As Many as 20 Students Stabbed at a Pennsylvania High School

[ksen]

http://www.thewire.com/national/201...stabbed-at-a-pennsylvania-high-school/360385/

At this point, all we know about the suspect is that he or she is a student at the school. According to Dan Stevens with Westmoreland Emergency Management, at least 20 people were stabbed or otherwise injured in the incident, four of them seriously. Later on Wednesday morning, the CEO of Forbes hospital confirmed to WTAE that it was treating 8 victims — seven students and one adult — of the 20 total. Half of those at Forbes had "life threatening" injuries, although all are expected to survive their injuries. That's in part thanks to the efforts of one student at the scene

jesus

 

[Under the Rose]

CBC News covered this incident.

A 16 year old male.

Apparently a 'nice' guy, not a loner. This incident seems to be 'out of character'.

A lot of folks at the school stepped in to help care for their friends until help arrived.

A very sad incident. Schools are no longer the safe place that they were once perceived to be.

 

[bilby]

CBC News covered this incident.

A 16 year old male.

Apparently a 'nice' guy, not a loner. This incident seems to be 'out of character'.

A lot of folks at the school stepped in to help care for their friends until help arrived.

A very sad incident. Schools are no longer the safe place that they were once perceived to be.

I am unconvinced that this is anything more than perception though; Perhaps schools are not particularly dangerous places today, but these days the 24 hour news networks make a big song and dance about the small number of schools where violent events happen, and fail to mention the 25,000 high schools at which no-one died today.

I would be interested to know if schools are actually more dangerous now than 10, 20 or 50 years ago, in terms of % of pupils killed or injured per annum; and how they compare to other public places - are killings more common in schools than killings in other venues, or just more newsworthy?

Is the perceived danger just perception, or is it real? And if it is real, is it new, or was it always this bad?

 

[travc]

I am unconvinced that this is anything more than perception though; Perhaps schools are not particularly dangerous places today, but these days the 24 hour news networks make a big song and dance about the small number of schools where violent events happen, and fail to mention the 25,000 high schools at which no-one died today.

I would be interested to know if schools are actually more dangerous now than 10, 20 or 50 years ago, in terms of % of pupils killed or injured per annum; and how they compare to other public places - are killings more common in schools than killings in other venues, or just more newsworthy?

Is the perceived danger just perception, or is it real? And if it is real, is it new, or was it always this bad?

I agree... that is a good question.

I seem to recall that there are indeed more mass killings. However, that seems to be a function of the fact that the mass killings are in the form of people going on shooting sprees, frequently with semi-auto weapons.

As for generalized violence, my guess is that schools are probably less violent today. The chances of getting the shit really beat out of you or stabbed seem lower than even when I was in HS in the late 80s.

BTW: It seems that some folks have tried to put together a fairly comprehensive list on wikipeadia:  List_of_rampage_killers_(school_massacres)
I'm sure there is significant bias towards better reported (at least easier to find reports) of more modern incidents.

 

[Underseer]

I am unconvinced that this is anything more than perception though; Perhaps schools are not particularly dangerous places today, but these days the 24 hour news networks make a big song and dance about the small number of schools where violent events happen, and fail to mention the 25,000 high schools at which no-one died today.

I would be interested to know if schools are actually more dangerous now than 10, 20 or 50 years ago, in terms of % of pupils killed or injured per annum; and how they compare to other public places - are killings more common in schools than killings in other venues, or just more newsworthy?

Is the perceived danger just perception, or is it real? And if it is real, is it new, or was it always this bad?

That is a good question.

In the late 1980s, the "liberal media" convinced America that there was a crime wave among inner city youth at the precise time when crime rates among inner city youth was actually going down.

 

[aeebee50]

I suppose now we have to have a wrist band to carry our pocket knife. I do not even wear a wrist watch.

 

[Canard DuJour]

I too am sceptical about schools being any more violent than they ever were. I see school assaults (rightly) reported now that would have been passed off as "fights" when I was at school, though they were often very serious assaults, usually by gangs on individuals.

But the mass shootings - apparently by retaliating individuals (?) - seem to be a new thing which I doubt could previously have been passed off as "fights" or escaped media attention.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Abhorrent crime. A woman called into the Diane Rehm show today to inform people that apparently video games have subliminal messages, in the form of being able to kill anything without repercussions and how this should be looked into. Seeing that this happened after GTA V came out, this is clearly linked.

I suppose now we have to have a wrist band to carry our pocket knife. I do not even wear a wrist watch.

Can't tell time?

 

[Nexus]

Seeing that this happened after GTA V came out, this is clearly linked.

My bet is the new season of Game of Thrones.

 

[arkirk]

What I find peculiar in this story is that one guy with a knife could injure that many people before getting stopped...or cornered.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What I find peculiar in this story is that one guy with a knife could injure that many people before getting stopped...or cornered.

One guy with two 6 to 8 inch blades, attacking students out of the blue, and you think 20 is too high? What number do you think is reasonable? How fast are people supposed to understand what is happening, and then act to stop it?