Threats of school violence have become one of the most pressing issues facing schools across the United States. From lockdown drills to frequent news headlines about school shootings, students nationwide are now growing up and attending school facing the reality of school violence. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 2000 through 2022, active shooter instances at schools have resulted in 328 casualties, with 131 killed and 197 injured. In 2022 alone, there were 52 casualties from active shooters, the second highest amount for any year on record.
The school year of 2025-26 has witnessed several incidents as well; according to CNN, there have been 21 school shootings this year as of April 2026. In Dec. 2025, a mass shooting at Brown University resulted in two deaths and nine injuries, according to PBS. More locally, a Nov. 2025 shooting at Skyline High School in Oakland left one student injured. Various threats of violence have been evident at Berkeley High School too.
Threats of school violence, despite the prevention measures instituted by the Berkeley Police Department (BPD) and BHS admin, still instigate fear in some students and teachers. “Every time I step onto campus, I start scanning campus ... It's kind of like a background thing. Whenever there's a loud noise in the hallway, (I get) kinda a little jumpy. For me, nowadays when I hear about one (school shooting), it's just kind of like a reinforcement of our hypervigilance,” Alex Day, an Ethnic Studies teacher, said.
Jane Kelly, a BHS junior, described a similar reaction to nationwide school shootings. “My emotional reaction is sadness that we even have to do these things, anger that this is all we can really do, and helplessness knowing that in an actual emergency, the drills won’t likely have taught us much given the difference in circumstances between a drill and reality,” she said.
Over the years at BHS, there have been various threats of school violence. According to The Berkeley Scanner, in Dec. 2024, two students brought firearms onto campus. On Dec. 11, 2024, BHS students heard sounds of a gun being racked (having its bolt pulled back) in the bathroom on BHS campus. One of the students in the bathroom was Patrick Seller, a BHS senior at the time, who admitted to carrying a gun in his backpack. According to police, one of the firearms was stolen in a San Ramon burglary. However, according to BPD, neither weapon was brandished on campus. According to The Berkeley Scanner, both students were arrested at school. During the investigation, police found a Taurus handgun with an extended magazine holding 22 rounds. Seller was arrested but failed to appear in court, leading to a $75,000 bench warrant for his arrest.
This wasn’t the first threat of violence at BHS. According to a Berkeley Unified School District statement, on May 30, 2022, BPD arrested a BHS student after receiving a tip describing that he had tried to recruit other students to aid him in a mass shooting or bombing at school. Upon a search of the student’s house, BPD found parts to explosives, assault rifles, several knives, and electronic items that could be used to create additional weapons.
Stephens assured the BHS community that during the school-administered investigation there was no immediate danger to the school. Stephens addressed the concerns of various students and families being informed too late by saying that the district must balance transparency with not compromising an on-going investigation. Cassandra Tesch, BHS Administration Dean of Students, emphasized the precedence needed in threats of violence. “As soon as you get the information (about a threat, everything is) dropped to go deal with that,” she said.
Tesch described the importance of fact-checking before sending out updates on a threat. “What we don't ever want to do is to spread misinformation, and we never want to also create an undue stress and create other safety concerns while still gathering the facts on the current safety issue ... As leaders, we only provide information that's required and necessary to maintain safety,” Tesch said.
BHS safety efforts also extend beyond preventing incidents of violence to creating detailed procedures in the BHS School Safety Plan. Tesch described the plan as a collaborative, year-long effort with students, staff, community members, BPD, and Berkeley Fire Department, all of whom review the plan and make recommendations and revisions. “So we spend a whole year working through that, revising it, editing it, looking at different protocols,” Tesch said, “A lot of our work for safety is around preventative measures, practicing drills, intruder drills, and then every other kind of possible scenario imaginable is in there.” The 2025-26 BHS School Safety Plan includes protocol for everything from bomb threats, intruders, gas leaks, floods, and even fallen airplanes.
After the May 2022 incident, Stephens also sent a statement out to the BHS community saying that Columbine locks have been placed on all doors, allowing teachers to lock doors from the inside without a key. BHS also reported conducting a comprehensive review of the “vulnerabilities” of the school’s campus. A full-time safety coordinator was also hired, according to Tesch. BHS is also required to conduct at least three fire, earthquake, and armed intruder drills per year, according to its 2025-26 BHS School Safety Plan.
Another safety precaution BHS takes to protect against school violence is a web of radios, explained Tesch. “There are people who hold radios everywhere from the counseling wing to the athletic director. So at any time on campus, we can quickly communicate with one another," Tesch said.
Still, incidents of violence have not disappeared completely. In Aug. 2025, an email threatening campus was sent to BHS. The threat was verified by the police, which found that there was no reason to believe it was credible. However, police still patrolled the area and BHS took added precautions: campus doors were locked, students were asked to show identification, and staff warned students to report any suspicious activity, according to The Berkeley Scanner.
However, despite these threats of violence, many BHS students still feel comfortable at school. “I know that I don’t feel nearly as safe as I could in other countries, but I also know that of all American schools, I feel that I am probably at one of the safest ones. But even on a general scale, I feel safe,” Kelly said. She described that she felt BHS administration’s responses to school violence were effective, stating, “I think there is always a big response from both admin and surrounding students when there is violence.”
Some students also report feeling more safe over the course of their years at BHS. Kelly believes that her perspective on school violence at BHS has changed in the sense that she has seen less fights at school. “But I also generally feel safer at (BHS) because as I’ve grown older I’ve been able to read the news more maturely. I think school violence is one of the biggest issues in our country, but I’m also able to read things on the news and not automatically think that my own school is in nearly as much danger,” Kelly said.