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School Killers – Crime Library on truTV.com.

The List

In the late 1990s, it seemed like an epidemic had hit American schools: Children were acquiring guns and bombs, and then going to school to kill teachers and classmates. Various cultural influences were targeted for blame, such as Stephen King’s novel, Rage, a film, The Basketball Diaries, and the Pearl Jam video, “Jeremy.” Violent videogames also entered the discussions, as did the influences of cults like Satanism. Yet a look back reveals some of the earlier incidents as well. The following is a timeline of school violence that grabbed national attention:

• January 1979 — Brenda Spencer, 17, got a rifle for Christmas and used it to shoot into an elementary school across the street from her home in San Diego, California. Eight children and a police officer were injured, and two men lost their lives protecting the kids. When the six-hour standoff finally ended, Brenda explained with a shrug, “I don’t like Mondays.”
• March 2, 1987 — Nathan Ferris, 12, was an honor student in Missouri, where he finally got tired of being teased. He brought a pistol to school and when a classmate made fun of him, he killed the other boy. Then he turned the gun on himself. He had warned a friend not to attend school that day, signaling his plans, but no one had listened to this overweight loner.

Stephen Abbot & Jamie Rous (AP)