The protection and safety of students and staff in American schools are vital because students need to feel secure and nurtured in their environment in order to achieve academic success (Bakioglu & Geyin, 2009). While school shootings have been monitored since the early 1970s, it was not until 1999 that one received widespread media coverage (Altheida, 2009). While the Columbine shooting gripped the public's attention and generated school safety policies, it did not instigate enough change to end school shootings (Birkland & Lawrence, 2009). Schools across the nation have implemented, and continue to add, safety measures to prepare for an emergency like a school shooting. While there has been a great deal of energy given to limiting casualties and protecting students during a school shooting, more attention needs to be focused on stopping school shootings from occurring. While school shootings represent a small subset of violent incidents that occur in American schools, these events are extremely concerning because of the detrimental impact they have on students and the community (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2019). This study was designed to determine if a relationship exists between five conditions of past school shootings. For school staff, law enforcement, and politicians to address the ongoing threat of school shootings in American schools, they must have an understanding of the context of past school shootings. This understanding will allow them to identify areas of weakness in schools' safety plans. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between specific factors in past school shootings. These conditions included the time of day, time of year, location of the shooting, the grade level of the school, and the motivation of the shooter. A review of literature provided evidence that research on school shooting factors is necessary. Public perception believes that schools are unsafe because of the high number of acts of violence that take place within a school (Algozzine & McGee, 2011). While the perception may not always be the reality, the perception does apply added pressure to school leaders to make sure that they are doing everything in their power to protect students. The target population for this study was schools spanning three southeastern states who have had a school shooting on their property in the last ten years. Data was collected on each school-shooting event from the 2011-2012 school year until the 2020-2021 school year from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security's K-12 School Shooting Database. The school shooting characteristics of time of day, time of year, location, grade level of the school, and the motivation of the shooter were analyzed to determine if a relationship exists between the school shooting conditions. A Causal comparative research design was used in this study. This model was defined as "...a design that seeks to find the relationships between independent and dependent variables after an event has already occurred" (Salkind, 2010). Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the study variables through frequency tables. By definition, descriptive research "describes a phenomenon with statistics such as frequencies, percentages, averages, and sometimes a measure of variability" (McMillan & Wergin, 2010, 6). Inferential statistics was used to analyze each research question with a Chi-Square test to determine statistical significance. Statistical significance was "used to report whether any difference between the group means is not likely to be due to chance" (McMillan & Wergin, 2010).Based on the findings, the data showed that each condition for a school shooting had a statistically significant difference in at least one variable. For the condition of time of day, the data yielded from the Chi-Square test indicated that the number of school shootings that took place after school, before school, during morning classes, and during afternoon classes were all statistically significant. For the condition of time of year, the data yielded from the Chi-Square test indicated that the number of school shootings that took place during the fall, meaning during the months of September, October, and November, were statistically significant. For the condition of the location of the shooting, the data yielded from the Chi-Square test indicated that the number of school shootings that took place outside of the school building, but on the school property were statistically significant. For the condition of grade level of the school, the data yielded from the Chi-Square test indicated that the number of school shootings that took place at high schools and elementary schools were statistically significant. Lastly, for the condition of motivation of the shooting, the data yielded from the Chi-Square test indicated that the number of school shootings that took place as a result of an escalation of a dispute, accidental shooting, domestic target, illegal activity, and suicides was statistically significant. Findings have implications for further research in the area of school shootings. It would be of interest to evaluate additional characteristics of school shootings or to consider the time of day, time of year, location of the shooting, grade level of the school, and the motivation of the shooter in other regions of the United States. It is recommended that state governments, school districts, and individual schools take in consideration the information and findings presented in this study regarding the five conditions of school shootings in an effort to implement strategies to prevent school shootings from occurring in the future. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]