Nashville Police Chief says his own family are considering homeschooling after latest shooting

• In a new interview, the Nashville police chief said his family is considering homeschooling his grandson
• Drake said: ‘We need to do something about gun violence and mental illness’
• Around five million students in the United States are homeschooled

Nashville Metro Police Chief John Drake said in an interview with CBS Mornings that his daughter is considering homeschooling her son after another school shooting.

On Monday, transgender school gunner Audrey Hale, 28, shot and killed Covenant School students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, as well as staff members Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

“We must do something about gun violence and mental illness. Our children rely on that. I had a chat with my daughter this morning, I have a four year old grandson and she is considering home schooling,” Drake said during his performance.

The boss went on to stress the importance of tackling gun violence, particularly in schools where children are “to be kept safe.”

Hale’s motive is unknown, Drake said on Tuesday. In a separate interview with NBC News on Monday, Drake said investigators believe the shooter “had a certain resentment about having to go to this school.”

‘A place where they should be safe. We send our little loved ones away, they are happy to be at school, they are happy to be with friends. And then they have to deal with this tragedy,” Drake said hours after the attack in his CBS interview.

“We need to come together, we need to deal with gun violence and mental illness and make it safe for those we love most and who are most at risk – our children,” he added.

According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman, Monday’s violence marked the 90th school shooting — defined as any incident in which a gun is fired on school property — in the United States this year.

There were 303 such incidents last year, the highest of any year in the database, which dates back to 1970.

According to US Census data, around five million students between the ages of 5 and 12 are homeschooled.

The number of homeschooled students has risen amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 18 states that shared data this school year, the number of homeschooled students increased 63% in the 2020-2021 school year and then decreased just 17% in the 2021-2022 school year.

In 2022, the number fell from the all-time high of 2021.

Around three percent of US students were homeschooled prior to the surge caused by the pandemic, according to the US Census Bureau.

The rising numbers have impacted public school enrollment in ways that are affecting future funding and renewed debates about how tightly homeschooling should be regulated.

What remains unknown is whether last year’s small drop signals a step toward pre-pandemic levels — or a sign that homeschooling is becoming more mainstream.

Just a week before the Covenant shooting, Chief Drake sponsored a bill in the Tennessee State House aimed at forcing people not to leave guns unattended.

“With gun ownership comes a serious responsibility on several fronts, including securing guns, particularly in vehicles, from falling into the hands of thieves/violent criminals. We in law enforcement have a problem regarding this,” Drake wrote in a letter of support.

According to the Tennessee Lookout, the vote on the bill was delayed because of the Covenant shooting.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Caleb Hemmer, a Democrat representing Nashville, visited the school after the attack.

“These are very serious times and we are trying everything we can to keep our community safe. We know we have a problem,” said Hemmer.

“This is about personal responsibility. It’s about gun safety, it’s about our children, it’s about our communities, and we’re desperate for change and for the realization that we need to do better,” the state official added.

Meanwhile, at a press conference Tuesday, Drake introduced “several different writings by Hale” that mention other locations and the Covenant School. There was also a map of the school and a drawing of how Hale would possibly enter the school.

“There’s quite a lot to write about,” he said.

Hale was receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed emotional disorder and was not known to police prior to the attack, Drake said at the news conference.

If police had been told Hale was suicidal or homicidal, “then we would have tried to get those guns,” Drake said. “But as it stands, we had absolutely no idea who this person was or if (Hale) even existed.”

Hale legally purchased seven firearms from five local gun stores, Drake said. Three of these were used in Monday’s shooting.