Students move between classes at Beaver School District’s Belknap Elementary School in Beaver on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. There has been school shootings in the month of March every year since 2002. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Schools have been shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic
March 2020 was the first March in about 20 years without a school shooting in the United States.
- According to Washington Post reporter Robert Klemko, there has been school shootings in the month of March every year since 2002.
- Per CBS News, that’s “the year most current high school seniors were born.”
- Data from National School Safety Center and National School Safety and Security Services shows that there have been school shootings in March since 2002.
Last month was the first March without a school shooting in the United States since 2002.
— robertklemko (@RobertKlemko) April 13, 2020
- According to CBS News, there have been gun-related incidents at school — four shootings were “were classified as unintentional discharges, one took place between adults on a high school football field over the weekend and two occurred on college campuses but involved no students.”
So far this year:
- Data from Education Week reports that there have been six shootings for the entire 2020 school year. Three people were killed and four others were injured. There were 25 incidents in December 2019.
The context:
- Schools in the U.S. remain shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, as many schools have closed down since early March to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
- Most children remain home. Parents have been pushed into homeschooling their children, too.
- Some schools will extend these measures for the rest of the academic school year. For example, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday that there would be a “soft closure” of Utah schools for the rest of the year.