School shooting is an important topic in society today. School safety measures are defined as schools and school-related activities where students are safe from violence, bullying, harassment, and substance abuse. Studies shows how different forms of violence in childhood contribute to inequalities in education--for both boys and girls and that an…

Nearly every school year there is another mass shooting or tragic violent act that is being reported by news stations throughout the United States. Every time this occurs our community members, educational leaders, teachers and politicians vow to stop these heinous acts of violence. Recently, there have been programs developed at the state level…

This case study explored the impacts of school shootings on K-12 school principals. Eleven school principals and assistant principals from rural, suburban, and urban areas in all regions of the United States were interviewed. The study answered two research questions: What impact do school shootings have on school principals? and What do…

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the United States Anti-Bullying Legislations in preventing, minimizing, and eliminating bullying in secondary schools in instances where shootings have occurred and maintaining student accountability. This researcher considered how applying the social learning and criminal justice deterrence theories…

Mental health services are frequently scrutinized following mass school shootings. Subsequently, national, federal, state, and local commissions convene to identify preventative measures including implications for mental health. In order to address the question of what recommendations were offered to mental health professionals, a systematic…

My dissertation studies the relationship between counseling and violence within U.S. schools. Much of the research on school security and school safety tends to lean heavily on routine activities theory and other opportunity theories, which limits the study of other factors critically relevant to this topic such as school climate. This…

Schools should be safe places for young people, educators, school staff, and community members, and policies and practices can help create learning environments where kids thrive. Gun violence in U.S. schools has prompted calls for increased school safety measures; however, which policies contribute to safe school environments is often a topic of…

Theories abound on why school shootings occur. Current literature centers on shooter profiles and rarely focuses on where the shootings occur. This study investigates the relationship between impoverished schools and if those schools are more likely to experience a school shooting than non-impoverished schools. Four factors of poverty were…

Little is known about how a college mass shooting affects faculty and staff survivors. The purpose of this study was to better understand how the experience of a college mass shooting affected the lives of faculty and staff involved in the incident. This study examined, in-depth, the personal accounts of six college staff and faculty who had…

Mass shootings in schools raise important questions about how best to keep individuals safe and increase survivability in such situations. One of the most common techniques used is lockdown drills, which train individuals to build time and space between them and the threat. Despite their use in 95% of public K-12 schools nationwide, their efficacy…

Although fatal shootings on U.S. college campuses are statistically rare, students are routinely confronted with information suggesting that shootings are rampant and unavoidable. Pre-crisis interventions should address the threat of deceptive claims and restore beliefs that universities are capable of protecting students from violence. This…

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former…

U.S. public school students increasingly attend schools with sworn law enforcement officers present. Yet, little is known about how these school resource officers (SROs) affect school environments or student outcomes. Our study uses a fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) design with national school-level data from 2014 to 2018 to estimate the…

High-profile school attacks highlight the need for effective school safety solutions. School safety tip lines offer a prevention-based solution. However, little is known about their effectiveness. Using a quasi-experimental multilevel design, we examined the association between school tip-line adoption and violent threats and attacks at school…

This poll was conducted between April 26-May 6, 2023 among a sample of 961 Teachers. The interviews were conducted online. Results based on the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points. Among the key findings are: (1) Private school and charter school teachers say they are thriving to a much higher degree…