period, intended to prevent so-called crimes of passion. It did nothing to prevent that planned, premeditated mass murder, or any of the other murders that have taken place in California since it became law. That Cleveland Elementary attack took place on 17 Jan 1989. This is not a new lesson.
This diagram of the Cleveland Elementary attack in Stockton, CA is attributed to Cynthia Greer. The perpetrator’s name is an alias (much of what we get from the media, especially about spree killings, is notoriously approximate), but I have no interest in telling anyone his real name, as recognition is what these payaso scumbags who shoot up schools are after. Image from the 18 Jan 1989 Allegheny Times, via Wikipedia
Even repealing HIPAA (as unlikely as that might be) would not prevent pre-meditated murder. High schoolers under 18 are already not lawfully able to purchase firearms and have not been since the late 1960s. Some got guns as gifts from parents, but most stole them, often after murdering the owners.
You don’t need to be crazy to murder people. It helps to be, say, a sociopath (one of the Columbine killers clearly was), but not every mass murderer is BSC.
The Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City killed federal agents, but it was specifically directed at the preschool in the building. The bomber, who was a mass murderer but legally sane, wanted to kill the children of federal agents in revenge for what he perceived as federal responsibility for the deaths of children at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.
The US Army psychologist who attacked the soldier processing center at Fort Hood was a radicalized religious extremist, a traitor, and perhaps an enemy combatant, but he was of sound mind.
For more, read “Lone Wolves are Not as Crazy as Many People Assume” on pages 233 – 34 of Jeffrey D. Simon’s Lone Wolf Terrorism: Understanding the Growing Threat.
Extraneous fact: the Cleveland Elementary killing in Stockton, CA is the only spree I’m aware of in which the killer was reported to have had a bayonet affixed to his rifle.
An AK bayonet. My friend Suzie, who flew Army Blackhawks into Northern Iraq during Operation PROVIDE COMFORT, brought this back for me from Kurdistan.
The murderer did not attempt to stab anyone with the bayonet, firing instead at kids on the playground from about 50 yards away. At distance, a bayonet actually throws off the rifle’s zero (makes it less accurate).
On 08 September 2019, I went to Cleveland School, 20 E Fulton in Stockton, CA, with a former special agent partner who had started his career on the Stockton PD. I believe the killer started by the closest corner of the closest buildings, firing down the length of the left side, toward the playground by the main school which is on the far side. The buildings themselves were “portable” structures then, like square trailer homes. He then moved around to the right side of the two closest buildings, and continued to fire at fleeing teachers and students from 50 yards or so away. I doubt the solar panel awnings were there three decades before, when the attack took place.
The first 911 call about Cleveland 2.0 was from a Vietnam War vet who immediately recognized the distinct sound of Kalashnikov fire. The killer also had a pistol, but shot it only once, to kill himself as the police approached.
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Case study: Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas
We need to be prepared should we evacuate the school only to jump into an ambush.
On 24 Mar 1998, a Westside Middle School student waited in ambush about where I was standing when I took the photo above (on 09 October 2022), while his co-conspirator, who was also a student at Westside, pulled a fire alarm inside the school. 89 students and teachers evacuated to about where that slate-colored awning is today (it’s a memorial that wasn’t there then). The murderers fired 30 shots into the crowd, hitting 15 (the rifles they stole were more than capable of hitting 30 victims with 30 shots, but these payasos who shoot up schools are NOT highly trained infantry). Some were able to take shelter in the gym (large building behind the trees). Refer to Area Targets: A Tango’s Dream for more information about the Jonesboro incident.
Look at the fire drill evacuation routes from your school or place of business. Are there elevations (hills) or structures (taller buildings) nearby that a killer could snipe at you from? What along your escape route could be used as cover?
A low brick wall would significantly slow or stop a bullet (cover), as opposed to concealment, which merely hides one from view.
This memorial garden was not there when the Westside Middle School yard was attacked, from up on the hill to the left. If those brick benches had been there, they could have been used as cover from the distant (60 – 80 meter away) threat.
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Case study: The “I don’t like Mondays” killer
California has had two attacks at elementary schools named Cleveland. We already discussed Cleveland spree 2.0 in Stockton, on 17 Jan 1989 (see grey box entitled “Isn’t it all crazy?” above). Cleveland Elementary version 1.0 took place in San Diego ten years prior.
On the Monday morning of 29 Jan 1979, a crowd of students was gathered on the pavement outside the school gate, waiting to be let in. When Principal Burton Wragg arrived to unlock the gate, a 16-year-old girl opened fire from her house across the street, with a Ruger 10/22 chambered in .22 LR.
.22 LR is relatively inexpensive and recoils so mildly it does not induce a flinch. Here my friend and former Ranger Ed practices with a Ruger 10/22.
The .22 long rifle (LR) cartridge is not vey powerful, but she managed to kill Principal Wragg and Custodian Mike Suchar. She wounded six to eight students (accounts differ) and shot Police Officer Robert Robb in the neck. I remember reading about Officer Robb’s sacrifice in the newspaper and thinking, for the first time that I can recall, about policing as an honorable profession. That’s also when I began to ponder the solutions to this problem of spree violence.
Police were able to stop the spree by moving a garbage truck (portable cover) between her and her wounded victims. Negotiators talked her out by promising to buy her a hamburger. That was 46 years ago. She was denied parole (again) in 2025. She’ll be eligible for parole once more in 2028.
Elementaries are most often attacked when the kids are outside, in the open. Lack of sunshine and lack of physical activity is far more likely to kill them in the long run than an assassin’s bullets, so by all means keep having recess outdoors. The lesson here is that every school playground should have something that can slow or stop bullets, whether it’s a set of concrete (or water filled) Jersey barriers, or large planters full of dirt (and roots), or whatever.
Younger students can be trained to “race to the blue [or yellow or green or purple or whatever] side of the planter” from time to time. You can make it a game or contest to see who can get there fastest. Younger kids don’t need to know why they are practicing getting behind cover. It can become a reflexive response to a signal as a game, without any other context.
High School junior Jake Ryker practiced to close with, grapple with, and body slam an opposing player onto a mat as part of the game called wrestling. He probably never planned to use that programmed skillset to close with a killer, grapple with him, and body slam him onto Linoleum, but those skills acquired for a game worked well for that alternate, less pleasant, purpose at Thurston High School.
Middle schoolers and above are mature enough to know the truth about taking cover (see the Westside Middle School of Jonesboro case study above) and fighting back. Whether you think they should or not, those kids talk about violence amongst themselves.
–George H, former Joint Terrorism Taskforce investigator
Junior high schoolers practicing how to swarm an active shooter who breaches their locked door. Note thrown sock (left of black picture frame) representing a paperweight or laptop or similar objects used as a projectile.
Most of this article is excerpted from a password protected Alumni Only post for a class called Personal Protection for Adolescents.
