The World Organization Bullying Without Borders reports that between the first day of school in January 2026 and today, April 15, there have been 21 mass shootings in schools across the United States.
"La scuola deve gettare le basi della pace, di un mondo più giusto e fraterno. Se a scuola ci si fa la guerra a vicenda, se si bullizza ragazze e ragazzi che hanno problemi, questo è preparare la guerra, non la pace. Le mie più sentite condoglianze alla ONG Bullying Without Borders e all'ideatore della bellissima "Giornata Mondiale contro il Bullismo", il Dott. Javier Miglino, per questa nuova commemorazione."
Papa Francesco. 2 maggio 2024.
The breakdown of the targeted institutions:
Thirteen armed attacks have occurred in elementary and secondary schools.
Eight have taken place at universities.
Human casualties:
At least 13 people have died, and 15 others have been injured, some seriously. Some of the injured will suffer lifelong disabilities, including the inability to walk or breathe without mechanical assistance.
Universal definition of school shooting:
The World Organization Bullying Without Borders has drafted a definition applicable to all cases of school shootings, in order to facilitate the prevention of attacks and subsequent judicial investigation, trial, and conviction.
A school shooting is any attack on an educational institution, public or private, from kindergarten through university. The perpetrator or perpetrators must be carrying a firearm and must have had the opportunity to fire it, wounding one or more people, or even causing death.
"For BSF, a school shooting begins with the act of firing a weapon. That is, the core objective of the shooting is found in the etiology of the act: there is a school shooting if a shooter or shooters fire a weapon. If it results in victims of different types, the school shooting will be considered aggravated, both in the investigation and in the subsequent trial and sentencing," said Dr. Javier Miglino Helfenstein, an expert in criminology, human rights, and child protection.
"In the event that it produces victims of different types, the school shooting will be considered aggravated, both in the investigation and in the subsequent trial and sentencing," said Dr. Javier Miglino Helfenstein, an expert in criminology, human rights, and child protection.
" "Without intending to bore you, it's necessary to explain the vast difference between defining a shooting as the act of firing a firearm and defining a shooting that results in injury or even death to the people attacked. In a school, since the dawn of public education centuries ago, well-being and tranquility have prevailed. There are only children's shouts, songs, objects falling, or the teacher's shouts. Nothing breaks that peace. A couple of years ago, Pope Francis, an Argentinian and from Buenos Aires like me, told me that BSF should be the banner of peace in schools around the world. We cannot allow a climate of war in schools because bullying and cyberbullying are precisely that: war. So let's consider that someone who enters a school, a preschool, a university, etc., and fires a gun immediately shatters that peace. They destroy everything we had built. If there are victims along the way, it's worse, but it all started with the gunshot."
Since I sense they're falling asleep, I'll conclude with an example that illustrates the point better than 1,000 legal definitions. Simone is a 25-year-old Brazilian woman from Tramandaí, a beautiful beach town in Rio Grande do Sul. Today, she's a psychologist and one of the 50,000 collaborators of Bullying Without Borders worldwide. Eight years ago, Simone experienced a school shooting at her school in Porto Alegre. No one was injured, and obviously, no one died. The shooter fired three shots and was apprehended by teachers. One bullet passed very close to Simone. It didn't hit her. The night of the shooting, everything was fine. The end of the school year arrived, and Simone finished with good grades. But the following year, the sound of the gunshot returned in her dreams, terrifying her, along with the smell of gunpowder, the shooter's face, and the image of the smoking gun. Several years have passed, and the image remains. At BSF, we help and support her, but she herself has told me that perhaps this image will haunt her for the rest of her life. “For a school shooting to occur, all that is needed is an individual (male or female) with a firearm who fires it.
“After the shooting, the damage will always be terrible and long-lasting,” concluded Dr. Javier Miglino Helfenstein.
With information from the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week, and Everytown
for Gun Safety.
Reproduction permitted with attribution.
World Organization Bullying Without Borders