The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/school-shootings/)
Legislation signed July 31 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo limits educational authorities from authorizing anyone “not primarily employed as a school resource officer, law enforcement officer or security guard” from carrying firearms on school grounds.
Unlike schools in Connecticut and Florida, officials at the Colorado site of an earlier and most notorious school shooting decided not to demolish the building that last year attracted about 2,400 gawkers to its grounds.
Citing government immunity, the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled against two families who alleged negligence and inadequate school-safety protocols contributed to the deaths of their loved ones during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
Last month was a turning point. Lenny Pozner, whose son was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, won a lawsuit against editors of a book that claimed no one was killed in the 2012 attack. A Connecticut judge separately imposed sanctions against Alex Jones of Infowars.
Former Broward County, Fl., Sheriff Scott Israel is campaigning for his old job after being removed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his officers’ failure to protect Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students died last year. At the same time, parents of a student killed at the school sued the FBI.
Many news organizations quoted David Briscoe’s account of last year’s school shooting in Santa Fe, Tx., but the school district said he never was there. An Austin editor said some supposed survivors try to dupe journalists.
The site of the 1999 school massacre has become a “macabre source of inspiration” for troubled people around the world and should be replaced by a new $70 million structure, suggests school superintendent Jason Glass.
Accused ex-Parkland sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson is out of jail. He has offered a defense of his actions, saying he was “scanning for the shooter,” not knowing he was inside the school.
Scot Peterson, the school resource officer criticized for his response to the 2018 shooting at a Parkland, Fl., high school that left 17 people dead, was fired and charged with several crimes. Experts say the case could be difficult to prove.
School districts are using products like gunshot detection systems that identify where shots are fired and apps that allow teachers to report attacks and connect with police. Dennis Kenney of John Jay College of Criminal Justice says, “What we’re trying to do is find some technological fix, and there isn’t one.”