How well do YOU know the history of shootings and murders in U.S. schools? Here’s a quiz. All you need to do is choose the right year. Ready?
answers are at the bottom

Accidental Shootings

1. During a school play rehearsal, a revolver was accidentally loaded by a boy who tried to shoot a bird with it the day before. When the girl was to use the firearm as written in the script, she picked it up, then laid it down saying she was afraid of the old thing. The Teacher, Miss Reedy then grabbed the gun and said there was no need for alarm and pointed it at the girl, Pearl Reedy, 18 years old, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet lodged near her heart fatally wounding her.
1911
1923
1959

2. As some children were playing and throwing snowballs in the front yard of the Ponca Creek school, three young men drove up who engaged the children in a snowball fight. When they were leaving, one of the men pointed his 45 caliber and accidentally shot and injured three of the school children. Harbaugh, the young shooter, surrendered himself.
1995
1949
1883

3. At the Kable’s Military Academy a 15-year-old student, A. H. Hathaway of Dennison, Texas, was accidentally shot dead by his 17-year-old classmate James Whitworth of Sulphur Springs, Texas while they were playing with an old pistol.
1890
2006
1921

4. During a school performance of “the Grand Central”, John Moake, portraying the villain, was shot in the forehead and dangerously wounded by the hero, Roy Slater. The cartridge was thought to have been blank.
1962
1909
1941

 
Teacher/Student Problems

5. Ernest Lee Grissom, a 15-year-old student at Drew Junior High School, shot and seriously wounded a teacher and a 13-year-old student after he had been reprimanded for causing a disturbance.
1968
1987
1924

6. A boy who refused to be whipped by his teacher left the school. The next day he returned with his brother and a friend for revenge. Not finding the teacher at the school, they continued to his house, where a gun battle took place and three died. Only the boy survived.
1976
1868
1950

7. Neal Summers, 45, a teacher, was shot and killed just outside Whitman Middle School in North Seattle by Darrell Cloud, 24, a former student who had been sexually abused by Summers since the age of 13.
1994
2009
1968

8. Edward Foster, a 17-year-old student at Inman High school, was shot and fatally wounded by his teacher Reuben Pitts after he had jerked a rod from Pitts’ hands to resist punishment. According to the teacher, Foster struck the pistol Pitts had drawn to defend himself, thus causing its discharge. Pitts was later acquitted of murder.
1850
1903
1942

9. Mr. McGinnis was shot and killed by his daughter’s teacher after McGinnis threatened the teacher for expelling his daughter from school. When McGinnis’s son learned of this, he went to the school and killed the teacher.
1867
1947
2003

10. Mrs. Carmila Rindoni went to the school and her son’s teacher, shot Miss Rosalind I. Reynolds, two times for spanking her son the day before. Mrs. Rindoni was arrested, and Miss Reynolds was expected to recover.
1953
1920
1937

11. Woodrow Porter, 38, who was a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was shot to death by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old that was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.
1998
1978
1908

“Domestic” Violence

12. Fifth-grade teacher Margaret Brooks, 57, was shot to death in front of her students by her estranged husband James A. Brooks.
1912
1972
2010

13. May Thomas was lured out of the schoolhouse by Harry Garvey who was devoted to her, but she had refused his further attentions. He then pulled a revolver out and shot her dead, then killed himself.
1916
1936
1898

14. Miss Anna Dwight was shot to death in front of her students by Chauncey Barnes, a rejected boyfriend, at the Stone Lake Schoolhouse. After shooting Dwight, Barnes shot himself twice in the head.
1918
1871
1948

15. Teacher Irma Caler was shot and killed in her classroom at Rentschler school by 19-year-old Robert Warner, apparently because she had rejected his advances.
1919
1942
1981

16. As George E. Landers was teaching at the Willow Slough school house, Mrs. Julia A. Finn drove up and called out to him. When he came out to talk, Julia asked him to marry her, and he refused. Julia then took out a gun and fired three shots at him, but missed. She was then tried for attempted murder.
1924
1957
1880

17. Sarah E. Allen, a third grade teacher at the Jefferson school, was shot to death in front of her class by her estranged husband Oswald C. Allen, who then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
1912
1975
1889

18. Sylvester E. Adams shot and killed teacher Edith Smith after she rejected his advances. Adams then shot and killed himself. The incident took place in a schoolhouse after the students had been dismissed for the day.
1912
1854
1940

19. Stalker Michael Pimental walked into the cafeteria at The Evergreen State College, approached a table where several students sat, pulled out a .45 Colt automatic, and murdered Elisa Tissot.
1984
1997
2005

People Doing Violent Things

20. Charles Whitman, aged 25, climbed atop the observation deck at the University of Texas-Austin, and killed 17 people and wounded 31 during a 96-minute shooting rampage. The shooting would remain the deadliest shooting on a U.S. college campus until the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.
1966
1979
1991

21. Luke Woodham, 16, murdered his mother at home before killing his ex-girlfriend and another student and wounding seven others at Pearl High School. The perpetrator attempted to flee police and continue his killing spree at a nearby middle school, but he was stopped and detained by the Vice Principal.
1976
2007
1997

22. ” Los Angeles Herald article “Boys and Pistols”
Yesterday at noon a boy sixteen years of age shot himself, or was shot by his brother. It matters not who fired the fatal shot. No criminal act was intended or committed, and the boy is dead. He was a member of the High School of this city and was, we are told, something over the average good boy of Los Angeles. This boy lost his life through the too common habit among boys of carrying deadly weapons. We do not know that this habit can be broken up. We do not know that school teachers have the right, or would exercise it if they had, of searching the pockets of their pupils, but it seems almost a necessity that some such rule be enforced. The hills west of town are not safe for pedestrians after school hours.”
1874
1929
1956

23. After some of his dormmates urinated on his mattress, Bob Bechtel, a 20-year-old student at Swarthmore College, returned to his dorm with a shotgun and used it to shoot and kill fellow student Holmes Strozier.
1993
1972
1955

24. Regents scholar Anthony Barbaro, 17, armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several “battle plans” for his attack on the school.
1974
1997
1902

25. After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a Luger pistol at Everett High School.
1994
2013
1978

quiz answers