The woman who shot up a school in Nashville is only the FIFTH in history: Incredibly rare attacks date back to 1979 when a teenage girl said she killed because “I don’t like Mondays,” inspiring Bob’s hit record Geldof.
- The 28-year-old woman who opened fire at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, is only the fifth woman to shoot at a school in history.
- The woman killed three children and three adults before being shot by police
- But women account for only about 2 percent of mass shootings and school shootings in the United States, according to The Violence Project.
The 28-year-old woman who allegedly opened fire at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, is only the fifth woman to shoot en masse at a school in history.
Police say the killer, who has yet to be identified, killed three children and three adults before she was shot dead. police.
Women account for only about 2 percent of mass shootings and school shootings in the United States, according to data compiled by The Violence Projectwhich maintains a database of school shootings in which more than one person was shot or a person came to the school heavily armed with the intent to shoot indiscriminately.
It found that women committed only four school shootings out of 147 recorded.
The first took place in 1979 when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer fatally shot her principal and another staff member at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego.
When asked why she killed, Spencer infamously told a reporter, “I don’t like Mondays.” This cheers up the day”, which inspired Bob Geldof to write the hit record BoomTown Rats.
The first of these female shooters carried out her attack that year, claiming that she simply doesn’t like Mondays. Brenda Spencer, a 16-year-old who carried out an attack at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She killed the school principal and a janitor, and wounded eight children and a police officer.
Students are evacuated from The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, Monday after a woman shooting killed three children and two adults.
The attack also left eight children and a police officer injured.
Spencer infamously told a reporter, “I don’t like Mondays. This cheers up the day’, which inspired Bob Geldof to write the hit record BoomTown Rats.
Authorities said at the time that she “shot from her house across the street from the school.”
Spencer pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Other school shooters include Teah Wimberly, who was just 15 when she fatally shot Amanda Collette, also 15, at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2008, and Latina Williams, 23, who killed two students in a Louisiana Technical College classroom before committing suicide.
Baton Rouge police later said Williams had been exhibiting signs of “paranoia and loss of touch with reality,” according to Fox News.
Most recently, a sixth-grader girl opened fire at an Idaho high school in 2021.
The unidentified 13-year-old girl could remain in the custody of the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections until she turns 19.
A father walks his son out of The Covenant School in Nashville after a shooter killed three students and two staff members before being shot dead.
School buses packed with children arrived at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after the shooting at The Covenant school.
Researchers have found that shooters who target larger groups or schools tend to study previous perpetrators, who are more likely to be male.
“They see themselves in some of these other shooters,” said Project Violence president Jillian Peterson, a forensic psychologist and professor at Hamline University in Minnesota.
Boys in general tend to externalize anger and sadness against other people, while girls are more likely to internalize those emotions and have higher rates of depression and anxiety, Peterson said.
Two recent studies by the US Secret Service’s National Center for Threat Assessment also provide insight into common characteristics among many children who plan or carry out school shootings.
The students were often heavily bullied, suffered from depression with stress at home, and exhibited behavior that caused concern to others.
They also often missed school before the attack.
