The Justice Department released a damning report on the police response to the May 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday.

The report states that police should have immediately confronted the gunman, but failed to do so. The report specifically mentions Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde School District police chief, saying he improperly treated the active shooter scenario as a barricaded subject situation.

A Thursday shooting at an Iowa school that left a sixth-grader dead and at least five other victims wounded continued a troubling trend of school shootings in the U.S. and marked the fourth such incident in the U.S. already in 2024.

Though the devastating impact of school shootings – and of lives lost to any sort of violence – cannot be adequately captured by data and charts alone, they can help illustrate the tragic toll and geography of incidents that have become disturbingly prevalent in the U.S. in recent years.

School shootings—terrifying to students, educators, parents, and communities—always reignite polarizing debates about gun rights and school safety. To bring context to these debates, Education Week journalists began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths.

In 2024, we continue this heartbreaking, but important work. More information about this tracker and our methodology is below.

A teen armed with a shotgun and a handgun unleashed terror at an Iowa high school on the first day of classes in the new year, authorities said, killing a sixth grader and wounding five others as people hunkered down in classrooms, barricaded offices and fled the barrage of bullets.

Mia had all the details on Thursday regarding the tragic school shooting in Perry, Iowa. As students at Perry High School were returning from their winter break Thursday morning, Dylan Butler, 17, opened fire, killing one sixth-grader and injuring five others (via NYT):

A gunman killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people at a high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. 

The White House said Thursday that President Joe Biden is tracking the school shooting at Perry, Iowa, and called on Congress to do more to pass gun control.

“Our hearts break for the families of the victims in yet another act of senseless gun violence,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Senior White House staff is in touch with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynold’s, R, office and federal officials are working with local law enforcement in their investigation, Jean-Pierre said.

Multiple people were shot inside a small-town Iowa high school early Thursday, as students preparing for their first classes after winter break were forced to duck into classrooms, barricade themselves in offices or run for an exit, before the suspected shooter was found dead.

Authorities in Perry, Iowa, did not say how many people were injured in the shooting, but hospitals confirmed receiving at least three patients.

Ethan Crumbley, who gunned down four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, a judge ruled on Friday.

Ahead of his sentencing, the 17-year-old acknowledged that he is a “really bad person.”

“I am a really bad person. I have done terrible things that no one should ever do,” he told the court, CNN reported.

A Michigan judge sentenced school shooter Ethan Crumbley to multiple life sentences without parole on Friday, after an emotional court hearing where surviving victims discussed their trauma.

Crumbley, 15 years old at the time, killed four people and injured seven more at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. He pleaded guilty to all charges.

During the hearing, he accepted responsibility and showed regret for his actions.