Shootings At Oregon Schools Since Columbine In 1999

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 also found that 131 children, educators and others have been killed and 271 have been injured.

In Oregon, between 1999 and 2018, there have been four school shootings, with the earliest shooting following the Columbine massacre taking place at Roseburg High School in 2006.

According to The Post’s database, below are all the school shootings that have happened in Oregon since 2000:

Roseburg High School — Roseburg, Oregon, Feb. 23, 2006

• Killed: 0
• Injured: 1
• # of Students Present: 1,900

From The Post: "A 14-year-old boy with a large-caliber handgun shot another student four times in the back."

Springwater Trail High School — Gresham, Oregon, April 10, 2007

• Killed: 0
• Injured: 10
• # of Students Present: 150

From The Post: "A 15-year-old boy with a .270 Winchester rifle fired two rounds through the windows of two classrooms, injuring 10 students with glass."

Bend High School — Bend, Oregon, Feb. 7, 2014

• Killed: 0 (shooter performed suicide)
• Injured: 0
• # of Students Present: 1,520

From The Post: "A 17-year-old boy with a hunting rifle walked into a class and fatally shot himself in front of other students."

Reynolds High School — Troutdale, Oregon, June 10, 2014

• Killed: 1 (not including shooter, who performed suicide)
• Injured: 1
• # of Students Present: 2,600

From The Post: "A 15-year-old boy with an AR-15-style rifle shot and killed a 14-year-old boy in the locker room before wounding a teacher and killing himself in a bathroom stall."

While The Washington Post study is specific to students under 18, it's important to also note the Oct. 1, 2015, shooting at Umpqua Community College that left nine people dead and eight others injured when 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer shot a professor and 16 students in a classroom before killing himself.

Also, the shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, less than one year before the tragedy at Columbine.

On May 21, 1998, previously expelled student Kip Kinkle murdered his parents at home before driving to Thurston High School before the start of classes and opening fire in the cafeteria, killing two students and injuring 25 others.

According to The Post’s count, 6,170 children have been exposed to gun violence at Oregon 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

• 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

Feroze Dhanoa, Patch National Staff, contributed to this report.

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