Scholars theorize that the nature of school gun violence varies across school settings. Yet, there is a lack of statistical research testing this idea. This study investigates contextual factors associated with six forms of school gun incidents (N = 1,238) over a 40-year period (1980-2019) in the United States. To conduct the analyses, school,…

Preventing mass shootings in the United States, particularly those occurring in school settings, is an important priority for families, government leaders and officials, public safety agencies, mental health professionals, educators, and local communities. What does the evidence say about how to detect, prevent, and respond to these tragic events?…

Ryan Gainer, a 15-year-old African-American youth on the Autism-spectrum, was shot and killed by police officers in March 2024. The authors reflect on the tragedy of this incident and the harms that such police actions inflict on people living with disabilities and/or mental illnesses, as well as on their families, loved ones, and communities.…

Gun violence is a significant public health issue. The U.S. has more than one mass shooting a day in which four or more people are injured or killed. However, mass shootings are only the tip of the iceberg of gun violence. Among developed nations, the U.S. is an outlier in both gun possession and gun deaths. Gun deaths affect not only the victim…

Many industries implement online learning for training and professional development to enhance the student experience. The specific problem addressed in this study was school staff do not have adequate knowledge of mitigating violence, such as school shootings, with ineffective current professional development. This design and development model…

Over the past 25 years school violence in the form of active shootings has steadily increased in frequency and devastation. Schools across the United States have leveraged a multitude of security mechanisms and philosophies to stop active shooter violence. The 2020 COVID pandemic further ignited violence within the schools and a rise in teacher…

Background: School shooting events and lockdowns have increased in the United States, raising concerns about their impact on youth mental health. Method: This study assessed the association between school lockdowns and changes in youth mental health in 10,049 children who participated in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. The…

School-based actors can uphold racialized systems and White supremacy through the racialized youth trauma narratives they reproduce. With respect to the growing movement to better support trauma-exposed youth inside school contexts, it is imperative that school-based actors avoid perpetuating deficit views of youth of color, who are…

The research in this dissertation was conducted to measure the accessibility, presentation, and format of active shooter protocol for college faculty and staff at institutions of higher education in the state of New Jersey. The study further explores the need for availability of active shooter policy given the unfortunate growing problem of active…

Despite significant cultural attention on the phenomenon of school shootings, one of the most predictive dimensions of these tragedies is under-analyzed: gender. Men commit 98% of mass shootings, but robust discussion and research on this relationship is lacking. This dissertation investigates the relationship between masculinity and gun violence…

Despite the fact that schools remain incredibly safe spaces for children and youth to spend time, the occurrence of mass school shootings, although rare, is a pressing issue for our society. In this paper we discuss the importance of action, advocacy, and research related to mass school shootings. Specifically, we discuss research-based actions…

Using data from its national university entrance exam, we examined the relationship between armed conflict and student achievement in Afghanistan. Exploiting the province-year variation in exposure to conflict intensity, we estimated the relationship between conflict and exam results generally and by gender for all test takers from 2014-2019.…

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded with the principal mission to educate Black people during an era when they were barred from most postsecondary opportunities. Today, these institutions play a vital role in the higher education landscape and help to insure the long-term viability of the U.S. economy. This research…

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…

While Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) play a crucial role in children's and parents' ability to maintain routines, their impact during armed conflicts remains understudied. During a 10-day military operation in Israel involving missile launches, we conducted an online survey among parents of children aged 1-7, to assess the relationship…