INTERVIEW:
OSDFS Official Discusses Study that Tracks School Deaths
Bill Modzeleski serves as associate assistant
deputy secretary of the U.S.
Department of Education’s (ED) Office
of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The
Challenge interviewed Modzeleski recently
to discuss school-associated violent
deaths. The department works with
the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to collect data on each
school-associated death.
Q: Why have ED and the CDC been
collaborating on the school-associated
violent death study?
A: In the early 1990s we had noticed an
increase in school violence and were particularly
troubled by the growing number
of large-scale school shootings. The press
picked up on the disturbing trend of young
people coming into their schools to shoot
classmates, teachers, or administrators.
Congress took notice as well. Authorized
as part of the Improving America’s
Schools Act, the Safe and Drug-Free
Schools and Communities Act established
funds to help schools address factors that
contribute to school-associated violence.
We needed to quantify the numbers of
school-associated violent deaths, and at
that time no federal agency was collecting
these data. Because youth violence affects
the public health and justice systems as
well as the education system, it makes
sense for ED to work collaboratively with
the CDC and DOJ to monitor these events
in a consistent and meaningful way.
Q: What data is collected, how is it collected,
and how is it used?
The study collects detailed information
about the victims and perpetrators, the
schools where events occurred, and the
circumstances surrounding the events.
The CDC has a team of researchers who
gather the data using a variety of media
and Internet databases, vast contacts with
state and local agencies, as well as police
and school officials. Every identified case
is researched first to determine if the incident
occurred under the parameters set by
the study.
We look at homicides, suicides,
cases of legal intervention (meaning a victim
who is killed by a police officer in the
line of duty), and unintentional firearms
deaths. To be considered school-associated,
we include cases that occurred on
the campus of an elementary or secondary
school, on the way to or from school, or
during an official school-sponsored event
(including traveling to or from such an
event). Victims include students and staff.
We use these data in several ways. First
we are reporting them so that everyone
has an idea of how many school-related
deaths occur each year. Also we are finding
patterns and commonalities in the events
that may help schools prevent such deaths
from happening. To help in this prevention,
the data are used in developing
interventions and shaping policies at the
federal, state, and local levels.
Q: Don’t the FBI or local police agencies
collect information on school
shootings?
The FBI collects and reports national
crime statistics but does not track schoolspecifi
c incidents within those numbers.
While some communities are able to get
local crime data from their police departments,
there are no centralized databases
or national reporting mechanisms to track
all school-related violent deaths.
Q: What do the data show?
We see two trend lines. From 1992–99 we
see an even trend with approximately 34
school-associated deaths per year. After a
decline to 13 deaths during the 1999–2000
school year, the numbers have been going
up again. It is important to be cognizant
that one multiple homicide will increase
the numbers, so we want to be careful
when looking at these numbers.
These data show that schools need to be
prepared for the possibility of violent
deaths because they can occur anywhere,
but these events are still extremely rare occurrences.
Other types of school victimization
and criminal activity are much more
common and require constant attention.
The U.S. has 53 million students attending
elementary and secondary schools,
and a tiny fraction of them fall victim to
such tragedy. Furthermore, we see that
less than one percent of homicides with
victims ages 5 to 18 are school associated.
Q: Where can readers go for more
information on these school-associated
violent deaths?
Look to the ED or CDC Web sites (http://www.ed.gov and http://www.cdc.gov) for
links to the Indicators of School Crime
and Safety to find the annual statistics.
Two articles have been published that
describe findings from this study, School-
Associated Violent Deaths in the United
States, 1992 to 1994 and School-Associated
Violent Deaths in the United States,
1994–1999, both in the Journal of the
American Medical Association. Another
set of articles on the more recent data is in
development. 
Additional studies on school shootings
include the Safe School Initiative, an
analysis of 37 school shootings (41 shooters)
conducted by ED and the U.S. Secret
Service. The 2002 findings are available at
http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac.shtml.
The FBI analysis of 18 school shootings is
published in 1999’s The School Shooter: A
Threat Assessment Perspective, available
online at http://www.fbi.gov/publications/school/school2.pdf..
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