What are the common characteristics of school shootings?

What are the common characteristics of school shootings?

It's really difficult to characterize school shootings, because most school shootings that are highly publicized don't fit the mould of common school shootings, which are things like gang violence and fights that escalate to a level of a shooting. Unfortunately, the incidents that we've seen in the media, Columbine and Virginia Tech, are very rare and they don't fit the common mould. However, they are very tragic, and we see increasingly things like students being loners. Although, those who have committed acts of violence in schools have not always been loners. Some of them are very social. It's very difficult to profile the characteristics of shootings, but there is a profile of a school that can have a violent incident, such as not having a safety plan, not having good parental involvement, or not having student input. Those are common characteristics of a school that could have a shooting. It's very important that schools take an approach of including community partners: mental health, public health, law enforcement, in creating a program that has the input of parents and students alike.