According to the Washington Post, at least 390,000 students were exposed to a school shooting (exposure is defined as students attending a school at which a shooting occurred during the current school year) since the 1999 Columbine shooting. This brief analyzes the rate of student exposure to school shootings over time at the national and state level. Exposure rates depend on factors including school enrollment size and state population size. Therefore, even a single school shooting incident in a state can impact many youths beyond those that are physically injured and may significantly increase exposure rates.
Examining School Shootings at the National and State Level and Mental Health Implications
