About

The 2006 Volleyball Incident refers to a conspiracy theory about an alleged school shooting that took place during a high school volleyball game at a school in either North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Oregon or Montana, on September 27th, 2006, resulting in the deaths of 17 to 24 people. The incident was supposedly covered up by the government for an unknown reason. While some claim to remember hearing about the shooting, others claim it's a hoax and an example of the Mandela Effect, suggesting those who believe it happened are misremembering the facts. The earliest known mention of the incident is a 2017 post to 4chan's /pol/ board in which the user posted a Galaxy Brain tier list meme that includes the rumored incident. The conspiracy theory spread over the following years, resulting in numerous YouTube commentary videos about it. In the 2020s, a series of photographs purportedly taken during the shooting surfaced online, although their veracity has been questioned by many.

Origin

On April 3rd, 2017, an anonymous user of 4chan's^[1] /pol/ board posted a conspiracy theory Galaxy Brain meme and tier list, titling the post, "How deep are you into conspiracies?" In the sixth layer of the tier list, "2006 volleyball incident" is included as one of the conspiracies.

The post inspired several comments asking for more information about the incident, with several commenters claiming they could find no information about it after Googling the term. One commenter^[2] writes, "I've only met 1 person IRL and 2 people online who know about that."

Later that day, an anonymous user, possibly OP, commented^[3] on the thread offering more alleged information about the incident, writing:

Heres what I knew first hand
>small explosion OR mass shooting at a volleyball game somewhere in the Dakotas or Nebraska
>never specified (this part sounds like bs, but thats whats weird
I was on a trip to rushmore back then
>newspaper at a nebraska gas station reports a shooting at a small town 10 miles away
>end up in south dakota
>see it again around Kadoka SD
>there was a shooting Gettysburg, same state
>by the time we leave I hear little talk about it, only once during motel breakfast
>when I get home I ask my friend what he thought about the whole thing and he remembers it taking place in north dakota
It stayed in the back of my mind for a long time until I slowly forgot, until I remembered and joked about it during a gaming session and these 2 guys asked to talk more about it, they had the same experience too, and I remember on /x/ someone talking about something similar to the "volleyball incident" so I just stick it in these pics hoping someone will remember
17-24 people died at once and no one talks about it?

Spread

Rumors about the incident spread online following its mention in the 2017 4chan thread. On April 3rd, 2017, a second thread was made about the incident on 4chan's /x/^[4] paranormal board. On April 6th, the Galaxy Brain meme was reposted to the subreddit /r/conspiracy,^[5][6] with another thread about the incident being posted to the subreddit on April 18th.

In the latter thread, Redditor u/Ninjakick666^[7] suggests the incident could be an example of the Mandela Effect, linking to an article about a 2014 bombing that happened at a high school volleyball game and killed 45 people.

On July 2nd, 2017, another post about the incident was made to 4chan's^[8] /x/ board, garnering around 75 replies in seven years. On November 2nd, 2021, a post was made on the subreddit /r/WTPH^[9] asking about the incident, with some commenters claiming it was a hoax and an example of the Mandela Effect.

On June 14th, 2024, YouTuber^[10] SomeOrdinaryGamers posted a video in which he explores the dark web. Around the 3:34 mark, he stumbles upon what is alleged to be several photographs from the 2006 volleyball incident, censoring them for the video.

The alleged photographs were later found and posted in an Imgur^[11] gallery. The photos have been shared several times online since, with commenters often suggesting that they look fake.^[12]

On November 13th, YouTuber^[13] Chilling Scares posted a video titled "5 Most Disturbing Internet Rabbit Holes," starting the video with the story of the 2006 volleyball incident, garnering over 3.6 million views in two weeks.

On November 14th, 2024, TikToker^[14] @xxgold3nboyxx posted a video alluding to the 2006 volleyball incident, garnering over 1.5 million views in two weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References