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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Anderson and colleagues¹ provided a comprehensive description of school-related violent deaths in the United States. Because these events garner so much publicity, it is important to place them in the context of broader risks to children. School-related violence may have a disproportional impact on societal perceptions and subsequent prevention priorities.

Mass media tend to sensationalize school homicides and blame "youth culture" (eg, video games and music) for violent deaths at school² while simultaneously failing to invoke such explanations when adults (eg, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski) do the killing. Similary, some types of violent school deaths receive little or no attention in the media. For instance, when 2 preschoolers were crushed when a 39-year-old man deliberately drove his sedan into a Costa Mesa, Calif, schoolyard, this event received minimal coverage in the media,³ even though it occurred just 2 weeks after the shootings in Littleton. Such media . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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