Boosted security measures at U.S. schools fail to contain gun violence: media

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Even as U.S. schools spend billions of dollars on security, the number of gun incidents on campus has only grown, reported The New York Times on Thursday.

Last year, more than 330 people were fatally shot or wounded on school grounds, up from 218 in 2018, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a research project that tracks instances in which a gun is fired or brandished on school property.

The overall number of incidents, which can include cases where no one was injured, also increased to more than 300, up from about 120 in 2018, and as few as 22 in 1999, according to the report.

"The uptick in school gun violence comes amid a broader increase in active shooter incidents and gun deaths in the United States. Overall, schools are still quite safe," the report noted.

U.S. schools have amped up security over the past five years, with about two-thirds of public schools now controlling access to school grounds, not just the building, during the school day, up from about half in the 2017-2018 school year.

An estimated 43 percent of public schools have a "panic button" or silent alarm that connect directly with the police in case of emergency, up from 29 percent five years ago, according to the report.