“Absolute chaos,” is how students at Seattle’s Garfield High School described the shooting scene they encountered when they returned to campus after lunch in June. Amarr Murphy-Paine, 17, died after being shot while trying to break up a fight near the school’s steps.
“I mean, people were running this way, that way,” Cook recalls.
Garfield High School has been the scene of five school shootings since 2021, the most shootings at a U.S. school in the past 20 years, according to a CBS News analysis of data.
“It’s something that 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 safety when their four children are at school.
“You hope your child can go to school safely and focus on learning, but it feels like it’s everywhere,” Alicia Hatch said. “It’s in schools, it’s outside of schools. Crime is up, gun violence is up and it’s a scary thought.”
Last year, two students were shot and injured at Garfield High School. But unless you live in the community near the school, you probably haven’t heard about those shootings.
LaKisha Murphy
A CBS News analysis of the elementary and middle school shooting database shows that these “smaller” shootings are more common than mass shootings, such as the one in 2008. Apalachee High School Shooting in Georgia on September 4, during which two students and two teachers were killed. Taken together, these incidents also kill more children than the gun violence that makes national news, such as the mass shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde and now, Apalachee.
According to the analysis, in each of the last three school years, the number of school shootings has been at least three times higher than in any previous school year since 1966.
Alicia and Michael Hatch want administrators to pay more attention to the leading causes of gun violence in and around schools, data shows.
“We want every child at Garfield High School and throughout the Seattle Public School system to feel safe,” Hatch said. “I hope we come together as parents, as a community, to demand that our leaders and administration take very concrete steps to create safety and calm.”
Most school shootings happen outdoors
Researchers like David Riedman, who created the K-12 school shooting database, said school administrators often fail to learn from past shootings. Riedman believes they adopt policies and technological solutions that ignore the reality of what’s happening.
When violence does occur, CBS News found, it most often occurs not inside the school but outside, on school grounds, such as parking lots, soccer fields and in front of buildings.
CBS News
A CBS News analysis of all school shootings The survey found that since 2018, 84% of fatal school shootings have occurred outside of school walls. The survey also showed that nearly 95% of fatal school shootings in the 2023-2024 school year occurred outside, on campus.
Last school year, more than a third of American school shootings took place in parking lots, where there is often little security or attention from school administrators.
Learning from 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, these are things that stem from conflict.”
Michael Matranga, a security consultant and former Secret Service agent, believes that’s why school administrators need to understand what past school shootings can teach us about how to stop gun violence on campuses. Matranga trains and advises school districts across the country on how to better prepare for incidents on their campuses.
“I don’t think most people (school principals) are prepared for a school shooting,” said Matranga, who is now CEO of M6 Global Defense Group. “You can’t deny the facts.”
The National Council of School Safety Directors, of which Matranga is vice president, is urging 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 safety director.
“We have to stay on top of the threats,” said Jason Stoddard, president of the National Council of School Safety Directors and director of safety for the Charles County Public Schools district in Maryland. “We have to be flexible enough and informed enough to make sure we anticipate what’s going to happen.”
Stoddard said too many schools are spending money on “solutions” to gun violence in schools that aren’t proven by data. Experts have said measures like special locks on classrooms and rolling bulletproof chalkboards don’t solve the majority of gun violence in schools across the country.
“When we start analyzing data, we have to look at all the variables and come up with solutions from that information,” Stoddard said.
He walked CBS News through some of the solutions he’s implemented in Maryland. He said most of those solutions cost little or no money, but most schools across the country haven’t implemented them yet.
Here are some examples:
- Staff patrolling the parking lots
- Wearing a mandatory ID is mandatory for everyone (students, staff and visitors) at all times.
- Doors locked to the outside
- Lettering or numbering rooms on paper placed on windows so emergency responders can see from outside the school
- Radios where administrators can speak immediately with local police, not just among themselves
- Camera systems that allow security professionals to see the entire campus, not just hallways and classrooms
CBS News
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution,” Stoddard said. “We know that if we focus on these fundamentals of school safety, we will reduce risk.”
“This community has had enough”
Seattle Public Schools is focusing on what it can do to reduce risks at its schools, including Garfield High School. Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones held a news conference with safety advocates, community groups and stakeholders ahead of the start of the current school year.
“I think this community has had enough,” Jones said. “Our schools are now safer inside than they are outside.”
CBS News has requested details on how the new plans address shootings outside school buildings.
“We need cameras,” Jones said. “We need a police presence, but we also need to balance that with counselors, social workers, care coordinators and community violence inhibitors.”
Student develops own security app for schools
Jackson Hatch didn’t wait for school administrators. The Garfield High School senior developed his own push alert app for iPhone and Android devices. The app is designed to prevent what happened to him when he arrived at the scene of the shooting unannounced while walking home from school after lunch.
The app will alert students, teachers and parents in the event of an emergency on campus. Jackson has even raised money through a GoFundMe account to cover the cost of 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 distribute the app. A Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman told CBS News that a district representative also plans to meet with Jackson.
Jackson hopes to share the app with schools across the country.
“The idea is that everyone has immediate access to information,” Jackson Hatch said. “The system will have a map feature that will identify hot spots and be a great source of data.”
Jackson parents said they are frustrated that it takes one student to find solutions, as school officials do not seem to be able to respond effectively and efficiently, and the same type of shootings appear to continue to occur across the country.
“I think we should do more,” Hatch said. “This is a time for everyone to step up and not point fingers at each other, but everyone needs to do more and do better. What’s it going to take to find a solution, to reach a breaking point and fix this problem?”
