In the year 2023, the United States saw at least 80 school shootings. More school shootings than any other year since 2008. From kindergarten to university, these incidents have left 37 people dead and at least 88 people injured.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the United States has seen a major decline in gun violence on school grounds. However, since then there has been a rapid increase in numbers. 2022 saw one of the deadliest school shootings at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas when a total of 19 students and 2 educators were killed and a dozen more injured.
The most recent incident was the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Shooting. On December 6th, 2023 a man named Anthony Polito, shot and killed 3 staff members and put another teacher in the hospital. He was killed in a shootout between the police and himself, leaving two officers injured.
67-year-old, Anthony Polito was born and raised in North Carolina and worked as a tenured associate professor of business at East Carolina University in Grenville, North Carolina from 2001-2017. Many of his old students have said that he had a “unique” teaching style and was a very comedic teacher. Many of his old coworkers have expressed the goodness of Mr. Polito, however, they would mention how Mr. Polito would solely focus on the students who would leave bad reviews about his classroom and would be able to pinpoint the year they graduated and where they sat in his classroom.
Sometime in 2017, Polito moved to Nevada where he began working as an adjunct professor of business at Roseman University of Health Sciences located in Henderson, Nevada from 2018-2022. After losing his job at Roseman because they shut down the program he taught, Polito began applying to various universities in Nevada more specifically UNLV, but all attempts had been unsuccessful.
Before the shooting, Polito had emailed 22 letters to faculty members; however, the emails contained harmless letters or sometimes just white powder. The police have also made a statement saying how Polito had a “target list” that included old coworkers from East Carolina University but fortunately, none were injured or killed before the shooting.
After arriving on campus around 11:30 A.M. The police department received a call about a shooter on campus around 11:45 A.M. Eight minutes later, UNLV posted an announcement on Twitter,
https://x.com/unlv/status/1732490058471719307?s=46
Two of the three victims killed on campus were professors at the Lee Business School on campus, Cha Jan (Jerry) Chang, age 64, and accounting professor Patricia Navarro-Velez, age 39. The third victim, Naoko Takemaru, age 69, was an associate professor of Japanese Studies at UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts.
The fourth teacher was a visiting professor and was left with critical injuries in the hospital. The following day a statement was released saying that the injuries were now “life-threatening”, however as of today, the professor is okay.
At 7:39 PM UNLV posted another announcement to Twitter speaking of the tragedy that occurred on campus.
The event has left the world in shock, especially in the community with the Mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, releasing a statement calling the shooting “tragic and heartbreaking.” UNLV has provided the opportunity for mental help for the staff and students and has even canceled finals for the semester. Throughout the past week, memorials for the teachers have been held and on December 13, 2023, a campus vigil and memorial were held to honor the lives of those taken too soon.
