Teachers’s View on School Shootings: Stop Leaving People Isolated

I doubt I’m the only teacher who has scanned his classroom the day after a mass shooting and wondered, “Which of these students is our biggest risk?” We know the profile: loner, isolated, bullied, male. And yet, we seemingly cannot stop these horrific events.

And the uncomfortable truth of it all is exactly that: We might not be able to stop them — at least not in the near future. Most loners never shoot up a school, and those that do make up an impossibly small number. It’s worse than finding a needle in a haystack. It’s like trying to find a slightly grayer shell on a vast beach full of other gray shells.

About the Author

Daniel Buck

Daniel Buck is a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.

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I doubt I’m the only teacher who has scanned his classroom the day after a mass shooting and wondered, “Which of these students is our biggest risk?” We know the profile: loner, isolated, bullied, male. And yet, we seemingly cannot stop these horrific events.

And the uncomfortable truth of it all is exactly that: We might not be able to stop them — at least not in the near future. Most loners never shoot up a school, and those that do make up an impossibly small number. It’s worse than finding a needle in a haystack. It’s like trying to find a slightly grayer shell on a vast beach full of other gray shells.