Note: English is not my native language, so I use an automated translation system to communicate. I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases is conveyed incorrectly.
Not long ago, one of the leading American experts in school safety, Dr. Kenneth S. Trump, published an interesting post on social media stating that in 2025, the number of attacks on schools had fallen to its lowest level in five years, and the number of victims of such crimes had also fallen to its lowest level.
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| https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17sPNNL7j5/ |
First, I would like to say that I have great and sincere respect for Dr. Kenneth S. Trump. I consider him one of the world's leading experts and practitioners in school safety issues, and I highly value his personal contribution to applied criminology. Thanks to his work, many children have saved their lives and health. However, in this case, I completely disagree with the assessment expressed by Dr. Kenneth S. Trump.
On the day I read this
message, I was just finishing the final edits to the updated version of my
annually published Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in
Schools and Other Educational Institutions. In the published 5th
edition, the main addition was the statistics for 2025. I can say right away
that the past year set a kind of anti-record for all the previous 26 years of
observations, so I even highlighted it in a separate section for comparison. In
the entire history of observations since 2000, there has only been one similar
sharp rise in all indicators, in
These are global statistics.
If we take the data for the
- crimes classified as serious
and particularly serious – 9;
- crimes with signs of mass
murder and terrorist acts – 4.
However, one significant
change did occur in 2025: 9 of the 16 incidents
with signs of mass murder took place not in schools but in universities,
with this proportion (56.2%) of crimes in higher education institutions
recorded for the first time. For comparison, in 2024 this proportion was 42.8%,
and in 2023 it was 40%.
I cannot say for sure, but it
is too early to talk about a decrease in the number of crimes; in fact, there
has been no decrease, just a change in the principle of target selection. It is
difficult to say exactly what this is due to, but the shift in threats from
schools to higher education institutions has been observed worldwide. Between
2000 and 2024, it showed an average increase of 2.7%, and in 2025, the increase
in this indicator was immediately more than 10%.
In essence, Dr. Kenneth S.
Trump is right in saying that while it is not yet clear what exactly has
influenced this situation and how it will develop further, it would be criminal
to be complacent about the security of educational institutions.
author: Roman Grishin
#Schoolshootings #schoolsafety #schoolsecurity #DrKennethSTrump
#K12 #K-12
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