COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Conversations surrounding school safety are being highlighted after two students and one teacher were stabbed at Black Hawk Middle School in Warrenton on Thursday.
According to a FBI study of crime in schools, both K-12 and higher education, more than 43% of incidents between 2020-24 were assault offenses. This was from of more than 1,500,000 incidents. Of the more than 652,000 offenses, nearly 95% of them involved a weapon. Nearly 73% of assaults involved a personal weapon, bladed weapon or blunt object.
The vast majority of students in school do not carry weapons, of those who do, the most common weapons are actually bladed weapons, knives, box cutters and razor blades, not guns,” President of National School Safety and Security Services Ken Trump said. “One gun is one too many, but we have a tunnel vision focused in this country on active shooters.”
In a records request from Missouri’s Courage2Report program, between Aug. 9-Sept. 14, 2026, more than 30% of the 262 reports were related to a school threat, firearm, or weapons incident.
According to Trump, the best means of security for schools in creating a culture of safety.
The number one way we find out about weapons plots in kids who are going to cause harm to themselves and others is when a kid comes forward and tells an adult that they trust and that’s based on relationships,” Trump said. “There’s a lot of pressure today for school administrators to put in physical security, hardware, technology products, cameras, weapons detection systems.”
Trump adds weapons detection systems are not guaranteed and can often create gaps in safety.
“What often happens is that schools will buy weapons detection systems, tell the community that they have these new systems there, but the settings for the sensitivity are such that they’ll only pick up larger-sized guns, maybe even miss subcompact guns, but typically will miss box cutters, knives, razor blades, smaller type of bladed weapons,” Trump said.
Currently, National School Safety and Security Services are recommending schools train educators and all school staff in emergency situation awareness. This means being situationally aware, recognizing patterns and making quick decisions during emergency events.
We should be training all school staff, not only teachers and administrators at all grade levels, but also your support staff, including secretaries, bus drivers, custodians, food service workers in the cafeteria, because they’re on the front lines,” Trump said. “They’re dealing hands-on with the kids and they may be the very first people to detect something even before a teacher or administrator would.”
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