Title: 16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine
Headings: 16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine
Unspeakable Times
16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine
The Enoch Brown School Massacre
St. Mary's Parochial School
South Pasadena Junior High School
Swarthmore College
Cleveland Elementary School (San Diego)
Frontier Middle School
The University Of Texas
Rose-Mar College
Olean High School
California State University, Fullerton
University Of Michigan
Cleveland Elementary School (Stockton)
University Of Iowa
Oakland Elementary
Thurston High School
Westside Middle School

Content: St. Mary's Parochial School
Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
On April 9, 1891, elderly James Foster fired his shotgun at a group of children playing in front of St. Mary's Parochial School in Newburgh, NY. None of the children were killed, but many were injured. Foster's motivations were unclear . South Pasadena Junior High School
Photo: Wehwalt / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
On May 6, 1940, Verlin Spencer, the 38-year-old principal of South Pasadena Junior High School, shot three school officials, killed five of his colleagues and left another seriously injured. Spencer had a long history of clashes with faculty and staff and was forced to serve a three-week involuntary leave of absence the year prior. When cornered by police, he shot himself in a suicide attempt but survived and served 30 years in prison. Three years later, Spencer learned the blood sample taken after his arrest was found to have high levels of bromide, a popular painkiller he took for headaches. While the amount was high enough to render him legally insane at the time of the shooting, he did not receive a retrial.