On May 1, police were called for an active shooter at Mount Horeb Middle in rural Wisconsin. Officers spotted a teen outside of the school with a long black rifle and killed him when he didn’t comply with commands. Four days later, police provided an update that the rifle was a $100 pellet gun available at Walmart and Amazon.Robert Chappell, the executive editor of Madison 365 News, has two kids at Mount Horeb Middle and High schools. He arrived at the school at the same time as the first two police officers.On WORT 88.9 A Public Affair, we talked about:* Missed warning signs to prevent the attack before a 14-year-old student brought a gun to school.* Many of the highest casualty school shootings happen in small communities where “it could never happen here”.* Confusion with messaging, delays in reunification, and prolonged lockdowns with students being separated from their siblings and families.* Lack of standardized system to report red flags.I wrote this article about the missed warning signs at Mount Horeb Middle and also spoke with Wisconsin Watch about school shootings in small communities.David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and an internationally recognized expert. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio and New England Journal of Medicine. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

On the latest episode of The Room Where It Happen with Baer Halvorson, we talked about a path forward 25 years after Columbine as school shootings are more frequent and more deadly. The status quo isn’t working. Is this because using the wrong planning assumptions two decades ago made school security more complicated than it needs to be?We also discussed school security issues including:* Failures at Uvalde are the same systemic problems that never got fixed after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.* How kids get access to firearms and new trend of teens habitually carrying guns at school all day.* Most common profile of a school shooter.* Using the same resources to prevent both community gun violence and planned attacks.* Types of attacks a school needs to be prepared for ranging from snipers to hostage standoffs.* Predictions for 5-10 years from now based on data analysis.* What’s the one thing I would change in the design of every school building? Two exits from every classroom so kids can get out quickly during an emergency.David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

Every parent wants to know any time a gun is fired at their kid’s school. I was a guest on the “Talking About Kids” podcast with R. Bradley Snyder to discuss the importance of collecting data on gun violence at schools.We talked about:* Government definitions of “school shooting” exclude domestic violence and gun violence in marginalized communities * Difference between “active shooter” versus “school shooting”* Failure of one-size-fits-all approach to school security by locking down for every scenario* Problems with using exclusionary discipline to punish a student who is identified as a threat (an expelled student can come back to the school with a gun)* Looking at planned attacks from the 1970s and 1980s to remove the noise (e.g., social media, video games, current culture war issues) and identify the root causes* Shootings are most common during transition periods (arrival, lunch, dismissal, after school) and this is a time period that is rarely in school security plansSubscribe to Bradley’s show for new episodes each week focused on parenting and education. You can listen to the full episode with my interview on any podcast app.David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.Thank you for reading School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

Twenty-five years after Columbine, school shootings have become more frequent and more deadly. An entire generation of students have either been traumatized—or worse, taught how to be a school shooter—during lockdown drills. The status quo is not working.On the EM Weekly podcast, Zack Borst and I discussed how schools are missing decades of best practices from overlooking the emergency management cycle (prepare, respond, recovery, mitigate) for school security planning. Effectively evacuating a school during an emergency requires planning and help from the ‘whole community’ just like a flood, tornado, or earthquake.We also covered:* Benefits of collecting widely inclusive data* Planning for shootings at sporting events* Role of emergency managers in school safety planning and training* Persistent dangers from swatting and threats* Confusion during the response at Michigan StateZack covers a wide variety of emergency management issues. Checkout his show.David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

On the Digital Politics weekly podcast, I was interviewed by Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs. We talked about:* Differences between mass shootings in public places and school shootings* Capturing data to show a holistic picture of gun violence on school property * Understanding the drivers that lead to school shootings* Danger of swatting hoaxes that falsely report a school shooting in progress* How school shootings are different from terrorismDavid Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

Clip from my interview on the New England Journal of Medicine Intention to Treat podcast.I’m on the show with Dr. Cornelia Griggs, a pediatric trauma surgeon and education director of the Center for Gun Violence Prevention at Massachusetts General Hospital.David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

Clips from my interview with Stephen Dubner on Freakonomics Radio Episode 561.* How and why the K-12 School Shooting Database was created* Identifying someone in crisis before it escalates to violent public suicide* Need public education, playbook for school officials, and standardized reporting systems* National Poison Control Center is an example of an accessible system that can help anyone during an emergency, this does not exist for stopping mass shootings* My personal experience as a high school student during the DC Sniper AttacksDavid Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe

I was interviewed on Iowa Public Radio to analyze the Perry High school shooting on January 4, 2024. One student was killed, four students were wounded, three staff members including the principal were wounded, and the teenage shooter commit suicide in a school hallway.During the interview we discussed:* School shootings are deliberately planned for weeks, months, or even years* Plots often involve bombs but are different from terrorism* Most school shooters are not mentally ill* Need for crisis intervention programs in every school* Must enable students and community members to report potential violence* Ineffectiveness of fortifying school buildings* Common misconceptions about school shootingsHere is the full episode of the River to River podcast produced by Iowa Public Radio. Get full access to School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports at k12ssdb.substack.com/subscribe