NPR examined a U.S. Education Department study and discovered that over 66 percent of reported school shootings for 2015-2016 school year never occurred.
The Education Department claims there were "nearly 240 schools … [which] reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting."
But NPR contacted schools and districts and was able to substantiate that 161 of the incidents "never happened." They verified that something did occur in four instances, "but it didn't meet the government's parameters for a shooting." Moreover, they received no response regarding 25 percent of the Educated Department's reported school shootings.
NPR was able to confirm only 11 of the 240 reported shootings. They note: "A separate investigation by the ACLU of Southern California also was able to confirm fewer than a dozen of the incidents in the government's report, while 59 percent were confirmed errors."
