School Shootings Nearly Double as Students Return From Remote | N.S.A. (News|Stories|Analytics)

School Shootings Nearly Double as Students Return From Remote Learning

For more than a year, millions of American children were forced to pivot to online learning as schools across the nation shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.

Remote classes brought a multitude of challenges, ranging from computer and broadband internet access to dramatic declines in test scores to tremendous tolls on students' mental health and well-being.

So when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged schools to fully reopen for the fall, the recommendation was widely hailed by students, teachers and parents alike.
But the return to in-person learning has renewed another conversation: going back to school comes with the threat of potential school shootings.

"Over the past year, as we were sent home, one of the things that everybody thought was, 'Oh this is so nice, I don't have to think about where I would run in my bedroom.' But now that we're coming back into school, back in person, those conversations are happening again," Peren Tiemann. a high school junior from Oregon, told Newsweek.

And the anxiety surrounding increased school gun violence can be backed up by data as schools reopen. Data collected by Everytown For Gun Safety has found that the 2021 back-to-school period has seen the highest number of gunfire incidents on school grounds—a figure that has nearly doubled from the previous high.

he non-profit has analyzed the number of gun incidents on campuses between August 1 and September 15 of every school year since 2013.

In that time frame this year, there were 30 instances of gunfire on school grounds, killing five and wounding 23. The 2019 back-to-school period previously held the highest number of occurrences with 16 incidents taking place in those first six weeks of fall.