Schools

School Disasters

School disasters tend to be prominent due to their tendency to involve large numbers of children. Earthquakes and fires are the most frequent disasters to hit schools. Thousands of schoolchildren, along with thousands of others, were killed in each of the earthquakes in Armenia (then part of the Soviet Union) on December 7, 1988; in Kashmir, Pakistan, on October 8, 2005; and in Sichuan, China, on May 12, 2008. School fires have killed and injured dozens of children, such as in Vaitupu, Tuvalu, on March 8, 2000; in Kumbakonam, India, on July 16, 2004; and in Kwangju City, South Korea, on May 17, 2001.

School disasters are sometimes taken as defining moments in communities. On May 18, 1927, in Bath, Michigan, 45 people were killed, mainly schoolchildren, when a former school board treasurer blew up part of the school and then himself and bystanders in the school's parking lot. On October 21, 1966, in Aberfan, Wales, a school and several houses were buried when a coal slag heap collapsed. In addition to 116 children, 28 adults also died. Two school massacres broke out on March 13, 1996, when a gunman entered a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and one teacher; and on April 20, 1999, when two students with guns attacked their secondary school near Denver, Colorado, killing 12 other students and one teacher. In both cases, the perpetrators committed suicide in the schools.

[Page 631]In September 2004, 331 people died in Beslan, Russia, again mainly schoolchildren, when terrorists stormed a school, held the occupants hostage, and then fought a battle with soldiers.

Another example of a school disaster was on October 24, 1999, when milk contaminated with insecticides killed 24 children in a primary school near Cuzco, Peru. Weather has also caused school disasters; for instance, on November 9, 1989, a cafeteria wall in an elementary school near Newburg, New York, collapsed in high winds, killing nine children.

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