Here's How Many IL Students Have Faced Gun Violence Since 1999

ILLINOIS — On the same day as the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting that left 13 dead, students across the country planned walkouts demanding changes to end gun violence in American schools and communities. On the very day of the walkouts, a student was shot and injured at a high school in Florida, showing the pervasiveness of gun violence in schools.

Since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead, students have organized and given a new voice to the fight to end gun violence. On March 14, tens of thousands of students walked out of their classrooms in protest and just 10 days later, millions of students marched in Washington, D.C., and around the world to demand sensible gun law reform.

There have been shootings in six U.S. schools since the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to a database of school shootings compiled by The Washington Post. The newspaper’s count doesn’t include the shooting in Ocala on Friday.

The database reveals not only how many people have been killed or injured, but how many children have been exposed to gun violence since the Columbine High School shooting near Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Alex Wind, one of the student leaders from Parkland, noted in a tweet Friday that the shooting at Columbine happened before almost every student at his high school was born.

According to The Post, since Columbine, more than 206,000 children have been exposed to gun violence at 211 schools during school hours in the United States The Post’s reporting found that 131 children, educators and others have been killed and 271 have been injured.

In Illinois, between 1999 and 2018, there have been 10 school shootings, with the earliest shooting at Duke Ellington Elementary School in Chicago in 2000. According to The Post’s database, below are all the school shootings that have happened in Illinois since 2000:

Duke Ellington Elementary School, Chicago (Feb. 14, 2000)
0 dead, 1 injured, 680 children present at the school

Proviso East High School, Maywood, Illinois (Aug. 30,2004)
1 dead, 0 injured, 1,920 children present at the school

Woodruff High School, Peoria, Illinois (Jan. 26, 2005)
0 dead, 0 injured, 940 children present at the school

Bowen High School, Chicago (Feb. 8, 2005)
0 dead, 1 injured, 190 children present at the school

Harlan Community Academy High School, Chicago (Sept. 13, 2005)
0 dead, 1 injured, 1,280 children present at the school

Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Chicago (April 9, 2007)
0 dead, 1 injured, 1,870 children present at the school

Normal Community High School, Normal, Illinois (Sept.7 ,2012)
0 dead, 0 injured, 1,760 children present at the school

Rebound High School, Carbondale, Illinois (Jan. 27, 2014)
0 dead, 1 injured, 90 children present at the school

Warren Elementary School, Chicago (June 16, 2017)
0 dead, 2 injured, 260 children present at the school

Mattoon High School, Mattoon, Illinois (Sept. 20, 2017)
0 dead, 1 injured, 970 children present at the school

According to The Post’s count, 9,960 children have been exposed to gun violence at Illinois schools since 2000.

The Post notes that it’s possible additional incidents will be added to the database. The reporting from The Post found that there is a disproportionate impact of school shootings on children of color and that more than 85 percent of shooters used guns from their own homes or obtained them from friends or relatives.

In its methodology, The Post writes that reporters spent a year determining how many children have been affected by school shootings, beyond those just injured and killed. The incidents counted by The Post included acts of gunfire that happened on school campuses before, during or just after classes. You can read the full methodology here.

RELATED

• Illinois Students Walkout On 19th Anniversary Of Columbine
• On School Walkout Day, Gunfire Erupts At Florida School
• Mass School Shootings Rising Rapidly Since 1979
• Parkland Students Appeal For Unity After Latest School Shooting

By Feroze Dhanoa, Patch National Staff

Patch file photo by Amber Fisher/Patch Staff