69ý

School Climate & Safety Interactive

School Shootings in 2018: How Many and Where

February 01, 2018 | Updated: November 22, 2022 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Looking for the Latest Data?

We are continuing to track school shootings. Click below to visit our latest tracker or explore year-by-year data on school shootings since 2018 that resulted in injuries or deaths.

Visit Our 2024 Tracker Explore Data Since 2018

To bring context to the polarizing debates that surround school shootings, Education Week journalists, in 2018, began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths. That year, there were 24 such incidents. On this page, we document where they happened, how many people were killed or injured, and other key information.

A Reflection

As 2018 came to a close, Education Week’s Evie Blad looked back on lessons learned from a year of doing the heartbreaking work of updating this tracker, an accounting of school shootings in 2018 where individuals were injured or killed by gunfire. “The process of updating our tracker, which involves six people, has become a regular meditation on the complicated nature of school violence,” she wrote in an essay. Read more.

Behind the Numbers

To better understand how gun violence impacted students, educators, and communities in 2018, Education Week created an at-a-glance view of school shooting data. Read more.

Injuries & Deaths

Where the Shootings Happened

The size of the dots correlates to the number of people killed or injured. Click on each dot for more information.

About the Shootings

A previous version of this table included the age, sex, and status of the suspect(s). We are no longer tracking that information.

Methodology

Counting Incidents

This page refers to incidents that meet all the following criteria:

  • where a firearm was discharged,
  • where any individual, other than the suspect or perpetrator, has a bullet wound resulting from the incident,
  • that happen on K-12 school property or on a school bus, and
  • that occur while school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.

We do not track incidents in which the only shots fired were from an individual authorized to carry a gun on school property, such as a school resource officer, and who did so in their official capacity.

The numbers of incidents, injuries, and deaths reported in this tracker do not include suicides or self-inflicted injuries. While suicides and attempted suicides are serious issues of health and safety, many of the critical questions and debates that those incidents raise for educators and the broader public are often distinct from those generated by school shootings.

Counting Injuries & Deaths

Injuries included in this tracker may be major or minor. While we only track incidents resulting in at least one bullet wound, total injuries are not necessarily the result of gunfire.

The total number of people killed or injured does not include the suspect or perpetrator.

Sources

In addition to our own reporting, we rely on local news outlets, school and district websites, news alerts via online search engines, the , and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s Naval Postgraduate School’s .

How to Cite This Page

School Shootings in 2018: How Many and Where (2018, February 1). Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from /leadership/school-shootings-in-2018-how-many-and-where/2018/02

Contact Information

For media or research inquiries about this page, contact library@educationweek.org.

See Also

Sign indicating school zone.
iStock/Getty

Reporting & Analysis: Evie Blad, Holly Peele | Design & Visualization: Stacey Decker, Hyon-Young Kim

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Letter to the Editor School Safety Should Be Built In, Not Tacked On
69ý and communities must address ways to prevent school violence by first working with people, says this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week
School Climate & Safety Opinion How One Big City District Is Addressing the Middle East Conflict
Partnerships are helping the Philadelphia schools better support all students and staff, writes Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.
Tony B. Watlington Sr.
4 min read
Young people protesting with signs.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
School Climate & Safety 69ý Feel Less Connected to School. Here's Why That Matters
There's a body of research that points to a number of benefits when students feel close to people at school.
3 min read
An illustration of a black broken chain link on a red background.
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety Opinion ‘Homemade’ Solutions to School Safety Can Be Fire Hazards. Here’s What to Know
With the threat of school shootings, it’s natural to guard against intruders. However, this urgency can lead to equally unsafe measures.
Lauris Freidenfelds
4 min read
Photo of chained school doors.
istock