A Reforma review counted 25 attacks inside Mexican schools over 12 years, leaving 16 people dead, including two attackers. Vanguardia republished the count on Saturday, 3 October 2026. Most attacks targeted teachers or school heads, not pupils.
The tally isn't an official government figure. The published version doesn't list every case or give exact criteria, so independent checks aren't possible. It's also unclear whether the count included incidents just outside school gates.
The Toll in Classrooms
Reforma compiled its total after two former pupils attacked a secondary school in Torreón, Coahuila, on 1 October. It was the fourth attack inside a Mexican school in 2026. Attackers have used weapons ranging from assault rifles to knives, machetes and homemade explosives.
El Universal published a narrower list, republished by Vanguardia on 1 October, identifying at least five deadly attacks since 2017 and eight deaths in total. In January 2017, a 16-year-old opened fire in a Monterrey classroom, killing a teacher and himself. In January 2020, an 11-year-old in Torreón shot and killed a teacher, wounded six people and killed himself. On 22 September 2025, a 19-year-old fatally stabbed a 16-year-old at CCH Sur, a high school of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). El País reported that he had been active in misogynist "incel" internet forums. On 24 March 2026, a 15-year-old shot and killed a teacher and a school worker in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, according to El Universal. Reforma placed that attack in April.
Warnings came in the days before the Torreón attack. On 30 September, a 13-year-old wounded four people with two knives at a secondary school in Querétaro. Staff restrained him; all four were out of danger, Vanguardia reported. Querétaro's chief prosecutor, Víctor Antonio De Jesús, said he would seek an attempted-murder charge, according to El País. On 1 October, police found a gun and cartridges among a 13-year-old pupil's belongings in Hidalgo state.
A Decree Aimed at the Platforms
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday, 2 October, that the government was forming a working group led by the Consejería Jurídica, the presidency's legal counsel. "There is a part that is the responsibility of the digital platforms," she told a morning press conference, according to Contralínea. The group includes the Security Ministry, the Education Ministry (SEP), the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) and the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications.
The government is drafting a decree requiring social networks and other digital platforms to detect, report and remove content that directly incites violence, and to establish channels for coordinating with authorities. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said platforms should detect, report and remove content in a timely way. Education Minister Mario Delgado said he wanted a draft ready the following week. He asked how platforms with extensive artificial intelligence and user data could fail to identify such posts in time. Platforms "have to show us that they are safe places for minors," he said in an Education Ministry statement.
Sheinbaum said investigators had found similarities between Torreón, the recent Querétaro case and other attacks involving contact through social networks. She gave no further details about how attackers had made contact online.
The government presented the move as prevention, not a new crime, and the obligations described so far apply to platforms rather than individual users. Sheinbaum said experts from UNAM and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) would help define what content must be removed. She said officials should proceed without haste to avoid censorship. García Harfuch said intelligence monitoring of social networks, messaging services and forums had increased. He stressed that viewing certain content or posting an opinion doesn't, by itself, mean someone will commit a crime.
What Prevention Hasn't Yet Done
The government also plans to expand its "ABC of Emotions" programme, a wellbeing programme for people aged 14 to 18, with parent meetings, confidential reporting boxes in schools and guidance for teenagers. Reforma noted the programme began five months earlier, yet the Torreón attack still followed. A year after the CCH Sur attack, students said UNAM's psychological support plan had lost momentum, the paper added.
In both recent attacks, school staff or local residents held attackers until police arrived, limiting the harm.
Canal N said the proposal resembles rules adopted in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil. Delgado also pointed to measures abroad that limit minors' access to platforms. But no draft decree has been published. The definition of content that "directly incites violence," possible sanctions and the enforcing authority all remain unknown. It's also unclear how far an executive decree could bind global companies without a law passed by Congress. Sheinbaum said broader platform regulation would be discussed later in wider forums. No publication or entry-into-force date has been given. Officials haven't set out how they will track school attacks in future.
Why This Matters: Teachers and school staff bear much of the harm in these attacks, according to Reforma's count, and the pattern has reached 2026 with four attacks inside schools. The government's decree would shift some responsibility onto the companies that profit from platforms where, officials say, attackers made contact. Whether that holds up depends on details that don't exist yet: who enforces it, what penalties apply, and whether an executive decree can bind global firms without Congress. The wellbeing programme and UNAM's support plan show that public services meant to reach young people can lose momentum. Without an official count of attacks, the public can't easily judge whether any of these measures work. Sheinbaum's pledge to avoid censorship and García Harfuch's caution about monitoring set a standard against which officials will measure the final text.