A Nationwide Case-Control Study of Firearm Violence Prevention Tactics and Policies in K-12 Schools

Columbia University Health Sciences, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Mass violence, especially involving active shootings in schools, is a significant and persistent public health threat in the US. The negative impact of these tragedies on the national psyche and individual citizens, whether they are directly involved in these shootings or not, is a top public concern, particularly for children. Tactics and policies to improve school safety and assuage fears are being implemented, but have not been scientifically tested and may have unintended consequences. Moreover, health disparities may be growing as school districts differentially use these tactics and policies based on factors unrelated to school safety, including school demographics and disciplinary actions such as suspensions and expulsions. The proposed research team has conducted substantial prior research on violence and school health as well as a pilot case- control study of school safety tactics and policies to prevent active shootings, demonstrating the feasibility of a larger study. Given this, the broad objective of the proposed study is to conduct the first nationwide study of school safety tactics and policies (e.g., metal detectors, locked entrances and classrooms, school resource officers, active shooter trainings, panic buttons, and others) and their potential impact on active shootings and student disciplinary action across disparate types of schools in the US. In pursuing this, three key specific aims will be completed: (1) to determine if the total number and specific types of safety tactics and policies are associated with the occurrence of active shootings in schools; (2) to determine if the total number and specific types of safety tactics and policies are associated with suspensions and expulsions in schools; (3) to identify if urban/non-urban, economic, and racial disparities exist between implementation of safety tactics and policies, suspensions and expulsions, and active shootings in schools. This will be accomplished through a nationally representative, population-based, case-control study comparing hundreds of case schools that experienced active shootings and randomly selected control schools that have not experienced such events using a common epidemiological incidence density sampling technique over a two-decade study period. Case schools will be ascertained via five well-established national databases that will be linked and harmonized to detail all US K–12 schools that experienced active mass shootings or attempted mass shootings. Four control schools will be randomly selected from two national databases of all US K–12 schools and matched to each case school based on state, urban/non-urban, and elementary/middle/high school status. School safety plans, principal surveys, and field visits will be used to determine tactics and policies in place at both case and control schools currently and during the school year before each case school's active shooting event and linked to data on school suspensions and expulsions. Other school, neighborhood, and local covariates will also be accounted for in conditional logistic regression models. Results will newly inform school policies and practices to reduce mass violence and promote healthy experiences for children across disparate communities.