Unconventional World Records

The term “school shooting” is a term popularised in the US and refers to mass killing sprees and encompasses all educational institutions, including primary, secondary/high school and tertiary/college/university levels of education. This post is concerned with acts done by either student(s) or member(s) of staff.

Possibly the world’s worst school shooting ever happened at Bath Consolidated School, a primary school in Michigan, USA on 18th May 1927. It claimed 45 lives and injured 58.

The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe.

He was angry because he had to pay tax to fund construction of the school building, which caused him financial problems which he expected to cause the closure of his farm. The anger was white-hot, for he killed his wife first then set his farm buildings on fire. He then set off explosives which destroyed part of the school buildings and killed many people inside it. For his final act, he drove to the school, stopped the car, then exploded a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle. That killed himself, the school superintendent, and some others.

Next is the Virginia Tech, USA massacre of 16th April 2007, by student Cho Seung-Hui, with 33 deaths.

Next is the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium, Germany massacre of 26th April 2002, by expelled student Robert Steinhauser, with 17 deaths.

Next is the University of Texas, USA massacre of 1st August 1966, by student Charles Whitman, with 16 deaths.

Next is the Columbine High School, USA massacre of 20th April 20 1999, by students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, with 15 deaths.

For a school shooting done by outsiders, the worst must surely be the Beslan Massacre, when a group of Muslim pro-Chechen armed rebels took more than 1,200 school children and adults hostage 1st September 2004, at School Number One (SNO), North Ossetia, which is an autonomous republic in the Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. On 3rd September, amid gunfire between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces, 344 civilians were killed, including 186 children.

Next is Dunblane Primary School, Great Britain on 13th March 1996, by Thomas Hamilton, with 18 deaths.

source