美国国家公共电台 NPR The School Shootings That Weren't

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This back-to-school season, gun violence is on the minds of so many educators and parents. The Federal School Safety Commission led by the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, is holding its final public listening session today in Montgomery, Ala. This commission was formed in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead. And one question at the heart of the debate over school shootings is just how often they happen. Earlier this year for the first time, the federal government published what it said was a comprehensive count based on a survey of every single public school in the United States. But an NPR investigation¹ has found that the actual number may be far lower than the government is reporting. Anya Kamenetz of NPR's Ed team joins us now to talk about this. Hi, Anya.

ANYA KAMENETZ, BYLINE²: Morning, David.

GREENE: All right. So let's start with the official number from the government that we're dealing³ with here.

KAMENETZ: Two hundred and thirty-five. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights asked every school this question, and they actually made it mandatory⁴ for the first time last year. They asked, in the 2015-2016 school year, has there been at least one incident at your school that involved a shooting, whether - regardless of whether anyone was hurt? And that included going to and from school and school-sponsored events. And they published the answer this past spring.

GREENE: OK, so 235 in one school year - that's - what? - like, almost one for every school day. Am I right?

KAMENETZ: Right. So it seems really high to us. And so the NPR Ed team - this was some intern⁵ magic - spent the summer calling around to every single one of those schools. And David, we confirmed just 11 of the incidents.

GREENE: That's astonishing. I mean, that's not just, like, a mistake here or there.

KAMENETZ: Right. So we should say, you know, a quarter of the schools did not get back to us, it being the summer. But in 161 of those 235 cases, we did learn districts or schools told us nothing at all happened. And the biggest chunk⁶ of those overall was the Cleveland Municipal School District, reporting 37 shootings. Their best guess is that that number, 37, was placed on the wrong line of the survey.

GREENE: It's just incredible that you have schools saying nothing at all happened, and they're being counted by the federal government as places where there were shootings.

KAMENETZ: Right. So it's a really important question. And it's the first time that they've asked it. And we heard the same kind of errors all over the place. So in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified⁷ School District, among 16 very affluent⁸ schools, four shootings are listed. And Gail Pinsker, a district spokeswoman, said no one remembers any guns being fired going back 20-plus years. But maybe, she says, there was a coding mistake.

GAIL PINSKER: There was a code that was selected for a student brandishing⁹ a pair of scissors.

KAMENETZ: And somehow that got inflated¹⁰ into a gun going off.

GREENE: That - OK, so maybe the school is just reporting that that an incident happened, and it gets counted by the federal government as a gun going off. But, I mean, mistakes happen, but this is - these are important mistakes.

KAMENETZ: Yeah. I mean - you know, so we partnered with Child Trends, a nonprofit, for this investigation. And Deborah Temkin, one of their program officers, said, you know, on the one hand, there's 96,000 public schools, and so this is really within the margin¹¹ of error for a massive data collection. But on the other hand, she said...

DEBORAH TEMKIN: I think the challenge, of course, is when we're talking about such important and rare event like school shootings, that amount of data error could be very meaningful.

GREENE: OK, Anya, so what is the Department of Education saying about your investigation?

KAMENETZ: So Liz Hill, a department spokeswoman, said first of all, you know, they rely on schools to self-report and self-certify all of this data. They did say that at least five districts have contacted them and asked to revise their data submissions¹² on the shootings. We know that some of those districts got in touch with the department after talking to us. The Education Department says they'll publish an update called an errata, but they do not plan to republish the original document, which of course has been out for several months now.

GREENE: Which makes me wonder, do we really know anything about the number of school shootings in this country?

KAMENETZ: Yeah, that's the question. I mean, I think the one thing we can say that's good news is that they are, by any measure, extremely rare. But I wish that we knew more. I mean, having - you know, having a kid going back to school myself and seeing, you know, active-shooter drills, seeing districts spending so much money on safety and all kind of focusing on this idea of shootings being something that is, you know, really common, I just wish that we had better information.

GREENE: Anya Kamenetz from the NPR Ed team. Thanks a lot, Anya.

KAMENETZ: Thanks, David.

1 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

5 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

6 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

7 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

8 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

9 brandishing   

v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀

参考例句：

• The horseman came up to Robin Hood, brandishing his sword. 那个骑士挥舞着剑，来到罗宾汉面前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He appeared in the lounge brandishing a knife. 他挥舞着一把小刀，出现在休息室里。 来自辞典例句

10 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

12 submissions   

n.提交( submission的名词复数 )；屈从；归顺；向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据

参考例句：

• The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
• Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第（四）款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法