News anchor says ‘back-to-school shooting’ instead of ‘shopping’

A Boston news anchor went viral after she slipped up by saying “back-to-school shooting” instead of “shopping.”

WCVB anchor Maria Stephanos was in the middle of her report on back-to-school shopping when she made the shocking mistake.

“Back-to-school shoot– school shopping,” stumbled the news anchor, who was staring wide-eyed at the camera, horrified by her slip-up.

Stephanos is the co-anchor of “NewsCenter” with WCVB Boston and has been a news anchor for over 25 years.

TikTok user Emmi managed to catch the moment it happened on camera and posted it August 4 to the video-streaming app, where it is now going viral. 

Emmi, 21, captioned the video — which has 1.3 million likes and 8.9 million views — with “There’s no way that just happened.”

Many are calling the blunder an “honest mistake” and are saying it’s evidence that there are too many school shootings that happen in the country.

“The way it is just so normalized in our lives,” one TikTok user commented.

“In all fairness, back to school shopping only happens once a year,” another wrote.

“It’s so common in the US that this didn’t even shock me,” one person said.

“She’s probably talked [about] shootings more than shopping so it’s an honest mistake,” a user said.

There have been 27 school shootings in 2022 alone, according to Education Week, and 119 school shootings since 2018, when the site began tracking.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been at least 102 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2022, resulting in 41 deaths and 79 injuries. 

Meanwhile, the Gun Violence Archive reports there have been 423 mass shootings in 2022 so far.