Craig Scott, a survivor of the Columbine massacre, once said while visiting the well known school, “this is the most famous high school in all of America for the wrong reasons.” On April 20, 1999 two high school students - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - opened fire on fellow students and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The two boys killed twelve students, one teacher, and wounded twenty-four others before turning their guns on themselves. That day at Columbine has left an impact on the nation, as well as the American education system. The shocking event lead to enhanced school security, student training, and an emphasis on positive relationships between students, teachers, and members of the community.
When looking at the events at Columbine High School most Americans have reached one of two conclusions as to Why they did it. The first being the pair were outcasts of “Trench Coat Mafia” and were taking revenge against bullies what had made school miserable for them. The second conclusion is that this massacre is inexplicable and we will never be able to understand what drove them to such horrific violence. However the FBI and world renowned mental health experts such as psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg and supervising Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier of FBI have come to very different conclusions.
On April 20, 1999 every American life was changed forever as the news broke of what would come to be known as the Columbine High School Massacre. Immediately reporters and psychologists alike began to ask the question; why? What could cause Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, eighteen and seventeen respectively, to go off the deep end and commit one of the worst mass shootings in history? Both seniors had less than two months left in their high school career, why would they choose to commit this crime instead of graduating, moving on with their lives, and leaving their classmates to do the same? Although there were two clear killers at Columbine what many people don’t know is the theory that Eric Harris was the true mastermind behind the plan. “To understand Columbine, we have to understand Eric Harris, “(Langman, 2009). Many people who knew the boys say that Dylan Klebold was a follower of Eric Harris and that he would have never constructed a plan like this on his own (“Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold The killers of 13 students and a teacher at Columbine High School – Littleton, Colorado”). Regardless of whether Dylan followed Eric or if he had his own reasons for murder, it is clear that Eric was the one with deep rooted psychological issues. However this makes Dylan Klebold harder to understand, was he a follower or just good at hiding his emotional turmoil? Why did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold commit one of the most well-known school shootings and what effect has it had
I’ve read a wild, but a mysterious story called ‘’Charlie’s Point Of View”. This book was created and invented by a brilliant man named Richard Scrimger. This book is a fictional but a great book. As I take you into the journey/wonders of this book, I’ll tell you all about a blind boy solving a mystery with his powerful senses. The boy who was blind was named as Charlie Fairmile. He has two other friends who gave him big help and their names were Lewis and Bernadette.
day two seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris carried out a full blown assault on the school during school hours with hundreds of kids and teachers present” (Levy, 1999). These two had a plan to kill as many people as they possibly could. They had multiple guns and explosives as they patrolled the halls looking for their victims. By the time the situation was resolved they had murdered 12 students and 1 teacher before they killed themselves.
On April 20, 1999, the unimaginable occurred at Columbine High School in the small town of Littleton, Colorado. A school shooting, perpetrated by, then senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took the entire community by storm. With 15 deaths, including the perpetrators, and 24 non-fatal injuries, the memories of this horrific massacre will forever resonate in minds of all. With a meticulously, thought out plan, the two shooters prepared guns and bombs before performing the sickening act. Families, the FBI, local officials, psychologists,
What can one learn from this violent tragedy, what mistakes did this instance have that can help evade other similar instances? It is commonly believed that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but maybe some schools would disagree with this statement, and take publicity more seriously than the welfare of their faculty, staff, and students. A school with a debauched reputation is not going to receive countless applicants, but is that a valid justification for not reporting disturbances and protecting their students? I believe that if turbulences exist, like a student threatening or shooting at people, schools should warn the cops right away. Mary Hoeft, a professor of communication arts and French at the University of Wisconsin – Barron County, wrote “Professors in the Crosshairs,” an article about incidents that have occurred at her school that should have been associated with the police. Hoeft addressed a situation that occurred at her school, where a disturbed young female student raged down the campus, yelling that she wanted to kill her English professor by aging her 120 years with a magic umbrella; luckily, the professor was out of town at a conference with
Tuesday April 20th, 1999 began like any other day. Parents went to work, and the children went off to school. Neither worried about the other, or how their day would turn out. But, hours later everything changed (“Columbine Highschool Massacre.”). Little did the residents of Columbine, Colorado know their high school would be a statistic for one of the largest school massacres in US History. On this day, two teenage boys were responsible for killing 12 innocent students and a teacher, wounding 23 more students, and then killing themselves (Miller). While a horrific event, the Columbine tragedy improved the safety in schools by upgrading security systems, improving administration’s knowledge on school security, and increasing
Columbine High School Shooting: Why did Columbine occur and what can be learned from it?
The beginning of the nonfiction, Columbine by Dave Cullen, takes place four days before the Columbine massacre at Columbine High School’s assembly in Littleton, Colorado, just before the weekend of Prom. Ironically, Principal DeAngelis, the one who had hosted the school assembly, provides a lecture of everyone coming back alive and safe after prom. Soon after, on April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine High School with two bombs based on portable propane bottles, decoy bombs in their cars and across town, and dozens of small pipe bombs, along with guns and ammunition. Their original and only plan was to shoot anyone and everyone who escapes from the building after the bombs detonated, and they had expected to be shot to death by police; however, their plans partly failed when the bombs planted inside the school did not go off. Although their plan of distraction did not succeed as expected, Harris and Klebold entered the school and began shooting and firing pipe bombs for a little over fifteen minutes. Afterwards, after roaming the school for a short amount of time, they returned to the library where most of their victims had died, set off one final bomb, and committed suicide by shooting themselves. Although their bombing failed, the ensued shooting resulted in a new era of school violence and had left “a lasting impression on the world.” However, by the end of the day, the horrifying incident was falsely blamed on bullying, the popular “Goth”
Since the day America was shocked to hear reports of a school shooting on April 20, 1999, America’s schools have changed in order provide a safer environment, ease any fears among the public, and protect students. The Columbine Massacre triggered an earthquake of changes throughout the school system. Like any earthquake, the shock was felt, then there may be a few aftershocks, but eventually it subsides and things become more lenient. Is this a problem? To figure this out we must look at the changes the massacre brought, their progression, and furthermore, where we are now.
On April 20, 1999, tragedy struck a Colorado high school. It started out as an ordinary spring day in Jefferson County, but it soon turned horrific. “The tragedy began at approximately 11:10 a.m. on that sunny Tuesday,” (Gimpel 27), right around lunchtime. No one could have anticipated the events that would soon follow, devastating the otherwise average suburban town. The lives of the students of Columbine High School and their families would never be the same after that catastrophic day.
"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of
One of the deadliest high school shootings took place on April, 20, 1999 in Littleton Colorado. Carried out by two students and wounding more than 30 people. The day began as any other with people living their daily lives, children going to school, and parents going to work. They had planned to blow up the school and murder everyone who was inside. While the actual motives for the attack remain unknown there are several theories surrounding the boys mental health before and during the time of the attack. They were the outsiders the losers the ones who did not fit in per say. The reasoning of mental health, and being a misfit can be related to the sociological theories of containment, and social bonding. The argument of who is to blame for the
It was a warm spring morning in the little town of Littleton, Colorado. The birds played beautiful music while small beams of sun slowly escaped from behind the clouds and through the kitchen windows of all the houses. Classes were starting at seven-thirty just like any other day, however at eleven- twenty a bloody massacre began at Columbine High School. “ There was a girl crouched beneath a desk in the library, and the guy came over and said, ‘Peekaboo,’ and shot her in the neck,” said Kirkland, a 15-year-old sophomore. Two seniors who belonged to a group called the Trench Coat Mafia, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, entered the school with guns, knives, and bombs hidden beneath their trench coats and started opening fire on their classmates and teachers.