Situational Awareness & Analysis

When attempting to predict the probability of attacks or identify potential targets, it helps to understand the terrorists’ thought processes and tactics.  Suleiman Abu Gheith, Al-Qaeda’s spokesman, said: “Al-Qaeda has the right to kill four million Americans, two million of them children.”
He also said, “Allah willing, the blow will come from where they least expect it…”

As previous attacks illustrate, terrorists will murder children as well as adults in order to gain maximum notoriety for their attacks.  To that end, an elementary school would be an obvious target.  Young children would be easier to control while their deaths would have a significant symbolic impact, or shock value, on the American Public.

Target Selection: Risk versus Reward

A simple criticality assessment will help to assign a potential target’s “value”  or “reward” in the eyes of would be attackers.

A target hardening assessment is used to analyze the risk involved with carrying out an attack.

Target selection analyzes the potential target’s value versus the security related risks.

So are schools an “attractive” target for terrorist?  A simple risk/reward analysis certainly illustrates the topic is worthy of discussion.

This post is provided by Brad Spicer, CEO of SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

The Mumbai attacks followed assault strategy that was disrupted in July 1993 in New York. This strategy was referred to as the “Landmarks” plot and called for several terrorist teams to assault prominent New York hotels. Terrorists conducted detailed target surveillance that included maps and notes on building design. The attackers intended to pose as hotel workers and utilize a stolen delivery vehicle in order to obtain easy access to the targets.

Thankfully the Landmarks pot was prevented due to the vigilance of US counterterrorism agents. A little more that 15 years later, the people of Mumbai were not so fortunate. Their fate mirrored that of the community of Beslan Russia when the attackers reportedly posed as repairman to unchallenged access to the school.

The Mumbia attack serves as a distressing reminder that terrorists will target civilians in order to gain maximum body count to gain maximum notoriety for their attacks.

For example:

• A door that can be locked from the inside. Imagine having stand outside the classroom to lock your door during a lockdown.
• No interior facing windows/vision panels greater than 10 inches wide. The intruder should not be able to see in the room or easily defeat the window and locking mechanism.

Once identified, all staff should become familiar with these guidelines and what to do if they are in one of these areas when confronted with a hostile intruder and/or lockdown situation.
District and school administrators should work with their local law enforcement and fire department (fire code compliance) to set these guidelines and establish plans for these non-secure areas.

And of course – TRAIN THE PLAN.

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

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On May 20, 1998, 15year-old Kipland (Kip) Phillip Kinkel was expelled from school for possessing a loaded firearm. His father, Bill Kinkel, a 59 year-old Spanish teacher picked him up from the police station, where they stopped at a Burger King on the drive home.

This was not Kip’s first mishap and his obsession with guns was well known to his parents. In fact, his Dad even purchased him numerous weapons for Kip despite disturbing tendencies such as building bombs, torturing neighborhood cats, throwing rocks of freeway bridges and treatment for mental disorders that included hallucinating and hearing voices.

Bill Kinkel’s inability to grasp just how dangerous Kip was concluded around 6pm that day when Kip shot him in the back of the head while his Dad was seated at the Kitchen table. A little later that evening, Kip waited in the garage for his mother Faith’s return. After helping her unload groceries from the car, he shot her twice in the back of the head. Upon realizing she was still alive, he shot her three more times in the face and once more in the heart.

That night Kip prepared himself for one final attack; arming himself with three guns, two knives and enough ammunition to kill over 1,000 people. To ensure this was indeed his last stand, Kip taped one .22 and one 9mm caliber to his chest. This last reserve of bullets was to guarantee he would be able to kill himself regardless which weapon was in his when the time came.

Kip drove his mother’s Ford Explorer to Thurston High School, where he arrived in time to reach the cafeteria by 7:55 am; the time it was the most crowded. On his approach to the cafeteria, Kip warned a friend not go to into the school. Seconds later, just outside the cafeteria, Kip shot Ben Walker in the back of the head.
Less than 20 yards away, Kip zeroed in on his next victim; shooting Ryan Atterberry in the side of the face. Despite, being shot in the face at point blank range, Ryan would survive. Moments later Kip was inside the cafeteria that was packed with over 250 students. Using a semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle, Kip fired nearly 50 rounds; wounding 25 people. After the initial spray of gunfire, Kip started selecting his targets, killing Mikael Nickolauson.

Shortly after killing Mikael, Kip’s realized his magazine was empty when he attempted to shoot another student. This brief window of opportunity was exploited by Ryan Crowley, Jake Ryker, Josh Ryker, Douglas Ure, Davis Ure, Ada Walberger, Joshua Pearson and Travis Weaver. The seven students, two of whom were shot and injured in the process, overpowered Kinkel and stopped the killing.

Kip Kinkel murdered his parents, two students and wounded 25 others. He was sentenced to 111 years in prison without possibility parole. The very same day as Kips’ attack a plot by three six graders to carry out an ambush style attack was uncovered in St, Charles, MO.

Fighting back against an attacker should be taught only as a last resort as part of a larger security strategy that includes threat assessment and physical security. All security procedures should be developed in conjunction with local law enforcement and trained experts.

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

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A valuable system in understanding the importance of proper timely decisions in a critical incident is the OODA Loop (sometimes referred to as Boyd’s Cycle after its creator, retired U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd). Being a student of and expert on tactical operations, Boyd detailed that in many of the battles, when one side as not able to keep up with the ever changing dynamics of a combat situation, that slower to react side was almost always defeated. In observing this, Boyd concluded that timely decision making is critically important and applied the phrase “time-competitive.”

According to Boyd’s theory, conflict can be seen as a series of time-competitive, Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) cycles. Conflict begins by each side observing their position, their surroundings and that of their adversary. Orientation is next. Orientation is critical because the dynamic nature of combat makes it impossible to process information as fast as it is observed. Orientation can be thought of as snap-shot approach to obtaining perspective. Once orientation is gained, it is time to decide.. The decision considers all factors that were present at during the orientation phase. Lastly, final process is to act on the decision.

The “loop” occurs when our actions have changed the situation and continues throughout an incident. A tactical advantage is gained by the person who completes this OODA cycle the fastest. Obviously in a school shooting, this tactical advantage is limited and does not equate to tactical superiority. However, being able to rapidly implement the most appropriate response options can save seconds and in combat, seconds save lives. So how important is time in a school shooting?

Imagine that you were aware a student just left their house with the intention of carrying out a Columbine style attack in 10 minutes. Clearly you would have the ability to enact meaningful precautions and probably stop the attack altogether. This provides an extreme example of how time can equate to safety. So what if you became aware of their intentions when the student arrived at the parking lot? Would you still be able to save lives?

On the other end of the extreme, imagine you are a teacher and a student enters your classroom with a gun. No advanced warning, no lockdown has been announced. You have observed the gunman. You orient yourself to your surrounding and realize the gunman is blocking the only entrance. You decide that getting out of the room is not possible (the gunman is blocking the door) so fighting back is the only option. You act by yelling at students to fight back and begin throwing books and chairs at the gunmen. How this scenario ends would be dependent on a great deal of factors. The point is to exemplify that the sooner the decision to lock down, run or fight back is implemented, the more students have the opportunity to live. When a shooter is in a classroom, delays, inaction or bad decisions, such as hiding under desks, eliminate all time considerations for the shooter.

”In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” Theodore Roosevelt

If you are interested in this type of training, consult with your local law enforcement or qualified vendor. Make certain instructors can adequately address all aspects of planning for a shooter.

Stay safe

Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

©2008 SafePlans, LLC

Currently, most educational facilities have adopted a training philosophy that embraces performing extremely well under reasonable conditions, rather than performing reasonably well under extreme conditions. For example:

Lockdown, Weather, Earthquake & Fire Drills Deficiencies
Staff has advanced knowledge of the exact time of the drill and the drill occurs when all students are in the classroom.

Solution
After two or three successful drills, limit advanced knowledge to the day of the event and implement the drills during transition times. Note: Avoid conducting drills during meal periods, due to the costs associates with missed lunches. To test response, set up a mock lunch period with students and staff.

Once you have your drills up and running, it is time to conduct training exercises. Tabletop & functional exercises use vivid scenarios, guided by experienced and certified facilitators, to engage participants in discussions of how they would respond to hypothetical events. Tabletops are designed to be a non-threatening and relatively low cost approach to validating capabilities. Use Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) based exercises to explore and validate plans, identify logical or structural conflicts or gaps in those plans and develop specific areas for further study and improvement. Scenario should be coordinated/developed with local emergency management and public safety.

Stay safe

Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

©2008 SafePlans, LLC

http://map.schoolsafetynews.com/eventdetail.php?ID=987

When you get right down to it, security measures can accomplish two things: reduce risks and/or reduce anxiety. Sometimes measures that reduce risk actually increase anxiety. This is regrettable but the benefit of improved safety outweighs the impact of increased anxiety. Security measures that increase anxiety (such as the previously mentioned lockdown drill) should only be implemented when no other alternatives exist or the anxiety can be mitigated.

Clearly the district’s intentions were well meaning; after all most district won’t even allow lockdown drills. However, it does appear they were overzealous in their approach. FEMA recommends a progressive training approach of seminar, drill, tabletop exercise, functional exercise and full scale exercise. A lockdown training program should have the same crawl, walk, and run approach.

Utilizing the progressive FEMA training approach ,schools or colleges can introduce staff (and students) to lockdown responses during seminars. Drills designed to test one or two specific objectives are next. Initially, these drills should be structured and implemented in a no fault learning environment. Once the drill is reasonably well mastered, more advanced scenarios can be incorporated and additional objectives can be tested.

When developing a lockdown training program, consult with mental health experts to determine the effects of simulated combat scenarios and ensure student training is age appropriate. Make certain instructors can adequately address all aspects of planning for a shooter.

Stay safe
Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author

©2008 SafePlans, LLC

As with most tactical response options, whether or not to fight is situational and should be part of a broader strategy. If your school’s (K12 or Higher Ed) only active shooter preparedness effort is to tell people to throw books at a shooter that is a big problem. However, threat assessment programs, access control, lockdowns and law enforcement response to active shooter do not address what to do if the shooter is actually in the classroom.

When developing an active shooter response strategy, I recommend a 3 OUT approach.

1. Lock OUT. Lock the shooter (or potential shooter) out of the building or out of the classroom. This is the classic lockdown response.
2. Get OUT. If the shooter is in your area – RUN.
3. Take OUT. If the shooter is in your area and you cannot run – FIGHT.

To put it mildly, option 3 creates a huge tactical disadvantage. As such, it is unrealistic to expect people not be seriously hurt or killed. However, it is far more unrealistic to think hiding under desks will save any lives at all. In the Take OUT option, the is goal to try and save as many lives as possible.

If you are interested in this type of training, consult with your local law enforcement; and make certain the instructors can adequately address all aspects of planning for an shooter. Yes fighting is an option; but it should be your last option – so train appropriately.

Stay safe

Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

Secondary Explosive Device Definition: An explosive device that is placed in an area of evacuation or staging to inflict greater casualties and/or disrupt emergency response.

Diversionary Attack Definition: An attack wherein a force uses a means of deception with the purpose of drawing the target into an area more conducive to attack.

One of the most disturbing aspects of a secondary attack is that it preys on the good intentions of school personnel, who are attempting to protect students from a threat. Nothing is more intuitive than the desire to evacuate students at the sounding of a fire alarm or have them gather outside of a school after receiving a bomb threat. In the event of a fire, or the discovery of a suspicious package, those are not only reasonable actions, but one would be criminally negligent not to enact them. It is the bogus alarm or the baseless bomb threat that should lead school officials to consider the possibility of a secondary attack.

Secondary attacks have been a part of warfare (both conventional and unconventional) for as long as man has engaged in battle. Approximately 25 years ago, secondary attacks directed at emergency response personnel began to occur more frequently in the form of secondary explosive devices. In 1978, an explosion occurred at a state employment office in Colorado causing significant structural damage. Less than 15 minutes later another device exploded at a nearby building. This explosion unintentionally killed the bomber before he could arm a third device that was planted to target emergency response personnel.

It wasn’t until March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, AR when 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and his cousin 11 year old Andrew Golden brought secondary attacks to our nations schools. As Johnson and Golden waited in the nearby woods, an accomplice pulled the Westside Middle School fire alarm during lunch. As the students were evacuated, they were shot ambush style, killing four students and one teacher and wounding 10 others.

Just over one year later, a secondary attack on a high school was planned using over 70 explosive devices. It is unclear as to whether the explosives were to be the main focus of the attack or supplemental to the use of firearms, but the explosives failed and the two attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide.

While these attacks do present distinct challenges for school administrators and emergency responders, there are measures that can be implemented that dramatically reduce risks. These are called Secondary Attach Countermeasures. The area most effected (and improved) by these countermeasures is evacuation planning.

When evacuating a school, the danger should be real, not perceived. A chemistry teacher seeing a fire in the laboratory needs no further evidence to know that the students are in danger. Absent evidence of fire or the discovery of an explosive device, an immediate evacuation is rarely the safest course of action. A fire alarm does not equal fire and a bomb threat does not mean that there is a bomb. These are both issues that need to be taken seriously and acted upon immediately, but the action should rarely be immediate evacuation. Rather, preparation for evacuation should take place as the school’s emergency response team searches for blocked exits, possible explosive devices or other signs of danger.

The benefits of this structured evacuation process is two-fold. First, by sending team members to immediately check exits for availability it allows for the routing of students evacuating to usable exits. In the event of a fire, this measure minimizes congestion and confusion in the areas around the actual fire. Second, this structured approach allows the facility to be used for protection while information is gathered as to the nature of the alarm. Just as teachers should not be instructed to await permission to evacuate when signs of danger exists, they should not automatically evacuate the building solely on the basis of an alarm. A recommended procedure would be as follows:
1. Upon the sounding of a fire alarm, the teacher will immediately scan the hallway or immediate area for evidence of fire.
2. If evidence exist, immediately follow the procedures for evacuation.
3. If no evidence exists, the teacher should prepare the students for evacuation:
A. Obtain Roster and Headcount
B. Allow students to gather personal items within the classroom
C. Line students up inside the room
D. Arrange assistance for students with special needs
E. Leave classroom door open and continue to monitor area for signs of danger.
F. Listen for evacuation or all clear instructions.
G. If after 3 minutes, no information has been announced, proceed with evacuation.

Remember, buildings offer protection in the form of cover and concealment. Cover is protection from gunfire and explosions (and even chemical exposure) and concealment prevents those that would harm you from knowing your exact location. When you evacuate, this protection lost. The primary issue to address when a fire alarm sounds is if there is fire. If there is fire, immediate and orderly evacuation is always the response. If there is not fire, which is the usually the case, the question becomes “Why does someone want us to evacuate?”

Always collaborate with your local responders to address issues such as fire codes, building architecture and response times.

Stay Safe

Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

Parents complaining about a lockdown drill! I wonder how often parents call to complain about a fire drill? My guess is not too often, as a culture we have come to accept fire drills. Consider this:
• The last time a student died as a result of fire in a school in the U.S. was in 1958.
• From 2003 through the 2007 school year, there were 147 school-related violent deaths.

Now this was dramatic gap was not always the case. Prior to 1958, the nation faced horrific school fires and the fire safety professionals, legislators, educators and parents enacted changes; and those changes have undoubtedly saved lives. Over the last 17 or so years, we have been painfully been experiencing a need to change the safety climate in schools. Lockdown drills are a critical component of this change and parents are complaining. Parents and educators, if you need a good reason to start conducting lockdown drills, there are 45 of them at the end of this post.

Always collaborate with your local response agencies on emergency planning issues.

Stay safe!
Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

1. Feb. 2, 1996, Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class. Moses Lake, Wash
2. Feb. 19, 1997, Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16. Bethel, Alaska
3. Oct. 1, 1997, Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan. Pearl, Miss.
4. Dec. 1, 1997, Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School. West Paducah, Ky.
5. Dec. 15, 1997, Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot. Stamps, Ark.
6. 24-Mar-98, Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods. Jonesboro, Ark.
7. 24-Apr-98, One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged. Edinboro, Pa.
8. 19-May-98, One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis. Fayetteville, Tenn.
9. 21-May-98, Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home. Springfield, Ore.
10. 15-Jun-98, One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. Richmond, Va.
11. 20-Apr-99, 14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation’s deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. Littleton, Colo.
12. 28-Apr-99, One student killed, one wounded at W. R. Myers High School in first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, had dropped out of school after he was severely ostracized by his classmates. Taber, Alberta, Canada
13. 20-May-99, Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend. Conyers, Ga.
14. Nov. 19, 1999, Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School. Deming, N.M.
15. Dec. 6, 1999, Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School. Fort Gibson, Okla.
16. Feb. 29, 2000, Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun. Mount Morris Township, Mich.
17. 10-Mar-00, Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School. Savannah, Ga.
18. 26-May-00, One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes. Lake Worth, Fla.
19. Sept. 26, 2000, Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School. New Orleans, La.
20. Jan. 17, 2001, One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School. Baltimore, Md.
21. 5-Mar-01, Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School. Santee, Calif.
22. 7-Mar-01, Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased. Williamsport, Pa.
23. 22-Mar-01, One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman. Granite Hills, Calif.
24. 30-Mar-01, One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School. Gary, Ind.
25. Nov. 12, 2001, Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself. Caro, Mich.
26. Jan. 15, 2002, A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. New York, N.Y.
27. 28-Oct-02, Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a student at the nursing school at the University of Arizona, shot and killed three female professors and then himself. Tucson, Ariz.
28. 14-Apr-03, One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at John McDonogh High School by gunfire from four teenagers (none were students at the school). The motive was gang-related. New Orleans, La.
29. 24-Apr-03, James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of Red Lion Area Junior High School before killing himself. Red Lion, Pa.
30. Sept. 24, 2003, Two students are killed at Rocori High School by John Jason McLaughlin, 15. Cold Spring, Minn.
31. 21-Mar-05, Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead. Red Lake, Minn.
32. Nov. 8, 2005, One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at Campbell County High School and seriously wounded two other administrators. Jacksboro, Tenn.
33. Aug. 24, 2006 , Christopher Williams, 27, looking for his ex-girlfriend at Essex Elementary School, shot two teachers, killing one and wounding another. Before going to the school, he had killed the ex-girlfriend’s mother. Essex,Vt.
34. Sept. 13, 2006, Kimveer Gill, 25, opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at Dawson College. Anastasia De Sousa, 18, died and more than a dozen students and faculty were wounded before Gill killed himself. Montreal, Canada
35. Sept. 26, 2006, Adult male held six students hostage at Platte Canyon High School and then shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, and himself. Bailey, Colo.
36. Sept. 29, 2006, A 15-year-old student shot and killed Weston School principal John Klang. Cazenovia, Wis.
37. Oct. 3, 2006, 32-year-old Carl Charles Roberts IV entered the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School and shot 10 schoolgirls, ranging in age from 6 to 13 years old, and then himself. Five of the girls and Roberts died. Nickel Mines, Pa.
38. Jan. 3, 2007, Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of Henry Foss High School. Tacoma, Wash.
39. 16-Apr-07, A 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded. Blacksburg, Va.
40. Sept. 21, 2007, A Delaware State Univesity Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other Freshman students on the University campus. Brandon is being charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless engagement, as well as a gun charge. Dover,Del.
41. Oct. 10, 2007, A 14-year-old student at a Cleveland high school, Asa H. Coon, shot and injured two students and two teachers before he shot and killed himself. The victims’ injuries were not life-threatening. Cleveland, Ohio
42. Feb. 8, 2008, A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
43. Feb. 11, 2008, A 17-year-old student at Mitchell High School shot and wounded a classmate in gym class. Memphis, Tennessee
44. Feb. 12, 2008, A 14-year-old boy shot a student at E.O. Green Junior High School causing the 15-year-old victim to be brain dead. Oxnard, California
45. Feb. 14, 2008, Gunman kills five students and then himself, and wounds 17 more when he opens fire on a classroom at Northern Illinois University. The gunman, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, was identified as a former graduate student at the university in 2007. DeKalb, Illinois