NOW with Alex Wagner   |  December 14, 2012

Has violence in schools spiked?

NOW’s Alex Wagner talks to MSNBC’s Richard Lui about the history of violence in schools throughout the U.S.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> i want to bring in richard lui who has been looking into past school shootings in elementary school . richld, the fact that there is a protocol as liz reported that the teachers know they need to sort of take certain steps is a testament to just how violate schools have become.

>> my mother is a k through 4 teacher, and at her school they have protocols as well in san francisco , california. you had that list earlier of how many shootings at schools that happened in the past. i have it here as well, highlighted. unfortunately, there are so many in recent years. if you just take out the elementary schools specifically and you look back in history, it's not too long ago, i'll take you to tacoma, washington, first, february 26 , 2010 , there at tacoma elementary school a teacher there was shot and killed on school grounds. no children were present at the school when that shooting took place. i'll take you back to a report february 29 , 2000 , in flint, michigan. there a 6-year-old boy brought a gun to buelle elementary school in mount morris township . he killed his first grade classmate kayla roland. that's in flint, michigan. i'll take you back to 1979 . san diego , california. fortunately, there, alex, brenda spentser, at the time, 16, pulled out a .22 caliber rifle from her family's house across the vietnam and said after she had shot some students, i just don't like mondays. this is really a tough and emotional story to watch when we listen to some of the children what they have to say here, alex. we think of these places as safe havens , and, unfortunately, today it was not.