As a result, people no longer perceive schools as safe havens.
But how accurate is that impression?
Studies of school violence put the recent spate of school killings in perspective:
A child has only a one in a million chance of being killed at school.
The number of people shot and killed in school in the 1994-1998 school year was 40
(including adults), about average over the last six years.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 99 percent of violent deaths of school-aged children in 1992-1994 occurred outside school grounds.
Fewer students are now being found with guns in school.
Data from the National School Safety Center at Pepperdine University suggest there has been a 27 percent decline in school-associated violent deaths from 1992 through the 1997-1998 school year.
Twenty-three time more children are killed in gun accidents than in school killings.