SCHOOL/YOUTH VIOLENCE
Columbine High School Incident (4/20/99)
Page Updated: 02/17/02 07:13 AM
LATE-BREAKING NEWS
Columbine
Knew of Harris Probe
Denver Post, 4/13/01
Months before the Columbine shootings, authorities alerted the school district that Eric Harris was being investigated for making pipe bombs but told educators to take no action."The deans (at Columbine) were told that there was an investigation underway," Sally Blanchard, the school district's Columbine-area administrator, says in a CBS News interview scheduled to air Tuesday night on "60 Minutes II."
But the notice was informational only, "that they weren't to do anything," Blanchard said. "So they actually took no action because certainly they wouldn't have wanted to interfere with an ongoing investigation."
Early
Warning?
CBS News, 4/10/01
(CBS) CBS News has learned that a law enforcement agency knew 13 months before the Columbine massacre that one of the gunmen had been making pipe bombs.
Within days of the April 20, 1999, shooting, in which 13 were killed, investigators were asked about the report of a Web site put up by one of the killers, Eric Harris, on which he allegedly threatened to kill a Columbine student.
At that time, Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff's Department's Lt. John Kiekbush said merely that "We got some information about some kids who didn't get along. Some information that was provided on a Web page that we could not verify. Kids in virtually every high school in the country at times don't get along."
But after a court battle, 60 Minutes II obtained an affidavit filed 13 months before the shooting that indicated the sheriff's department may have known more.
Danger
Signs Ignored?
Denver Post, 4/7/01
April 7, 2001 - JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO - Eric Harris' online threats about killing and bombing were taken seriously enough by sheriff's investigators in 1998 that they made plans to search his home.
Investigators drafted a search warrant for the home of Harris' parents a year before he and Dylan Klebold went on a deadly shooting rampage at Columbine High School, but the affidavit was never finished and the search never was conducted.
Brief:
Columbine Teachers Ignored Warning Signs
Denver Post, 2/17/01
Not only did the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office fail to investigate warning signs of the impending massacre at Columbine High School, but the teachers failed as well, according to a brief filed in federal court Friday.Attorneys for the families of injured students Richard Castaldo, Lance Kirklin, Sean Graves and Mark Taylor argued that a special relationship between the school and the students required the school, and eventually the sheriff's office, to investigate early warning signs of impending violence.
The brief says these warning signs were "a blueprint and script for the attack," which occurred on April 20, 1999, and resulted in the death of 12 students, one teacher and the suicides of the two shooters. Another 26 were injured.
The brief was filed to oppose a motion by the sheriff's office and school administration to dismiss the lawsuits against them.
"This is far worse than simple negligence," said attorney Steve Wahlberg, who represents the Kirklin family. He said circumstances show that this rises to a "callous indifference" and "reckless disregard" of the victims' rights.
New
Clues in Columbine Killings
Salon.com, 11/22/00
Thousands of new documents released in the case debunk persistent myths about the motives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Nineteen months after Columbine, investigators finally released compelling testimony to refute some of the high school massacre's most enduring myths Tuesday. Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson ordered the release of 11,000 pages of material, mostly eyewitness accounts recorded by investigating officers.
Victims' families and their attorneys cheered the release as a major victory. "I am expecting to gain a lot of information from this report," says Brian Rohrbough, whose son Dan was killed in the attack. "Part of what I'm expecting to learn ... is what's missing from this report."
Columbine
Bullying No Myth, Panel Told
Denver Post, 10/3/00
Before two teens launched their deadly attack on Columbine High, bullying was rampant, the Trench Coat Mafia was menacing and the killers gave off repeated warning signs of their intentions, victims' parents and a former staff member charged Monday.Often in tears, parents and special-education teacher Patti Stevens testified before the Governor's Columbine Review Commission meeting in Golden that everything principal Frank DeAngelis told the panel seven weeks ago was untrue.
Bullying
at Columbine was Rampant
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 10/3/00
Bullying at Columbine High was rampant, witnesses testified Monday, and victims' parents were shocked that the principal has said there were no danger signs leading to the shooting.
"All I could say for my friend Frank (DeAngelis) was, he must have been worried about his job," said Dawn Anna, the mother of slain student Lauren Townsend and a girls volleyball coach at Columbine. "There are too many people worried about their jobs, and not enough worried about taking care of innocent children."
Anna and about a dozen others made their comments Monday before the Governor's Columbine Review Commission. The families of other Columbine victims and members of the public also spoke.
Harris-Klebold
Tapes Will Not Be Turned Over
Denver Post, 10/3/00
Jefferson County officials are refusing to turn over the videotapes that Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made shortly before their rampage last year, a frustrated chairman of the Governor's Columbine Review Commission said Monday."I've never seen such a great effort to withhold evidence that has material relevance to the work of the commission," said William Erickson, retired chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Judge
Orders Columbine Files Made Public
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 9/9/00
A Jefferson County judge has ordered that binders of investigative files in the Columbine High School shooting be made public.
Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson ordered the information released with most of the same restrictions he has placed on other Columbine material that he has made public.
Jackson's latest order covers 40 binders of investigative files. In his order Thursday, Jackson noted that there were only 40 volumes of files, not the 200 volumes previously referred to by parties in the case.
Columbine
Jock Culture Called a Myth
Denver Post, 8/26/00
Columbine High School principal Frank DeAngelis told a state panel Thursday that it is a "myth" that a so-called jock culture prone to bullying may have prompted the deadly rampage by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold last year.
Columbine
Bully Talk Persists
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 8/26/00
It's almost as if there were two Columbines.
There is a school thousands of students have loved, the safe welcoming place Principal Frank DeAngelis described Thursday in his testimony to the Governor's Columbine Review Commission.
Then there is the place Debra Sears' stepsons attended in 1994 and 1995. A place where administrators and teachers turned their backs on the same alienation and bullying by jocks that some have suggested drove Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to kill.
"It was relentless," she said. "The constant threats walking through the halls. You had a whole legion of people that would tell you that just going to school was unbearable."
In his Thursday testimony before the commission charged with looking into America's deadliest school shooting, DeAngelis denied jocks or anyone else got away with bullying.
Columbine
Families Say Police Ignored Warnings
Denver Post, 7/20/00
Calling the Columbine High School shootings "clearly and entirely foreseeable," lawyers for the families of the dead and wounded have asked that their lawsuits against the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office not be dismissed.The Sheriff's Office has asked that the lawsuits be thrown out. But in a 42-page response filed Monday, lawyers for the families said the department's failure to investigate the "barrage of warning signs" enabled Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to carry out their deadly rampage.
"The intentions of the assailants were published in the Web site, enacted in videotapes, and written and talked about in school presentations," the motion said.
"Vivid descriptions of bombs being constructed, let alone all the subsequent information, should have been enough to alert authorities that disaster was sufficiently likely. All kinds of messages were being sent. No one was listening."
FBI
Delayed Entering Columbine High School
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 7/21/00
An FBI SWAT team waited an hour to go into Columbine High during the rampage so it could be briefed on available intelligence, an FBI agent told a gubernatorial panel Wednesday.
The wait was standard procedure, needed for the SWAT team to gain as much detail as possible about potential risks before entering a building under siege, said Mark Mershon, who heads Denver's FBI office.
"They don't just go charging in," Mershon told Gov. Bill Owens' Columbine Review Commission. "They work as a team."
Suits
Name Columbine Officials
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 7/19/00
Columbine High principal Frank DeAngelis and two dozen other school officials have been sued by the families of three victims of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
The three amended lawsuits filed Monday in Jefferson County District Court contend that DeAngelis and the others knew about Klebold and Harris' violent tendencies from their schoolwork — in writing, psychology and video production classes — and should have intervened.
They ask for unspecified monetary damages.
It's the first time school district employees have been named individually in lawsuits filed over the April 20, 1999, tragedy that left 15 dead and dozens wounded.
In addition to DeAngelis, the updated suits added as defendants former school district security chief Howard Cornell; Columbine teachers Garrett Talocco, Judy Kelly and Tom Johnson; and 20 unnamed school district employees who were "deans, administrators, counselors, teachers or staff members at Columbine High School."
Columbine
Principal Added to Suit
Denver Post, 7/19/00
Columbine High School principal Frank DeAngelis is being added to a high-profile lawsuit brought by the families of victims Isaiah Shoels and Mark Taylor.The families are represented by Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who has sued sheriff's and county officials in the April 20, 1999, shooting that left Shoels and 12 others dead at Columbine.
Taylor was injured.
Sam Riddle, spokesman for the Shoels family, said DeAngelis and the administration at the high school contributed to the massacre.
"We have contended all along that there was a very dehumanizing atmosphere at Columbine and the administration, just by its lack of action, helped foster that atmosphere," Riddle said. "The administration (at Columbine) tolerated the language of hate and that language made killing easier, and Isaiah paid for it with his life."
Parents
Link Suicide to Columbine Massacre
Denver Post, 5/19/00
Greg Barnes, the Columbine High student who committed suicide earlier this month, may have suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome from last year's shootings, his family said.In their first public statements since the May 4 death of their 17-year-old son, Mark and Judy Barnes on Thursday thanked the community "for all the support during this difficult time. The outpouring of love and sympathy has been tremendous."
They also urged the community to understand "that the ramifications of the Columbine tragedy run much deeper than we may realize."
Stone's Amazing
Omission
Chuck Greene, Denver Post, 5/17/00
The Columbine coverup is now complete.Sheriff John "Stonewall" has conveniently - and officially - forgotten that the Jefferson County sheriff's office had been alerted to Columbine killer Eric Harris' murderous intentions a year before the Columbine massacre.
Yet there is no mention of that remarkable fact in Stonewall's voluminous "fact-finding" report released this week.
About a year before the Columbine tragedy shocked America, a family in Jefferson County had gone to the sheriff's office with documented reports of Harris' maniacal, bloodthirsty-ravings about killing his classmates. But apparently the sheriff's office did nothing.
Of course it is uncertain whether intervention in 1998 could have avoided the 1999 massacre. But it is very certain that the lack of intervention didn't stop the homicidal assault by Harris and his hateful cohort, Dylan Klebold.
Two Killers Rampaged
as Six Officers Awaited Aid
Denver Post, 5/16/00
While Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold casually murdered classmates in the Columbine High library, at least six Jefferson County sheriff's deputies waited outside the school for help.
Two of those deputies already had traded gunfire with the killers in the opening moments of the attack. But by the time the first SWAT team trailed Harris and Klebold inside Columbine, the worst school shooting in U.S. history already was over.
According to a vast crime report released Monday by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, a disturbingly swift and vicious crime was followed by a methodical police response.
Complete Report from the Denver Post Website
Sheriff Releases Report on Columbine Shootings
Los Angeles Times, 5/16/00
The sheriff's office released the report without comment, citing pending litigation. Although it contains the most comprehensive details yet of the day's events, the voluminous document offers few revelations and no analysis or criticism. It affirms that the gunmen acted alone and that there is no evidence that anyone knew of their plans. The report called the case "open." Two people who helped provide the guns have been convicted and another may face charges.
Although the sheriff's report offers no conclusions, a Columbine Review Commission appointed by Gov. Bill Owens will do so. The 20-member panel will review the sheriff's report and issue its own findings a year from now.
Columbine
Tape 'Horrifying'
Denver Post, 4/26/00
A fire department "training video" showing the messy, bloody aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre is "chilling and horrifying," lawyers for the victims' families said Tuesday.The 20-minute video, which will be released to the public today, spends almost 10 minutes showing the carnage in the library.
The bodies of the 10 students who died there had been removed, but everything else remained, lawyers say.
The training tape and a 3 1/2 hour television helicopter video were released to the families of the dead and injured late Tues day under a judge's order.
May
15 Deadline for Columbine Report
Denver Post, 4/25/00
The world may finally see the long awaited Columbine investigative report on May 15.A Jefferson County judge on Monday ordered the sheriff's department to release the document - finished or not - to victims' families, and he placed no restrictions on their public dissemination of the report.
A
Year Later -- Services and Lawsuits
New York Times, 4/21/00
LITTLETON, Colo., April 20 -- Several thousand people gathered here today in a public park for an ecumenical remembrance on the first anniversary of a shooting rampage at Columbine High School that left 15 people dead and nearly two dozen others wounded.An hour of songs and speeches followed a moment of silence at 11:21 a.m., the time the shooting started last year, and reflected a theme, "a time to remember, a time to hope," which school officials chose to symbolize a community united by the nation's most deadly school shootings.
But the memorial played out against a backdrop of growing conflict involving families of victims who believe the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department acted irresponsibly last year as two Columbine students opened fire inside the school, keeping police officers at bay. The two killed 12 other students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves.
Ex-Student:
'Not Much has Changed'
Denver Post, 4/21/00
While the state of Colorado officially observed a moment of silence on Thursday, Brooks Brown had a cigarette.At 11:21 a.m., the former Columbine student went to the spot where he last saw killer Eric Harris and had a smoke.
"Rather than go somewhere where it's based on politics and grandeur, I will go somewhere where I could be with my friends," Brown said.
Brown was going for just such a cigarette break a year ago when Harris - with whom he had a stormy friendship - warned him to stay out of the school.
Brown said not much has changed at Columbine since the shootings.
Columbine
Suits May Win the Truth
Chuck Greene, Denver Post, 4/21/00
As unseemly as they might seem, there is more to the lawsuits filed by Columbine survivors than an attempt to cash in on big-number damage claims.Some of them are seeking the truth.
Rescues
Barred, Suits Claim
Denver Post, 4/21/00
Jefferson County sheriff's commanders turned back a police officer who tried to rescue students from the Columbine High School library and blocked students' efforts to get help for teacher Dave Sanders hours after the killers were dead, according to lawsuits filed against the department in recent days.The suits claim a repeated lack of aggression by the sheriff's department that in some cases angered and frustrated officers from other law-enforcement agencies at the scene.
Commanders kept legions of officers behind a perimeter while people inside were slaughtered, the lawsuits allege.
Parents
-- Deputy Fired Fatal Shot
Denver Post, 4/20/00
A sheriff's deputy - not Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold - shot and killed Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough, the boy's parents alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday against the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.Authorities angrily denounced the accusation, made on the eve of the Columbine massacre's first anniversary and as 15 victim families filed suit Tuesday and Wednesday.
More
Than Apologies are Needed
Chuck Greene, Denver Post, 4/19/00
It's been a year now, and nothing really seems to have changed. Maybe there are a few new attitudes at Columbine High School, and maybe some parents across America are paying closer attention to their kids' projects.But, in the overall scheme of things, nothing really seems to have changed.
Rumors roll out of Jefferson County that the jocks and other most-favored cliques still rule the campuses - they're just slightly more discreet about it. And nearly every week there is a news story from some city or town in America about kids who have plans to shoot or bomb their classmates.
Programs have been created in Jefferson County and elsewhere intended to identify the early signs of dysfunction, and there are a few programs to treat it when it's found.
In some cases, that works.
But for all the millions of dollars spent examining the problems that culminated so explosively at Columbine, there is one voice that has not yet been heard - the voice of the parents of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.
No
Federal Aid for Columbine
Denver Post, 4/8/00
The White House announced late Friday that it will be unable to provide disaster relief for families of those killed and injured at Columbine High School.Lawyers for the victims had asked the White House several weeks ago to establish a $50 million relief fund after Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken Salazar rejected a similar request.
White House officials said Friday the federal government has already funneled more than $1.5 million into the Columbine community through the Justice Department's Victims' Assistance Fund. Any additional money would have to be appropriated by Congress, officials sai
Columbine
Shootings Blamed on Curriculum
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 4/6/00
The Columbine High tragedy was caused in part by a curriculum that overemphasizes death and doesn't teach right from wrong, a Colorado state school board member said in a recent speech.
"When all the kids' videos are about violence or sex, when kids are allowed and even encouraged to make such videos -- what do you think is going to happen with some of these kids?" board member Patti Johnson said Wednesday, amplifying remarks she made in Cincinnati last week.
Columbine
Receives, Asks for More
Chuck Greene, Denver Post, 3/31/00
And then I watched the fate of others - the four people killed when a deranged man opened fire at the Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant in Aurora, the six teenagers who died when their car was demolished by a train at a crossing south of Littleton, the two kids who were killed on graduation night in Greeley, and the three little children shot to death by their father in Castle Rock.They all made the news - much more so than the deaths of children in another era - and there were public commemorations on each occasion. Grief counselors assisted, memorial services were conducted, anniversaries were noted.
But, over time, enough was enough.
That appears not to be the case with the Columbine High School tragedy. There seems to be no limit.
Millions of dollars have been appropriated and donated and pledged. Newspapers and radio stations and churches and Rotary clubs and school bands and homeowners associations and governments - state and federal - all have joined in the cause. Priests and pastors, coaches and counselors, neighbors and strangers all have offered their condolences and dedicated their resources. Thousands of people have emptied their hearts and souls, opened their pocket books, volunteered their time, their sweat and their talents to salve the suffering of the victims.
It has been an avalanche of anguish never before witnessed here or anywhere.
Yet the Columbine victims still have their hands out for more.
When is enough enough?
Detailed Columbine
Report Nears Completion
Denver Post, 3/12/00
Nearly 11 months after the killings at Columbine High School, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is trying to complete an investigative report that will account for every second spent and every shot fired on April 20, 1999.The report, according to officials compiling it, provides much more detail than has been made public and confirms key facts about the slayings.
Sheriff
Defends Decision not to Arrest Harris' and Klebold's Parents
Denver Post, 2/23/00
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone on Wednesday defended his department's decision not to arrest the parents of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, saying there was no evidence they knew what was going on as their sons prepared to mount the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history."We have no direct evidence that we could use to charge any one of the parents," Stone told the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee. "We don't have proof or knowledge of any knowledge by the parents. These subjects were rather deceptive in the way they stored bombs and firearms in the house."
Columbine
Copycat Arrested
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 2/26/00
POTSDAM, Germany -- Prosecutors on Wednesday were considering attempted murder charges against a 16-year-old girl for allegedly planning a bloodbath at her school on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
The girl, from Waldsieversdorf near Berlin, was arrested Tuesday. Authorities did not release her identity.
According to authorities, she was planning to use semi-automatic weapons and hand grenades in an attack planned for April 20, the anniversary of the shootings in Littleton, Colo. Twelve students and a teacher were shot to death in that attack before the two gunmen killed themselves.
Columbine
was Packed with Bombs
Denver Post, 2/14/00
Their arsenal was even more menacing than authorities reported.When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched their attack on Columbine High School their store of weapons included 95 explosive devices - enough firepower to wipe out their school and potentially hundreds of students.
Forty-eight carbon dioxide bombs, or "crickets." Twenty-seven pipe bombs. Eleven 1 1/2-gallon propane containers. Seven incendiary devices with 40-plus gallons of flammable liquid. Two duffel bag bombs with 20-pound liquefied-petroleum gas tanks.
This horrifying inventory and other details were made public last week when Littleton Fire Department chiefs revealed the teen killers' deadly depot of bombs to Gov. Bill Owens' Columbine Review Commission.
Final
Report May Appear in Mid-March
Denver Post, 2/14/00
The final report on the Columbine High School investigation - originally set for release last fall - may be released in mid-March.The Jefferson County Sheriff's office might publish the report on CD-ROM, members of Gov. Bill Owens' Columbine Review Commission were told Friday. That would allow video and audio clips to be part of the report.
Ruling Sought on
Columbine Tapes
Denver Post, 1/27/00
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone has asked a U.S. District Court judge to rule on the legalities of copying and disseminating the notorious Columbine High videotapes.Stone's request states that copies of the tapes have been requested under the open-records law and that the tapes have not been copyrighted. Thus, Stone is asking the federal court, which has jurisdiction over copyright matters, to clarify the proprietary rights of the tapes.
Release
of Columbine Tapes Awaits Hearing
Denver Post, 1/14/00
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department won't show the videotapes made by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - even to victims - at least until a court hearing at the end of the month.The decision by the sheriff's office on Thursday came two days after a county judge approved a temporary restraining order sought by one of Harris' potential victims named in the tapes.
Tapes
Agreement Debated
Denver Post, 1/15/00
A Jefferson County sheriff's official and a Time magazine reporter argued over confidentiality after a December article was printed that detailed videotapes made by Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.In a taped telephone conversation released Friday by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Undersheriff John Dunaway and Time reporter Timothy Roche vehemently disputed what their agreement on confidentiality had been.
Sheriff
Barred from Showing Video
Denver Post, 1/13/00
A temporary restraining order was issued Wednesday barring Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone from further releasing a videotape made by Eric Harris regarding the April 20 rampage at Columbine High School.
Release Date Uncertain
for Columbine Report
Denver Post, 1/13/00
The final investigative report on the Columbine High massacre isn't finished and won't be released for some time.The exhaustive findings on the largest criminal investigation in Colorado history were initially set to be released in November, then put off until the end of this month. But investigators are learning that it's "a very monumental task," said Steve Davis, spokesman for the Jefferson County sheriff.
Colorado
to Prosecute Florida Teen
Denver Post, 12/22/99
U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland vowed Tuesday to prosecute the Florida teen-ager who made the Internet threat that shut down Columbine High School for two days last week.
Michael Ian Campbell, 18, is due in federal court in Florida today and is awaiting his expected transfer to Denver.
'Bored'
Floridian held in 'Net threat
Denver Post, 12/18/99
FBI agents arrested an 18-year-old Florida man Friday who is accused of striking terror in the heart of a Columbine High junior by sending an ominous Internet message that forced the cancellation of final exams.
Suspect
in Columbine Threat 'An Average Kid'
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/18/99
An early morning telephone call from an FBI agent meant more trouble for a woman recently widowed and burned out of her home.
Pamela Campbell watched in disbelief as the son she took into her home as a foster child when he was 3 days old was led away in handcuffs by federal agents.
Michael Ian Campbell, a community college student, was the one his mother relied on to help her through the grief of losing a 61-year-old husband to cancer four weeks earlier.
'Net Threat Closes
School
Denver Post, 12/17/99
Capping a tumultuous and emotionally draining week, school officials closed Columbine High on Thursday and today after a 16-year-old student received an Internet warning about more violence.
Sheriff Had Not Seen
Tapes
Denver Post, 12/17/99
A reporter for Time magazine watched Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold plan their slaughter at Columbine High School even before Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone saw the incredible videotapes himself.
Stone, the lawman in charge of investigating the massacre at Columbine nearly eight long months ago, hadn't taken time to watch the videotapes before he authorized their viewing by Time correspondent Tim Roche.
The
Tale of the Columbine Tapes
Time Magazine Special Report, 12/20/99
Quoting Shakespeare and wishing for Tarantino, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made video records of their plans for April 20, 1999. The details are chilling, and the boys' motives raise troubling questions. An exclusive look at the evidence.
In five secret videos they recorded before the massacre, the killers reveal their hatreds--and their lust for fame.The natural born killers waited until the parents were asleep upstairs before heading down to the basement to put on their show. The first videotape is almost unbearable to watch.
Parents Question
School Security
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/11/99
After the bloodiest school shooting in American history, some said stepped-up security made Columbine High one of America's safest schools.
A petition being passed around by a group of Columbine parents says it's still not safe enough.
The three-page document written last week asks administrators to make sure doors are watched more closely, students get tolerance training (emphasis added) and parents are informed more quickly if threats occur. The group, which is restricted to Columbine parents, plans to meet next week.
Though (the school district spokesperson) knows of no formal tolerance training program specifically for Columbine students , half the teachers went though the district-wide culturally responsive teaching program before April 20. The rest are scheduled to attend this school year. (emphasis added)
"These
Guys Wanted to Become Cult Heroes"
Salon Magazine, 11/11/99
Authorities are finally beginning to release key information to support their claim that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in April largely for the fame.
Wednesday, prosecutors disclosed for the first time the existence of secret videos Harris and Klebold apparently created specifically for police. "It is obvious that these guys wanted to become cult heroes of some kind," Deputy District Attorney Steve Jensen told the Denver Post. "They are making statements which they thought would facilitate that status."
Police Reveal Killer's
Videos
Denver Post, 11/11/99
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wanted to become cult heroes.
Previously undisclosed videotapes show the Columbine High killers describing their actions leading up to the April 20 massacre, a Jefferson County prosecutor said Wednesday.
"It is obvious that these guys wanted to become cult heroes of some kind,'' Deputy District Attorney Steve Jensen said. "They are making statements which they thought would facilitate that status.''
Harrises Come in for
Questioning
Denver Post, 10/27/99
More than six months after their son joined a buddy in a murderous rampage at Columbine High School, Wayne and Katherine Harris met with authorities Monday and answered questions.
In a terse press release issued Tuesday, Sheriff John Stone announced that he, District Attorney Dave Thomas and detectives had met with the Harrises and their attorneys.
Columbine
Victim's Mother Commits Suicide
Denver Post, 10/23/99
Carla Hochhalter, the mother of a girl paralyzed by the Columbine High shootings, walked into an Englewood pawnshop Friday, asked to look at a revolver and shot herself.
Teen's
Court Hearing Delayed
Denver Post, 10/23/99
The 17-year-old Columbine High senior arrested for allegedly threatening to "finish the job'' started by classmates Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold will stay in custody for another week.
Lawyer
Says Jailed Teen a Columbine Victim
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 10/23/99
The teen arrested for allegedly threatening to "finish the job" of the Columbine High killers should not be charged with a crime, his attorney said Friday.
The boy is among the victims of the shooting and has done nothing to warrant being charged, attorney Robert Grossman said after a hearing.
Attendance
Down at Columbine After Threats
Salon Magazine, 10/22/99
The 17-year-old Columbine High School senior arrested for threatening to "finish the job started by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold" on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the massacre will likely be charged as a juvenile, prosecutors said Thursday.
Threat
Suspect Craved Attention, Schoolmates Say
Denver Post, 10/22/99
He's a Boy Scout working on his Eagle badge, a video enthusiast not afraid to say what he thinks and a soft touch who can't say no to a classmate in need of a ride home.
But the Columbine High School student accused of threatening to "finish the job'' started by killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold also has shown glimpses of an attention-seeking kid prone to outrageous statements and frustrated with his school's jock culture, friends said Thursday.
"I don't know what else was in the diary - he just read us some of the humorous parts,'' Casey said.
But in conversation, the boy did express his frustration that the school's athletes remained such a highly regarded social group.
"I didn't realize how strongly he thought the jock culture was still there,'' said Casey. "He never expressed any extreme hatred or violent ways about it, but a couple times in a mediocre voice, he'd say, "Things haven't changed much.' '' (emphasis added)
Columbine
Student Arrested -- Classmate of Harris and Klebold Accused of Threatening to
'Finish the Job'
Denver Post, 10/21/99
Authorities Wednesday accused a classmate of the Columbine High killers of threatening to "finish the job."
Investigators seized a diagram of the school and other writings from the 17-year-old senior, who last year helped Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold produce videos foreshadowing their violent assault on Columbine. Police wouldn't say if they seized any weapons.
Kelbold's Parents File Intent to Sue Police and School Officials
Denver Post, 10/16/99
Columbine killer Dylan Klebold's parents Friday took the first legal step towards suing Jefferson County, claiming officials there are partly to blame for the massacre their son helped commit.
Klebold Suit About
Protection
Denver Post, 10/17/99
The lawyer for Dylan Klebold's parents said Saturday they filed a notice of intent to sue the Jefferson County sheriff's department to protect themselves.
"There are steps within the legal system that must be taken to best protect the Klebold family,'' Gary Lozow said in a written statement. "Once all legal matters are resolved, the Klebolds will be in a better position to make decisions regarding their future.''
The intent-to-sue notice by Tom and Sue Klebold, the first step toward filing a lawsuit, was submitted Friday. It alleges sheriff's officials recklessly handled a March 1998 report about Eric Harris.
CBS Airs Cafeteria Tape
Denver Post, 10/13/99
The first national airing Tuesday of a video clip showing the chaos in the Columbine High cafeteria drew reactions of sadness and hope from victims and outrage from the Jefferson County Public School District, which lobbied in vain to keep the tape off TV.
The 90-second segment shows grainy, smoke-filled images of students scattering, gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shooting at a propane-tank bomb, and a teacher running through the cafeteria on April 20. It was broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather'' and posted on the CBS News Web site (see below).
View from Inside Columbine
CBS News, 10/13/99The tragedy at Columbine High School is being relived through a chilling piece of videotape, CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.
CBS News has been given surveillance video from the cafeteria where, minutes after gunmen Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire, panicked students ducked for safety beneath the tables.
Ending the
Tyranny of Cliques
Denver Post, 10/3/99
In the downcast eyes of the three guys with skateboards, a day at ThunderRidge High School in the far southwest corner of Highlands Ranch is just another day in hell.
They are bored. They are unmotivated. The hallways of their untarnished school seem to them like a dull showcase for Abercrombie & Fitch, the fashionably unadventurous prep clothes worn by ThunderRidge's more prominent cliques.
The skaters couldn't care less about sports - they can't even tell you if the Grizzly football team played last weekend, let alone if it won or lost. What they know is that Douglas County football players seem to get all the new ballfields they need, while they go begging for one small corner of a park with a concrete boarding ramp. When they build their own ramps out of wood and set them up near the water tanks, the bigger school cliques smash them to pieces.
Harris'
Parents Agree to Meet with Investigators
Denver Post, 10/3/99
More than five months after the Columbine High School massacre, the parents of 18-yearold gunman Eric Harris have promised to meet with criminal investigators.
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said he expects his investigators will interview Wayne and Kathy Harris for the first time in the next two or three weeks. "They've agreed to do it,'' he said.
Who
Said, "Yes?"
Salon.com News, 9/30/99
Local reporters have known for months
that eyewitnesses disputed the account of Cassie Bernall's
"martyrdom." So why did the truth take so long to see print?
Columbine Parents
Should Follow Kids' Example
Chuck Greene, Denver Post, 9/29/99
Have you noticed the same thing I have in recent weeks?
The teenagers who lived through the horror of the Columbine High School massacre seem to be handling the trauma much better than the adults who were watching from the sidelines.
Maybe there is hope for the emerging generation - more reason to believe that they can build a better future than the reality they inherited.
Schnurr's Memory
Corroborated by Other Witnesses
Denver Post, 9/28/99
Please do not refer to her, she asked, as the other girl who might have said "yes.'' She said she knows what she said that day, bleeding as she crouched on her hands and knees. The rest of the world knows Cassie Bernall as the girl killed after affirming her faith. It's now unclear if she did. Val, who was shot before she answered yes to believing in God, doesn't know. And that is why she hasn't said much more.
"I don't have anything to clear up,'' Val said in her living room over Columbine's homecoming weekend. "I don't want to be famous or deemed anything. I said I believed in God out of respect for myself and respect for God. That's it.''
After considering her response silently for a few moments, "frustrated'' is how 18-year-old Val describes her reaction to the legend of Cassie's last moments. In the days following the shooting, Cassie's story was repeated around the world, the label "martyr'' soon a part of it.
Editorial:
Columbine -- We Stand Behind Our Story
Salon.com News, 9/25/99
Although sheriff's officials have downplayed their role in revealing details about the Columbine investigation, no one has challenged a single fact reported.
In the days since Salon News published its exclusive stories on the investigation of the Columbine High School killings, several news reports have featured complaints by the local sheriff's department about the stories' sourcing. Salon stands by the stories completely, and would like to clarify some issues about their reporting, writing and sourcing.
Protestors Fell
Church's Trees
Denver Post, 9/27/99
Sue Petrone couldn't protect her son on April 20. So on Sunday she said she wanted to protect his dignity.
The families and friends of Dan Rohrbough and Kyle Velasquez gathered on a cold, cloudy morning to chop down two of the 15 trees recently planted by members of the West Bowles Community Church. The families contend there were only 13 victims at Columbine High School that day - and that the two killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shouldn't be remembered alongside those they killed.
Killing 'Cool' to Some
Teens, Lawyers Told
Denver Post, 9/26/99
American society has so desensitized its children to violence that some kids thought the Columbine High School massacre was "cool'' and felt they could have done the same thing even better, Colorado lawyers were told here Saturday.
In a sobering look at Columbine and other school shootings, a group of educators, lawyers and mental health professionals agreed that schools are still physically safe environments.
But some of the panelists said the mental well-being of students has been strongly affected by the repeated portrayals of violence on television and in the movies and by schools where kids feel "lost'' because of enrollments that soar beyond 1,000.
Schoelses Fight Clouded
Image
Denver Post, 9/26/99
Here at home, the Shoelses are not without their supporters, including Columbine parents - some of whom also were victimized by the April 20 shootings.
But the Shoelses have become regular subjects of newspaper columns, letters and editorials. Many accuse them of trying to cash in on Isaiah's death. For good reason, said Peter Boyles, host of a popular morning talk-radio show.
"Are they victims or are they opportunists? Clearly they're victims, but they've got the opportunism thing going pretty strong, too,'' Boyles said.
"There's a lot of holes in their story, but now it's got to the point that if you say anything about them you're called a racist.''
Inside
the Columbine High Investigation
Salon.com News Exclusive, 9/23/99
Everything you know about the Littleton killings is wrong. But the truth may be scarier than the myths.
They were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia. They didn't target jocks, minorities or Christians. They had a hit list, but nobody on it was hit. They expected their bombs and explosives would wipe out most of the school.
As investigators get closer to producing an official report about the Columbine High School massacre, it is already clear that much of what was reported last spring about the motives and methods of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold was untrue.
Multiple sources close to the Columbine investigation have disclosed key findings to Salon News, including a glimpse into Harris' infamous "diary." Lead investigator Kate Battan broke five months of virtual silence with her public comments. The sources say that many of the most notorious events from the shooting spree -- repeated over and over in news reports, on TV chat shows and now in a bestselling book -- simply never occurred.
"I Hate the... World." -- Eric Harris' Diary
Salon.com News Exclusive, 9/23/99
Harris' infamous "diary" was actually more of an occasional journal. He didn't confide in it every day. Sometimes a month or two would pass before he returned to scribble more tortured rants. Sometimes just a few lines, others up to a page or two. Often the cursive scrawl grows almost illegible. There were only about a dozen entries over the course of a year. In between he pounded out diatribes on his computer, leaving behind a huge trail of notes, essays, printouts, computer files and a Web site.
Magazine Touts
'Killer's Diary'
Denver Post, 9/23/99
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said Wednesday he hadn't seen the Harris diary in a while but doubted the authenticity of the excerpts in the stories by Salon.com, a 4-year-old network of 10 Web sites that cover everything from news to arts and entertainment. "The theme sounds the same but not the words,'' Stone said. "I think we've got a bogus deal there. I don't believe those are legitimate excerpts.''
Dishonor in Shoels'
Demands
Chuck Greene -- Denver Post, 9/17/99
Michael Shoels, the stepfather of Columbine High School victim Isaiah Shoels, has a wish list.
He wishes that the victims-assistance Healing Fund would:
- Pay the down payment on a new house.
- Make the first 12 monthly mortgage payments on the residence.
- Pay the costs of sending two surviving children to private school.
- Pay for counseling for the family.
Michael Shoels' wish has come true.
In fact, his wishes were granted even before he made his request, which has since evolved into a sort of blackmail. His request was granted when the Healing Fund provided the Shoels family with a check for $50,000, the same amount given to each of the 13 families whose relatives were murdered by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.
The money was intended to help the families through their hardship - to pay bills, medical expenses, counseling and other needs. There were no strings attached to the grants, which totaled $650,000.
More than $2 million more was given to assist the wounded students and their families, people who face huge medical bills and counseling expenses.
But, like all the other families of those who died, the Shoels family received its $50,000 share free and clear.
There is no accounting of how Shoels and Isaiah's mother have decided to spend the money, and there shouldn't be. It was an unrestricted gift.
But now Shoels wants more - much more. He is so insistent that he was been mistreated that he wants the United Way investigated for the way it has dispersed assets of the Healing Fund.
That's where the blackmail comes in. And it is a despicable demand.
Hazing Defies Calls for
Tolerance
Denver Post, 9/19/99
- A group of high school students smear dog feces on a freshman girl in Denver, then force her and other ninth-graders to jump into a lake.
- Two freshman boys are duct-taped together at a park in Douglas County.
- In Littleton, several teens wrap sheets of plastic around a freshman boy.
- What happened to all that sensitivity and understanding?
After the Columbine High School shootings in April, students across Colorado and the country promised greater tolerance, grace and compassion toward their classmates.
They wore ribbons. They pledged to be kinder. They held hands as a symbol of their new-found compassion.
Yet, just a few weeks into the new school year, several hazing incidents have shown that it takes more than promises and words to bring about change - if change can be realized at all.
Dissecting
Columbine's Cult of the Athlete
Washington Post, 6/12/99
The state wrestling champ was regularly permitted to park his $100,000 Hummer all day in a 15-minute space. A football player was allowed to tease a girl about her breasts in class without fear of retribution by his teacher, also the boy's coach. The sports trophies were showcased in the front hall -- the artwork, down a back corridor.Columbine High School is a culture where initiation rituals meant upperclass wrestlers twisted the nipples of freshman wrestlers until they turned purple and tennis players sent hard volleys to younger teammates' backsides. Sports pages in the yearbook were in color, a national debating team and other clubs in black and white. The homecoming king was a football player on probation for burglary.
All of it angered and oppressed Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, leading to the April day when they staged their murderous rampage here, killing 13 and wounding 21.
More Graffiti Turns Up
at Columbine High School
Denver Post, 8/20/99
The numbers 4/20 - apparently a reference to the date of the Columbine High School massacre or a drug code - were found scratched on the wall of a girls' restroom at the school Thursday. It was the latest of several vandalism incidents reported at Columbine since students returned to school Monday.
How
Much Mourning is Enough?
Salon Magazine, 8/17/99
As Columbine High goes back to school, parents and students wrestle with how to remember while also trying to move on.
Swastikas
Found at Columbine High School
Associated Press, 8/17/99
...three freshly scrawled swastikas were found in some bathrooms, said Tammy Theus, mother of one of just 15 African-American students at Columbine.
She said the walls were clean when she and other concerned parents toured the school a week ago, but on Monday they found one swastika in a boys' bathroom and two in girls' bathrooms.
Student Won't Return
to School -- not Ready to 'Move On'
Denver Post, 8/17/99
"Our school says it became so united, but less than two weeks later it was back to the old way. They are obsessed with sports, obsessed with popularity and treat other people like crap.''
Over the summer she went back to the school to pick up her things. But just being there made her uneasy.
"I got these sick-to-my-stomach feelings,'' she says. "I thought, "I don't want to put myself through this again.''
"I've just stopped trusting people,'' she says. "So when people say, "I'll always be here for you,' I don't believe them. I know it's not true.''
At
Columbine, Rally Skips Remembrance
Washington Post, 8/17/99
Nearly 2,000 Columbine High School students returned to class today following a festive outdoor rally featuring cheerleaders, pep songs, a ribbon-cutting – and no remembrance of the victims of the mass shooting in April that claimed the lives of 15 people.
Students
Return to Columbine High School
CNN, 8/16/99
The "taking back" of Columbine High School begins Monday as 2,000 students return to school, some eager to resume studies, others apprehensive about going back inside the scene of last spring's deadly shooting rampage.
Who
Owns the Columbine Tragedy?
Salon Magazine, 8/16/99
A battle for "ownership" of the Columbine High School tragedy will commence Monday morning, as reporters descend on the scarred high school for the back-to-school media bonanza. Ironically, the main story will likely be a giant choreographed ritual, where students symbolically "Take Back the School" from the media, who they believe have turned their home into a national symbol of mass murder and youth violence.
Rifts
Remain at Columbine High School
Boston Globe, 8/15/99
Psychiatrist Jennifer Hagman, the Columbine Disaster Response Task Force co-chairwoman, said she does not foresee violent confrontations this week, but she does expect friends of Klebold and Harris to encounter problems.
''Absolutely. The majority of the peer and clique issues that were in Columbine are alive and well,'' she said, later adding, ''Columbine is particularly a difficult school ... because the majority of the kids are similar.''
Sophomores
Discuss New Start
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 8/15/99
They are all sophomores, all 15 years old, all members of the Columbine High School class of 2002.
They will spend another three years in the place where 15 people died. When they are seniors, they will be the last class left in Columbine to have lived and relived the events of April 20, 1999. When they graduate, they will take the collective memory of that day with them.
Harris'
Parents Dropping Demand for Immunity
Denver Rock Mountain News, 8/4/99
The parents of Columbine High killer Eric Harris have dropped their demand for immunity, and detectives expect to interview them this month. John Kiekbusch, lead investigator in the case, said Tuesday the Harris family and their attorney are discussing meeting arrangements with Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas.
MEDIA ARTICLES (in chronological order)
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Armed
Youths Kill Up to 23 in 4-Hour Siege
L.A. Times, 4/21/99
Laughing as they killed, two youths clad in dark ski masks and long black coats fired handguns at will and blithely tossed pipe bombs into a crowd of their terrified classmates Tuesday inside a suburban high school southwest of Denver, littering halls with as many as 23 bodies and wounding at least 25 others. The gunmen, embittered youths reportedly fascinated with paramilitary culture, kept police sharpshooters at a distance for more than four hours before they apparently used their guns on themselves.
Deadliest
School Massacre In the Nation's History
New York Times, 4/21/99
LITTLETON, Colo. -- In the deadliest school massacre in the nation's history, two young men stormed into a suburban high school here at lunch time Tuesday with guns and explosives, killing as many as 23 students and teachers and wounding at least 20 in a five-hour siege, the authorities said.
Classmates
Describe Shooters
S.F. Chronicle, 4/21/99
The schoolyard assassins in Colorado were part of a small clique of outcast youths obsessed with the Gothic world and known as the ``Trench Coat Mafia,'' according to their fellow students.
Students at Columbine High, near Denver, said the group was made up of six to 10 students who were constantly being ribbed by the school's athletes and other, more popular cliques.
Killing
Rampage at Colorado High School
S.F. Chronicle, 4/21/99
Two students bent on what police called "a suicide mission'' charged into a suburban high school yesterday and opened fire with guns and explosives, turning a peaceful campus into a grim killing field that left up to 25 people dead and 20 others wounded.
Erie
Hints of the Outcasts' Dark Side
S.F. Chronicle, 4/22/99
Dylan Klebold was a lanky computer genius who had been on an honor studies track since elementary school, and his pal Eric Harris was a promising short story writer who was so good at his studies they bored him.
They were also deep into Hitler, wore black trench coats and steel- toed Army boots and filmed videos of each other blowing up plastic green soldiers and showing off high-powered weaponry. They broke into cars, hacked into nether regions of the Internet, created Web sites trumpeting doom and racial genocide and made it pretty well known that they hated jocks.
Heartbreak
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), 4/22/99
A large group of students gather together and raise their arms near Columbine High School in memory of those slain on Tuesday. Two gunmen killed 13 people and wounded over 20 before they killed themselves.
The above link contains additional links to all the Rocky Mountain News stories regarding the tragedy.
We're All Asking,
"Why?"
Denver Post, 4/22/99
While the world mourned the senseless killings of 14 students and one teacher at Columbine High School, survivors recalled acts of heroism as police removed bodies Wednesday from the grisly massacre site. Thousands grieved for the dead at religious services in metro Denver, President Clinton asked for a moment of silent prayer at the White House, and the pope decried the violence from Rome. Meanwhile, investigators in Jefferson County pored over the lives of the two dead murder suspects, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, and asked a simple but troubling question: Why?
The above link contains additional links to all the Denver Post stories regarding the tragedy.
Gunmen
Lived Dual Existence
Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/22/99
They were excellent students -- who built pipe bombs in their spare time. Polite around adults, at school they picked on people of color. Outwardly artistic, they seethed inwardly at the jocks who dominate social life at Columbine High School.A day after Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, strode into the school, brandishing the guns and homemade grenades they used to kill 13 people before turning their weapons on themselves, their friends and neighbors are still struggling to reconcile those contradictions.
Is Any
School "Completely Safe?"
Los Angeles Times, 4/24/99
Tuesday's tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where 15 people died, including the two suspected teenage shooters, has put the spotlight on school security, the Internet's role, gun laws and violent images in films, television and video games. Parents, counselors and school administrators are at a loss about how to deal with the growing chasm between teens and adults. Where does the responsibility lie?
Can
It Happen Here?
New York Times, 4/22/99
Flags flew at half-staff; moments of prayer silenced the halls; special assemblies gathered. But even more than posting outward signals of distress over the killings in Littleton, Colo., schools around the country turned inward today with an intensity inspired by no previous school mayhem, seeking solace and answers and assurance.
There
is No Substitute for Paying Attention
S.F. Chronicle, 4/24/99
We are transfixed by the reports on the television. We pore over the newspaper accounts. We search for some way to make sense of the senseless events in Littleton, Colo. We can ponder what may have caused two students to gun down their schoolmates. We will never know. In the end, we are left with only one basic certainty about our children -- there is no substitute for paying attention. It is true in all cases and at all times, and hardly qualifies as a terribly profound insight. Children need attention from adults. ``If there is one adult who is important in a kid's life, it can make a difference,'' said Jim Thompson.
Painful
Memories of 1989 -- Cleveland Elementary, Stockton
S.F. Chronicle, 4/24/99
When Rann Chun left for high school the morning after the Colorado school shooting, his mother barely breathed until he returned home. The television images of frantic parents and bloody children brought back the fear and pain of a January morning 10 years ago. On that day, Chun's mother, Chan Im, raced to Stockton's Cleveland Elementary School after hearing that a gunman was spraying the playground with bullets during recess. Chun was in second grade at Cleveland, his sister Ram in first.
Flurry of "Copycat" Incidents in Wake of Columbine HS Massacre
Take Copycat Threats Seriously, Experts Say
Denver Post, 4/24/99It seems insane.
On top of the killings, and despite the outpouring of grief, tears and togetherness, the Internet is teeming with cruel comments about what happened at Columbine, and schools in Colorado and elsewhere have received bomb threats and seen incidents of copycat behavior.
Student Threats Lead to Action All Over the Nation
Associated Press, 4/24/99Dozens of students around the country have been suspended and arrested since the Columbine High massacre for making what were regarded as threats to carry out similar attacks. Schools have been evacuated, locked down and closed as a result of the incidents, which have taken place in big cities and small towns alike since the attack in Littleton, Colo., on Tuesday.
Danville, CA
Contra Costa Times, 4/24/99The after-effects of Tuesday's high school killings in Colorado were felt locally Friday morning as a bomb threat at Monte Vista High School sent a ripple of fear through students. Most responded to the scare by going home. School officials said up to 80 percent of the students left for the day. Police received a call at 6:50 a.m. from someone saying a bomb inside the school would detonate in 30 minutes, said Terry Koehne, spokesman for the San Ramon Valley school district.
Wimberly, TX
Austin (TX) American-Statesman, 4/24/99Five juveniles were arrested Friday on charges of planning an attack on Danforth Junior High School in Wimberley. The five 14-year-old boys had planned the assault well before Tuesday's massacre that left 15 dead at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., Hays County Sheriff Don Montague said. The Wimberley boys had been planning the attack since the first of the year and intended to kill fellow students and teachers, the sheriff said.
Manchester, Virginia
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 4/23/99Two Manchester High School students were charged yesterday with conspiracy offenses in an alleged scheme to manufacture explosive devices and detonate them inside the 2,400-student school with the intent "to kill more than one person." The students, ages 14 and 15, each were charged with conspiracy to manufacture explosive devices and conspiracy to commit capital murder.
Staunton, Virginia
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 4/24/99Police arrested a 14-year-old high school student Thursday on a bomb-making charge after a tipster alerted them to an apparent parallel with the deadly Colorado school shooting. Prompted by news reports of the Littleton, Colo., massacre, someone in the Staunton area directed authorities to a Web page the local teen allegedly had set up, the city prosecutor said.
Petersburg, Newport News, and Culpeper, VA
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 4/24/99Students have been arrested on a variety of charges in Petersburg, Newport News and Culpeper in the wake of the deadly shooting in Colorado that has focused attention on school safety.
Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles Times, 4/24/99There were tense moments Friday in Long Beach after a patient, who warned he might do something similar to the Littleton, Colo., school shootings, escaped from a mental hospital.
Columbine Principal
Speaks Out for the First Time
Denver Post, 4/24/99
When Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis walked out of a meeting into the high school's north hallway Tuesday, things didn't seem right. The normally busy corridor was empty. "I had a really eerie feeling,'' he said. DeAngelis, who spoke publicly for the first time Friday, told The Denver Post how events unfolded Tuesday and described how he helped lead more than a dozen girls to safety.
Taunts -- the Hellish
Side of School Life
Denver Post, 4/24/99
Hell.
The word has been used so often this week to describe the bloody rampage at Columbine High School. But one member of Columbine's now-notorious Trench Coat Mafia invokes the same image of hell when describing life at the school before the carnage. The 18-year-old, who demanded anonymity, said he was taunted and terrorized by his schoolmates - so-called jocks who called him "faggot,'' bashed him into lockers and threw rocks at him from their cars while he rode his bike home from school. "I can't describe how hard it was to get up in the morning and face that,'' he said. "Hell,'' he continued. "Pure hell.''
Pondering
the Unthinkable -- Expert Thoughts of School Violence
Johns Hopkins Hospital Health Information, 4/99
Investigators are still trying to learn more about the apparent "suicide mission" that resulted in the deaths of 15 people, most of them students, in a high school outside of Denver. For most of us, such an act of violence is unthinkable. Though still a rarity, such acts still occur. Experts at Johns Hopkins offer their views on whether it is possible to detect and treat the early signs of disruptive and possibly destructive behavior, and how to help students cope in the aftermath of such a catastrophic event.
Helping Students Cope In The Aftermath Of Violence
School Shooting A Rare Event
Making Guns Childproof
Students Quizzed On Exposure To Violence
Early Intervention Can Head Off Later School Violence
Teens' Poor Social Skills Signal Behavioral Problems
Grief: Coping With A Loss
Klebold's Mom
'Shocked and Numb'
Denver Rock Mountain News, 4/24/99
Susan Klebold was still stunned Thursday, talking to her hairdresser about what her son, Dylan, had done. "She expressed real surprise, came across very shocked and numb, confused, in disbelief," said Dee Grantz, owner of Four Star Images, 6657 W. Ottawa Ave. "She said she didn't know who that boy was, and now she wasn't going to be able to find out."
Note Blames
Victims -- 'More extensive death will come Monday,' says note allegedly written
by gunman
Denver Rock Mountain News, 4/24/99
Police are investigating a note purportedly written by Columbine High School gunman Eric Harris that blames Tuesday's murderous assault on parents, teachers and "your children who have ridiculed me."
Possible
Gunman Suicide Note Found
Associated Press, 4/24/99, 12:09 pm EDT
Police have received what may be a suicide note from a teen-age gunman, blaming this week's bloody high school rampage on parents, teachers and ``your children who have ridiculed me.'' It also warned of more death to come.
The note was contained in an e-mail that was received by police Thursday or Friday, days after Columbine High School became a killing ground. Police had not confirmed who wrote the note or who sent the e-mail containing the text.
"By now it's over. If you are reading this my mission is complete. I have finished revolutionizing the neoeuphoric infliction of my internal terror. Your children who have ridaculed (sic) me, who have chosen not to accept me, who have treated me like I am not worth their time are dead. THEY ARE (expletive) DEAD. Surely you will try to blame it on the clothes I wear, the music I listen to, or the way I choose to present myself — but no. Do not hide behind my choices. You need to face the fact that this comes as a result of YOUR CHOICES. Parents and Teachers, YOU (expletive) UP. You have taught these kids to be gears and sheep. To think and act like those who came before them, to not accept what is different. YOU ARE IN THE WRONG. I may have taken their lives and my own — but it was your doing. Teachers, Parents, LET THIS MASSACRE BE ON YOUR SHOULDERS UNTIL THE DAY YOU DIE. Am I insane? Maybe. Is it my fault? No. I did not choose this life, but I have indeed chosen to exit it. You may think the horror ends with the bullet in my head — but you wouldn't be so lucky. All that I can leave you with to decipher what more extensive death is to come is ``12Skizto.'' You have until April 26th. Goodbye.
Eric Harris, April 19th."
Police
Discount Suicide Note
Washington Post, 4/24/99, 3:51 PM, EDT
Police today discounted what had appeared to be the suicide note of a teen-age gunman -- a note that dripped with anger at the world and a threat of more violence. The note was contained in an e-mail that was received by police Thursday or Friday, days after two gunmen turned Columbine High School into a killing ground. At first, authorities said they took it seriously.
Teens Plotted for a
Year
Denver Post, 4/24/99
The killers in the Columbine High School massacre crafted their plot for at least a year, mapping everything from hallway lighting to the best hiding places in a handwritten timeline detailing the exact minute they would "rock and roll,'' investigators said.
Bomb making materials and the sawed-off barrel of a shotgun were "clearly visible'' in the bedroom of one of the dead suspects, added Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, who expressed disgust at a news conference that the suspect's parents would not have intervened.
Given the detail of the plan, the large number of explosives and weaponry recovered in searches, and the potential electronic links through seized computers, Stone said he is convinced there were other people involved in the attack.
Killings
Spotlight Net Violence -- Colorado Massacre Ignites Debate Over Content of Web
Sites
Sacramento Bee, 4/24/99
Should the Internet and its service providers be blamed as accessories in the Colorado high school massacre? And what can be done to stop the spread of violence in cyberspace?Those are the questions parents, religious leaders and legal experts are asking after the discovery that teen killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold got bomb-making instructions off the Internet and that Harris created hate-filled Web sites.
Killers
Double Life Fooled Many
Denver Rock Mountain News, 4/25/99
Parents, teachers, neighbors, authorities and even friends failed to see teens' dark side.
'Fit in
or Else' a Rule at School
Denver Post, 4/25/99
The preppy jocks sit in the middle of the high school lunchroom surrounded by a kind of happy buzz. They have a certain Gap-ad, khaki-wearing confidence to them. These kids are popular and life is good. Clustered together in another part of the room are the nerdy kids. They're having a pretty good time but feeling a little tentative about their place in the lunchroom food chain. Sitting on the floor in the corner are the Goths or Gothic kids and the freaks. They reject chairs and conventional roles and accessorize with nose rings, spiked dog collars and black clothing. The world of high school cliques plays itself out every day, in every school, in every decade.
Menacing
'Trench Coat Mafia' was Just a Joke -- At First
New York Times, 4/25/99
But it started out as just a tease, a name thrust upon the ragtag group of outcasts by the more popular kids at Columbine, who seized on the appearance of the dark, ominous-looking dusters as new fodder for their unending harassment of those on the fringes.
They
Hoped to Kill More
Denver Post, 4/26/99
The two students who carried guns and homemade bombs into Columbine High School wanted to kill at least 500 classmates, murder people in the neighborhood and - if they survived - "hijack an airplane and crash it into a major city," Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said Sunday.
Kids Lead
Secret Lives
Denver Post, 4/27/99
To concerned parents, to armchair psychologists and to others speculating about the family lives of the two teens behind last week's Columbine High School massacre, Joanne Sharpe has a message: "Kids lead secret lives. Sometimes it's impossible to know them. Sometimes they're way beyond your control.''
Do Video
Games Teach Killing?
Denver Post, 4/27/99
Squeezing the trigger of a sawed-off shotgun, 17-year-old Marvin Wilson rocked his body toward the screen of an arcade game in the Aurora Mall and then quickly jerked the pump-action plastic weapon to his side before firing again.
"I'd rather come here and shoot at their ass then shoot up real people,'' Wilson said last weekend, as two of his friends from took turns firing rounds from the game's second firearm.
Shootings
Fuel Debate Over 'Jock Elitism' at Columbine
Denver Rock Mountain News, 4/27/99
Athletes and others at Columbine High School agree there's a rift among the jocks and other factions. But they don't agree how much of a problem it is.
Violent
Kids Have 'Chilling Capacity to Shut Off Feelings,' Experts Say
San Francisco Chronicle, 4/29/99
To many, the shootings in Littleton, Colo., had a terrifying similarity to the flood of violent images washing over American society daily from movies, rap videos, television news shows and even computer games -- an actualized fantasy of shoot-'em-up revenge. But a prominent expert on criminal violence says teenage perpetrators like those in Littleton are no more prone to confuse fantasy and reality than the rest of the population.
Outcasts
Find Less, Rather than More Acceptance in Aftermath of Littleton
S.F. Chronicle, 5/1/99
It has always been hard to be the one called a freak, geek, dweeb, weirdo. For many, it just got a little harder. In scattered reports from around the country, high school students who dress defiantly, or who are computer lovers, or who qualify in any way as outcasts, say that since the killings in Littleton, Colo., last week, they feel as if they have become perceived not only as different but as threats.
Don't
Further Empower Cliques
Los Angeles Times, 5/2/99
While it's difficult to generate sympathy for a couple of teenagers who decided to vent their grievances through the barrel of a gun, the carnage at Columbine High School should not eclipse an important part of this story; the power of high school cliques to make life miserable for many adolescents.
Cliques'
Divisive Webs
New York Times, 5/2/99
Look around the sprawling Chaparral High School campus at lunch time, and the social geography of the 1,850 students is clearly mapped out. The football players and their friends have the center table outdoors, at what everyone calls the ramada. In back of them, the picnic tables are filled with popular students, too: an attractive, preppy array of cheerleaders, lesser jocks, and members of the student government and the All Stars, a service club.
Alike and Different --
Portraits of Killers
Denver Post, 5/2/99
They were exactly the same and utterly different. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the youngest sons of two-son suburban families. They were tall, skinny computer geeks. They were both wicked smart and school work came easy.
Researchers
Say Harris Reconfigured Video Game
Denver Rock Mountain News, 5/3/99
Eric Harris reconfigured a violent computer game called Doom, possibly as a dry run for the deadly shootings at Columbine High School, researchers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center say. The game, found among Harris' computer files, was changed from a shooting competition into a massacre, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based center, said Sunday.
Luvox Found in Harris'
Body
Denver Post, 5/4/99
Jefferson County authorities confirmed Monday that Eric Harris had a psychotropic drug called Luvox in his bloodstream, but an expert said there is no scientific evidence connecting such medication to behavior changes that involve hostile outbursts.
Third Gunman?
Denver Post, 5/5/99
Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Stone raised the spectre of a third Columbine High gunman anew Tuesday, saying some students have named another suspect. "There was quite possibly one other person shooting,'' Stone said. "We do have witness statements.'' The statements came from "students who were witnesses at the scene when this was going down,'' and they agreed on the third person's identity, he said. Stone said investigators have questioned him.
School District
Seeks Funding in Wake of Tragedy
Denver Post, 5/5/99
Can you put a price tag on tragedy? Jefferson County School Superintendent Jane Hammond did on Tuesday. The school district expects to need $50 million in the next year because of the massacre at Columbine High School, she said. That would cover such things as fixing the damaged building, victim assistance, counselors, stepped-up security and electronic keys that can't be copied, the way the shooters apparently copied the school's metal keys, Jefferson County officials said.
Don't
Blame Us, Say Video Game Designers and Teen Players
S.F. Chronicle, 5/5/99
In the dimly lit Internet and video game chambers that Paul Thureen prowls for hours at night, he is known as Filth -- an alias earned for his cold-blooded knack for gunning down a ghostly procession of alien invaders. When the 20-year-old Minnesotan goes hunting with a real .22-caliber rifle in the North Woods with his grandfather, Thureen shrinks at firing at prey and usually misses.
Life
Harder for Teen Outcasts
S.F. Chronicle, 5/7/99
It has never been easy to be the kids ridiculed as geeks or weirdos at school, and in the tense aftermath of the Colorado massacre it has gotten a lot harder.
Littleton
Students Speak at East Bay Rally
San Francisco Chronicle, 5/8/99
In an anguished voice, Columbine student Jenny Klermund told the students to be aware of how they treat others.
``I can't help but wonder how I could have helped to prevent what happened,'' Klermund told the audience. ``When you think about it, preventing it would have been so easy, if we had just seen the signs and reached out to them.''
Warning
Signs Hidden in Plain Sight
Los Angeles Times, 5/9/99
Harris and Klebold's danger was visible to anybody who could have recognized the scattered clues.
Killers'
Parents Were Warned
S.F. Chronicle, 5/11/99
Columbine High School officials said yesterday that the English teacher of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had warned their parents one month before the shootings about the violent nature of their sons' writings.
After
Shooting, Calls for Help Flood the Region
Los Angeles Times, 5/11/99
DENVER
-- Like many mental health providers around the country, counselors here feared that in the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, those needing help would either be too traumatized or too stigmatized to ask for it. As exhausted counselors in the region can attest, nothing could be further from the truth.
Roadblocks
Keep Mentally Ill Kids From Getting Treatment
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 5/16/99
Even teens as dangerously troubled as Eric Harris stand a good chance of slipping through the cracks in Jefferson County and across Colorado, failing to get badly needed mental health care.
Columbine
a Classic Trigger for Copycats
S.F. Chronicle, 5/22/99
The enormity of the violence at Columbine High School -- and the white-hot media glare that has persisted in the weeks since -- make the shootings there a classic trigger for copycat incidents, according to experts on psychology and aggression.
Funds
for Littleton Ripe for Abuse
S.F. Chronicle, 5/25/99
In the aftermath of the April 20 shooting spree that left 15 dead and 23 injured at Columbine High School, millions of dollars have flowed into more than 40 funds advertised as ways to help victims and their families, many with little public oversight or accountability.
Jocks Still Hold Sway
Denver Post, 5/23/99
Even as the shots were being fired, Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were making one of their motives very, very clear: They resented the caste system at the high school, where popular athletes were provided star status. "Jocks,'' as the athletes are commonly called, were at the top of the social order at Columbine, worshiped as the dukes of their campus fiefdom.
Nothing may have changed since the days that blood flowed on the floors of Columbine last month, according to a look at one case involving one of the most popular student athletes of all, the captain of Columbine's football team.
Columbine Officials Decide to Act
Denver Post, 5/26/99But after reading about that incident in this space Sunday, administrators above (Principal) DeAngelis apparently have decided to act.
Schools Study
Charge of Athlete's Special Treatment
Denver Rock Mountain News, 5/27/99
Jefferson County Schools will investigate accusations that Columbine High administrators catered to an athlete accused of harassing his ex-girlfriend.
Schools
Tightening Standards After Columbine
Washington Post, 5/27/99
In the month since the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., school administrators and police across the country have faced increased pressure to crack down on student misconduct in an effort to increase school safety. One result, according to civil liberties lawyers, has been a rash of complaints from upset parents whose children have been suspended, expelled or arrested for alleged misconduct involving vaguely threatening speech, Web sites or clothing.
Pearl (Mississippi),
Columbine Similarities Abound
Denver Post, 6/1/99
When criminal investigator Greg Eklund began his probe of 16-year-old Luke Woodham's rampage at the high school in Pearl, Miss., he was stunned.
Although it first seemed Woodham had acted on his own when he killed two students and wounded seven on Oct. 1, 1997, Eklund soon discovered that Woodham belonged to a group called the Kroth, which had plotted for a bloody takeover of the school five days later.
Brutal Klebold
Emerges in Accounts
Denver Rock Mountain News, 6/5/99
Survivors say teen was no meek follower as he methodically and sadistically killed.
...slowly a picture of the mayhem at Columbine is emerging that shows Klebold and Harris equally capable of pulling the trigger and lighting the fuse.
Through the Eyes of
Survivors
Denver Post, 6/13/99
To better understand how such evil could take root in Jefferson County, The Denver Post interviewed dozens of students, teachers, investigators and parents to reconstruct the way two youths, cloaked in black trench coats, killed 13 and wounded 20 before fatally shooting themselves in the head.
The eyewitness accounts are full of terror and courage, heartbreak and luck. They tell a story of senseless tragedy on the 110th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth that stole the lives of the strong and popular as well as the handicapped and lonely.
Probe Ordered in
Columbine Harassment Case
Denver Post, 6/15/99
Jefferson County school Superintendent Jane Hammond has asked an independent investigator to examine whether Columbine High School officials gave preferential treatment to a football player accused of harassing his ex-girlfriend.
Klebolds Saw No Hint
of Son's Rage, Letter Says
Denver Post, 6/18/99
Dylan Klebold's parents saw no hint of the rage building in their son "until we watched in helpless horror with the rest of the world'' on April 20.
That's what Sue and Tom Klebold wrote to the families of the 13 Columbine High School shooting victims killed by their son and Eric Harris.
Harrises
Didn't See a Monster in their Midst
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 6/21/99
Wayne Harris sweated on the sidelines as he coached his older son's basketball team. Kathy Harris wept when her younger son harassed a neighbor boy. Together, they hovered over the boys' homework and closely watched their curfews.
One son grew into a role model, the other a monster. And many who know the parents say it wasn't their fault.
Columbine
Killers' Pasts Hid Few Predictors of Tragedy
New York Times, 6/29/99
The father of one of the boys was asked some years ago to jot down his life's goals in the memory book for his 20th high school reunion. His answer was succinct, straightforward, and, it seemed, not unrealistically ambitious: "Raise two good sons."
The other father prided himself on being his son's soul mate. They had just spent five days visiting the Arizona campus where the teen-ager planned to enroll in the fall, and recently discussed their shared opposition to a bill in the state legislature that would have made it easier to carry concealed weapons.
So, on April 20, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed into Columbine High School in this Denver suburb and killed 12 classmates and a teacher, then themselves, these men and their wives suffered more than the loss of a child. The boys' bombs and bullets shattered their parents' very view of the world, undermining what had seemed to them and others to be 18 years of responsible child-rearing.
Columbine
Killers Strike Chord on the 'Net
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 7/12/99
Amid the hundreds of cyberspace memorials to the victims of the Columbine High School killings, a few Internet sites are dedicated to the killers. The sites about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have drawn controversial reactions from visitors -- some visceral, others thought-provoking.
Pamela Schwindt, a nurse in Indianapolis, signed the guest book: "I am a mom and I am about 50 and I remember the taunting I took in high school. My heart breaks for you. I hope you are now at peace."
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