U.S. policymakers, educators and advocates have identified a need to increase school safety following several high-profile incidents of school violence. Some of the proposed solutions are not supported by evidence of their effectiveness. In the 2018-2019 budget process, both the Colorado State House and Senate amended the budget to address school…

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine High School students walked into their school midday and killed 12 students and one teacher. Twenty-one other students were injured. All that had been normal came to an abrupt end. Education leaders in Jefferson County, Colorado, quickly realized they were laying the groundwork for a new normal. Colorado's…

Bully-Proofing Your School (BPYS), a school-based intervention program designed to reduce bullying and school violence, is evaluated for its impact on bullying and related aggressive behaviors in a multiple nonequivalent control group, pretest-posttest design with ex ante selection of treatment and comparison groups. Outcome measures included…

This article describes a crisis response framework based on the authors' first-hand experience following three Colorado school shootings. During each crisis response, one or more of the authors joined school and/or district crisis teams, providing direct assistance and leadership. The authors' experiences helped guide subsequent responses and…

Schools should be safe places for young people, educators, school staff, and community members, and policies and practices can help create learning environments where kids thrive. Gun violence in U.S. schools has prompted calls for increased school safety measures; however, which policies contribute to safe school environments is often a topic of…

Threat assessment involves evaluating and intervening with individuals who make threats of violence. This study examined the resulting actions and outcomes of threat assessment cases in three Colorado school districts. A particular focus of the study was on potential disparities. The sample consisted of 253 threat assessment cases reported by…

As a result of extensive media coverage, the tragedies at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are etched into the collective memory of American society. Shortly after the events at Sandy Hook, the National Rifle Association (NRA) presented a program to address student safety by arming…

April 20, 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy that took the lives of 12 students, a teacher, and two teen killers in 1999. This school shooting affected people worldwide who watched on television as police circled the building and terrified students fled the school with hands raised over their heads. The Columbine…

Some tragedies are so emblazoned in people's minds that years later they can recall where they were when they first heard the news. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the Challenger explosion, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are among these events. So also is the Columbine High School tragedy of April 20, 1999.…

In the wake of several high-profile shootings at schools in the United States, most notably the shootings that occurred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, the United States Secret Service (Secret Service) and the United States Department of Education (ED) embarked on a collaborative endeavor to study incidents of planned (or…

This article reviews some basic issues related to school violence. As observed by the practicing teachers and other educators who have been quoted in this article, adults who serve as role models to children and adults who respect, listen, and share will increase the students' awareness of the need to use assertive, non-aggressive behaviors in and…

The Columbine High School shootings were still fresh in the minds of educators across the nation in May 1999, when school district officials in the small, quiet town of Port Huron, Michigan, unearthed a similarly violent student plot targeted for one of their middle schools. Four students from Holland Woods Middle School had allegedly written out…

Exposure to violence at school remains a significant problem for children and adolescents. This study examined the relationship between exposure to violence at school and child reports of psychological trauma symptoms and violent behavior. The sample consisted of children in grades 3 through 12 in 17 public schools from two different states. Rates…

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine High School students started a shooting rampage, ultimately killing 12 students and one teacher, wounding 21 victims, then completing suicide. Using media frame analysis (MFA), we examined 265 transcribed major network television news stories aired during the 48 hours following the shooting. In these stories, we…

The three school shootings that left a principal and six students dead in less than a week have sparked a barrage of pledges from national and state political leaders to tighten campus security. School safety experts urged caution against overreacting to the horrific, but rare, incidents in rural schools in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.…