A teenage gunman murdered 15 people in one of the world’s worst high school massacres. Tim Kretschmer, murdered nine of his former school mates as well as three female teachers near Stuttgart. Police said the tool would have been even higher had it not been for the sacrifice of three teachers who stood in the killer’s way in order to protect students.
The killings are the second worst school killings in Germany’s history. The worst occurred in April 2002 when an expelled student killed 16 people before killing himself.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, according to press reports,describe the murders as “incomprehensible.”
While schools are safer than they have ever been, school violence, is nothing new nor is it “incomprehensible”. There have been a string of school killings both in the United States and in Europe. As in many cases, the killer(s) have notified people in advance of the killings. For any educator dealing with the possibility of school violence, I suggest reading the two major American studies done regarding school violence, “The School Shooter Report” published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and “The National Threat Assessment Report” published by the United States Secret Service. Both are available on line. I will in a future “Franklin’s Thoughts” summarize both.
Till next time.