School Climate & Safety

A 10-Year-Old’s Shooting Death and the Challenge Schools Face Keeping Football Games Safe

By Arianna Prothero — November 21, 2019 2 min read
Camden High School's Da' Vion Harper's handwritten message "Rip Micah" was in honor of Micah Tennant, 10, who was shot, along with two others, during a high school football game last Friday in Pleasantville, N.J. Micah died from his injuries on Wednesday, just hours before the Pleasantville and Camden teams were to play the remaining minutes of their game at the home field of the Philadelphia Eagles.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

When gunfire disrupted the fourth quarter of a New Jersey high school playoff game last Friday, three people, including a 10-year-old spectator, were injured.

It marked the seventh time in 2019 that a high school football game became the venue for a shooting that injured multiple people and sent spectators into a panic. It is also the 23rd school shooting this year that resulted in injury or death, according to Education Week’s school shooting tracker.

Then on Wednesday, the news got worse. Micah Tennant, the 10-year-old, died from his injuries. His death came just hours before the two high school teams—Pleasantville High School and Camden High School—were to finish the remaining minutes of the Friday night game, hosted by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Since the current school year began, Micah’s shooting death is the third that has occurred in or near stadiums filled with spectators watching high school football. One of the other fatalities was an 8-year-old girl in St. Louis.

Camden High School (white jerseys) and Pleasantville High School players stand for a moment of silence before the two teams resumed their football game on Wednesday that had been interrupted by gunfire last Friday night. Ten-year-old Micah Tennant died from his injuries in the shooting.

The shooting tragedy in New Jersey is a sobering reminder for schools that even the iconic Friday night football game is not immune from the gun violence that has devastated many communities and ignited national debates over gun control and school security.

The incident also exposes a critical vulnerability and underscores a crucial responsibility for schools: Keeping students, staff, and spectators safe from violence during school-sponsored events that take place outside school buildings.

It’s an issue that has not received as widespread national attention as mass shootings inside schools, but is still one that is top of mind for many school district leaders, including the North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas.

There, Athletic Director Karen Funk, in partnership with the school district’s police, is in charge of securing the district’s sporting events. She’s overseen the installation of metal detectors, wands, and enforcement of a clear bag policy.

In Tulsa, Okla., the school district also has ramped up security at its sporting events. Campus police there now do security sweeps before every event, and each event is staffed with a minimum of six officers, among several other security initiatives.

Those are two examples of districts that have started to expand their safety and security procedures to cover off-campus events that Education Week explored in depth at the beginning of this school year. You can read that story, as well as recommendations from a school security expert, here.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety A School Removed Bathroom Mirrors to Keep Students From Making TikToks. Will It Work?
The desperate strategy for keeping students in class illuminates the challenge schools face in competing with social media.
5 min read
Empty blue school bathroom showing the bathroom sinks without mirrors.
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety Researchers Analyzed Years of Reports to a School Safety Tipline. Here's What They Learned
More than a third of gun-related tips in one state outlined possible school attacks, a new analysis finds.
4 min read
Illustration of a cellphone with a red exclamation mark inside of a word bubble.
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety Could Panic Buttons Save Lives in a School Shooting? More Schools Think So
There's legislative momentum to require panic alarm systems in schools. But many districts are installing the systems without a mandate.
6 min read
Visitors walk past a makeshift memorial honoring those recently killed at Robb Elementary School, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. A Texas lawmaker says surveillance video from the school hallway where police waited as a gunman opened fire in a fourth-grade classroom will be shown this weekend to residents of Uvalde.
Visitors walk past a makeshift memorial on July 12, 2022, honoring those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a May 2022 school shooting. Nearly a year after the Uvalde shooting, lawmakers in Texas passed a bill requiring that every public school classroom have a panic alarm system.
Eric Gay/AP
School Climate & Safety Opinion How to Strengthen the Safety and Security of Your School
Resources, guidance, and best practices can help leaders feel ready and empowered to improve their school’s safety and security.
Lindsay Burton & Michelle Kefford
6 min read
Illustration about warnings, with a businessman and woman each holding a with megaphone in front of a caution symbol.
Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty