Most school shootings occur outside the school walls

“Pure chaos” is how students at Garfield High School in Seattle described the shooting scene they found when they returned to the schoolyard from lunch in June. 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine died when he was shot while trying to break up a fight near the school steps.

“I mean, people were running this way, that way,” Nate Cook recalled.

Since 2021, Garfield High School has been the scene of five shootings. According to a CBS News data analysis, this is the highest number of shootings at a single U.S. school in the last 20 years.

“It's something we have to live with every day, especially as students here, and yeah, I would say it's pretty scary to be honest,” Jackson Hatch said.

Jackson's parents, Alicia and Michael Hatch, worry about the safety of their four children when they are at school.

“You hope your child can go to school safely and focus on learning, but it seems to be everywhere,” said Alicia Hatch. “It's in the schools. It's outside the schools. Crime is on the rise. Gun violence is on the rise and that's a scary thought.”

Last school year, two students were shot in separate incidents at Garfield High School. But unless you live near the school, you probably haven't heard about these shootings.

A CBS News analysis of the K-12 School Shooting Database shows that these “smaller” shootings are more common than mass shootings, such as the Shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia on September 4, in which two students and two teachers were killed. Taken together, these incidents also kill more children than gun violence that makes national headlines, such as the mass shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde and now Appalachian.

According to the analysis, there have been at least three times as many school shootings in the last three school years as in any single school year since 1966.

Alicia and Michael Hatch want school administrators to pay more attention to the data showing the main causes of gun violence in and around schools.

“We want all children to feel safe at Garfield High and throughout the public school system here in Seattle,” said Michael Hatch. “I hope that we mobilize as parents and as a community to call on our leaders and administration to take some very, very concrete actions to create safety and calm.”

Most school shootings occur outdoors

Researchers like David Riedman, who created the database of school shootings in grades K-12, said school administrators often fail to learn lessons from past school shootings. Riedman believes they implement policies and technical solutions that do not reflect the reality of what happened.

According to CBS News, when violence does occur, it often happens not in schools but on school grounds, such as in parking lots, soccer fields and in front of buildings.

A CBS News analysis of all School shootings As has been reported nationwide since 2018, 84% of fatal shootings occurred outside school walls. The study also shows that nearly 95% of fatal shootings in the 2023-2024 school year occurred outside on school grounds.

Last school year, more than a third of U.S. school shootings occurred in parking lots, where there is often little security or attention from school administrators.

Learning from the data

“Most of the incidents were not planned attacks,” Riedman said. “They were fights that escalated into shootings, domestic violence on campus, accidents, suicides, and when you look at the characteristics of these incidents, they are things that result from conflict.”

Security consultant Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent, believes that's why school administrators need to understand what past school shootings can tell us about how to prevent future gun violence on campus. Matranga trains and advises school districts across the country on how to better prepare for incidents on their campuses.

“I don't think the majority of people (school administrators) are prepared for a school shooting,” said Matranga, who now serves as CEO of M6 Global Defense Group. “You can't disprove facts.”

The National Council of School Safety Directors, of which Matranga is vice chair, requires all schools to hire a trained, experienced professional whose sole job is to oversee safety at the district level. CBS News found that of thousands of school districts across the country, fewer than 200 have a full-time district safety director.

“We need to stay on top of the threats,” said Jason Stoddard, chairman of the National Council of School Safety Directors and district safety director for Charles County Public Schools in Maryland. “We need to be flexible enough and have enough knowledge to make sure we can respond proactively.”

Stoddard said too many schools spend money on “solutions” to school gun violence that are not supported by data to be effective. Experts said measures such as special classroom door locks and rolling bulletproof boards fail to address the majority of gun violence on school campuses across the country.

“When we start analyzing the data, we have to look at all the variables and find solutions based on that information,” Stoddard said.

He showed CBS News some solutions he has implemented in Maryland. He said many of the measures cost little to nothing, but most schools across the country have not yet implemented them.

Examples include:

• Staff monitoring parking spaces
• Wearing an ID card at all times by everyone (students, staff and visitors) is mandatory.
• Doors locked to the outside
• Room labels or numbering on paper in windows so that emergency responders can see them from outside the school
• Radios that allow those responsible to speak directly with the local police, not just with each other
• Camera systems that allow security guards to see the entire campus, not just hallways and classrooms

“There is no one size fits all solution,” Stoddard said. “We know that if we focus on these fundamentals of school safety, we reduce the risk.”

“This community has had enough”

Seattle school districts are focused on how to reduce risk at their schools, including Garfield High School. Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones held a press conference with safety officials, community groups and stakeholders before the start of the current school year.

“I think this community has had enough,” Jones said. “Our schools are now safer on the inside than they are on the outside.”

CBS News pressed for details on how the new plans address school shootings.

“We need cameras,” Jones said. “We need police presence, but we also need to balance that with counselors, social workers, care coordinators and violence interrupters in the community.”

Student develops own security app for schools

Jackson Hatch didn't wait for the school administration. The rising twelfth-grader at Garfield High School developed his own push alert app for iPhones and Android devices. The app is designed to prevent what happened to him when he showed up at the scene of the shooting without warning on his way home from lunch.

The app will notify students, teachers and parents of emergencies on campus. Jackson has even raised money through a GoFundMe account to cover all costs associated with the app, so it will be free for anyone who wants to use it. The principal of Garfield High School has agreed to work with Jackson to spread the word about the app. A spokeswoman for Seattle Public Schools told CBS News that a district representative is also planning to meet with Jackson.

Jackson hopes to share the app with schools across the country.

“The idea is that everyone will have instant access to the information,” Jackson Hatch said. “There will be a feature with a map that identifies hotspots and is a great source of data.”

Jackson's parents said they are frustrated that it takes a student to find solutions, as school administrators seem unable to respond effectively and efficiently, and shootings like this continue to occur across the country.

“I think we should do more,” said Michael Hatch. “This is the moment where everyone needs to step up and not hold back and not point fingers, but everyone needs to do more and do better. What needs to happen until we find a solution, until there is a tipping point, until we address the problem?”