Schools focus on “hardening” buildings against mass shootings, data shows, fails to address where most gun violence occurs.

“Pure chaos” is how students at Garfield High School in Seattle described the shooting they found after returning from lunch in June. Amarr Murphy-Paine, 17, was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight near the school steps.

“I mean, people were running this way, that way,” Nate Cook recalled.

There have been five shootings at Garfield High School since 2021, according to a CBS News analysis of data. That’s the most shootings at any U.S. school in the past 20 years.

“It’s something we have to live with every day, especially being students here, and yeah, I would say it’s pretty scary, to be honest,” Jackson Hatch said.

Jackson’s parents, Alicia and Michael Hatch, are concerned about safety while their four children are at school.

“You hope your child can go to school and be safe and just focus on learning, but it seems to be everywhere,” said Alicia Hatch. “It’s in schools. It’s outside schools. Crime is up. Gun violence is up and that’s a scary thought.”

Last school year, two students were shot in separate incidents at Garfield High School. But unless you live in a community near the school, you probably haven’t heard about the shootings.

A CBS News analysis of the K-12 school shooting database shows that these “smaller” school shootings are more common than mass shootings like Apalachee High School Shooting in Georgia on September 4, in which two students and two teachers were killed. Collectively, these incidents kill more children than gun violence that makes national news, like the mass shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde and now, Apalachee.

There have been at least three times as many school shootings in each of the last three academic years as in any previous school year dating back to 1966, the analysis finds.

Alicia and Michael Hatch want administrators to pay more attention to data that shows the root causes of gun violence in and around schools.

“We want all kids at Garfield High and throughout the public school system here in Seattle to feel safe,” said Michael Hatch. “I hope we can mobilize as parents, as a community, to call on our leaders, to call on the administration to do some very, very specific things to create safety and peace.”

Most school shootings happen outdoors

Researchers like David Riedman, who created the K-12 School Shooting Database, said school administrators often fail to learn from previous school shootings. Riedman believes they adopt policies and technological solutions that don’t address the reality of what’s happening.

As CBS News has found, when acts of violence do occur, they most often do not occur at school, but on school grounds, such as in parking lots, soccer fields and in front of buildings.

CBS News analysis of all school shootings nationwide, it was revealed that 84% of fatal school shootings since 2018 have occurred outside of school grounds. The investigation also found that nearly 95% of fatal school shootings in the 2023-2024 school year occurred outside of school grounds.

Last academic year, more than one-third of U.S. school shootings occurred in parking lots, where there is often little protection or attention from school administrators.

Learn from data

“Most of the incidents were not planned attacks,” Riedman said. “These were fights that escalated into shootings, domestic violence on campus, accidents, suicides, and when you look at the characteristics of these incidents, these are things that come out of conflict.”

Security consultant Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent, says that’s why school administrators need to understand what past school shootings can tell us about how to stop future gun violence on campus. Matranga trains and advises school districts across the country on how to better prepare for campus incidents.

“I don’t think most people (school administrators) were prepared for a school shooting,” said Matranga, who now serves as CEO of M6 Global Defense Group. “You can’t deny the facts.”

The National Council of School Safety Directors, of which Matranga is vice chair, is calling on all schools to hire a trained, experienced professional whose sole job is to oversee safety at the district level. CBS News found that of the thousands of school districts nationwide, fewer than 200 have a full-time district safety director.

“We need to stay on top of the threats,” said Jason Stoddard, president of the National Council of School Safety Directors and chief safety officer for Charles County Public Schools in Maryland. “We need to be flexible enough and knowledgeable enough to make sure we’re anticipating what’s going to happen.”

Stoddard said too many schools are spending money on “solutions” to gun violence in schools that have not been proven to be effective. Experts said things like special locks on classroom doors and bulletproof boards don’t solve the majority of the gun violence problem in schools across the country.

“When we start analyzing data, we have to look at all the variables and find solutions based on that information,” Stoddard said.

He showed CBS News some of the solutions he’s implemented in Maryland. He said many of these things cost little to nothing, but most schools across the country haven’t implemented them yet.

Examples include:

• Employees patrolling parking lots
• Mandatory ID badges worn by everyone (students, staff and guests) at all times
• Doors locked outside
• Signs or room numbers on paper placed in windows so that rescuers can see them from outside the school
• Radios so administrators can talk to local police instantly, not just each other
• Camera systems that allow security personnel to monitor the entire campus, not just hallways and classrooms

“There is no one size fits all solution,” Stoddard said. “We know that if we focus on these basic school safety issues, we will reduce the risk.”

“This community has had enough”

Seattle Public Schools administrators are focusing on what they can do to reduce risk at their schools, including Garfield High School. Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones held a press conference with safety advocates, community groups and stakeholders before the start of the current school year.

“I think this community has had enough,” Jones said. “Our schools are now safer inside than they are outside.”

CBS News pressed for details on the new plans in response to the shootings that occurred outside school buildings.

“We need cameras,” Jones said. “We need a police presence, but we also need to balance that with counselors, social workers, care coordinators and community violence interrupters.

Student Creates His Own App to Ensure School Safety

Jackson Hatch didn’t wait for school administrators. The rising senior at Garfield High School developed his own push alert app for iPhones and Android devices to prevent what happened to him when he drove into a shooting scene without warning while returning to school after lunch.

The app will notify students, teachers, and parents about emergencies on campus. Jackson even raised money through a GoFundMe account to cover all costs associated with the app, so it will be free for anyone who wants to use it. The principal of Garfield High School has agreed to work with Jackson to distribute the app. A Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman told CBS News that a district representative also plans to meet with Jackson.

Jackson hopes to make the app available to schools across the country.

“The whole idea is for everyone to have access to information immediately,” Jackson Hatch said. “It will have a mapping feature and identify hot spots and will be a great source of data.”

Jackson’s parents said they are frustrated that the student has to find a solution as school officials appear unable to respond effectively or efficiently, and similar shootings are occurring across the country.

“I think we need to do more,” said Michael Hatch. “This is a moment where everybody has to lean in and not lean out and not point fingers, but everybody has to do more and better. What is it going to take before we find a solution, before we get to the breaking point, before we address this?”