By March, about two-thirds of the way through the school year, the police had been called to the school more than 220 times, an average of about seven times a week, for everything from false fire alarms to fights involving physical injury. There is such a demand on their services that the cost of their overtime pay alone equalled the starting salaries for an additional two dozen teachers. In Philadelphia The Philadelphia Daily News in December of 1996 said that during a typical day in the city's public schools seven students and four staff members are victimized by violent crime. This was based on an analysis of more than 42,000 incidents of all kinds from 1993-1996. Two months later The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that for every Black teenager who cites racism as their school's biggest problem, six list violence.
Some incidents are even more unbelievable than the five shootings that received so much attention.
He was convicted this year. It was reported the teacher was alternately reading or dozing. All of these, and more, constitute a legitimate source of concern and speculation as to the cause, or causes, and what might be done about it. Many theories are being put forth, some of which are controversial themselves, such as the accessibility of guns and what, if anything, can be done about it. As two students demonstrated when they shot from woods at students and faculty leaving their school because of a false fire alarm, the use of rifles avoids both metal detectors and guards inside a school.