School Shootings in America

As my next-door neighbor and I were walking today, the conversation turned to the shooting yesterday (March 27, 2023) in Nashville, where three 9-year-old children and three adults were shot and killed at Covenant School. Despite the fact that I do research on school and mass shootings, I made the comment that I was even more bothered by this shooting than some of the others. She said she felt the same way. We spent the next 20 minutes or so reflecting on why this was the case. She pointed out that hardly a week seems to pass where we don’t hear about a school shooting, with a 17-year-old having shot and wounded two school administrators at a high school in Denver less than a week ago. As the daughter of a minister, I speculated that perhaps this one bothered me so much because the pastor of the church with which the school was affiliated, to whom so many would turn for comfort, was in need for comfort himself as his daughter was one of the victims. Regardless of the specific speculations, the ultimate outcome of our conversation was that we were trying to find meaning in something that seems utterly meaningless. We want to know why the shootings are taking place and what we can do to stop them. We want to know why the sounds of children screaming in fear as the shooter approaches in the hallway, why the sounds of parents crying as they wait to hear about the fate of their child following a school shooting, seem to fall on deaf ears.

Don’t get me wrong. Researchers, myself included, have looked at factors that seem to be common to many school shooters. Many have a long history of rejection, often in the form of bullying. Some have also experienced an acute rejection experience, such as a recent breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend just prior to the shooting. A large number have a history of psychological problems, such as depression. School shooters also often display a fascination with guns as well as a preoccupation with violence, including previous school shootings.

However, countless kids are bullied throughout school but do not become a school shooter. Lots of people have psychological problems but do not shoot their classmates at school. What seems to set school shooters apart from everyone else is that they have been made to feel that they do not matter to others. People who feel that they do not matter feel unimportant and insignificant, often saying they feel invisible. The shooter from Madison High School who shot four people at his school stated “I felt like I wasn’t wanted by anyone, especially my mom." The shooter at Weston High School who had been bullied for being gay and who shot his high school principal stated “I am blaming him, the teachers, social services, and the school as a whole for never listening to me…No one ever listened.”

The burden is on us, then, to be intentional in making other people feel that they are important, that they do matter. Of course, we need to do this with everyone, but particular attention needs to be paid to those who are marginalized – those kids who are sitting alone at the edge of the cafeteria for lunch day after day. The same kids who are pushed in the hallways or have their heads shoved into toilets. If we can draw these young people into the fold, then they will have less motivation to perpetrate a school shooting. If in doubt, ask Aaron Stark who delivered the TED Talk “I Was Almost a School Shooter.”