Columbine

columbine School Shooting

Columbine High School

Text I

Littleton, Colorado- suburb of Denver April 20, 1999, 11:19 a.m.

Shooters

Dylan Klebold

Eric Harris

17, (September 11, 1981-April 20, 1999)

18, (April 9, 1981-April 20, 1999)

• "Trenchcoat Mafia"
• Fascinated with goth culture
• Retaliation for being bullied

Notebook

• Eric Harris maintained journals, notebooks, and blogs
• Filled them with reflections on the past and plans for the future. The 18-year-old hadn’t always found life easy since
• Harris' family relocated to Colorado after his father retired from military service.
• Arrested in January 1998 for stealing computers from a locked van
• Harris’ probation officer said he was ​“a very bright individual who is likely to succeed in life”
• He applied to join the United States Marine Corps.
• No-one found his journal entries where Harris outlined in detail his plot to murder almost everyone at his high school

Timeline

11:10- Harris and Klebold arrive at school, tell one student to leave11:14- Place explosives in cafeteria then go back to cars, custodian changes surveilance tapes 11:19- Two pipe bombs explode 3 miles from high school, 911 is called, Jefferson County Police Dept. and Littleton Fire Dept. report to the field 11:23- Harris and Klebold start shooting from the top of the west exterior steps, then throw explosives on the roof of the school, Klebold enters side entrence to the cafeteria 11:21- Deputy Paul Magor, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy is called to the scene of the bombs in the field 11:22- Custodian watches surveilance and students are gathering by a window to look at something, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Gardner, community resource officer at Columbine High School is told he is needed in the back lot of the school 11:23- 911 call from a Columbine High School student reports a girl injured in the south lower parking lot, Deputy Magor and Gardner are alerted 11:24- Harris shoots at Officer Gardner 11:25- “Attention, south units. Possible shots fired at Columbine High School, 6201 S. Pierce, possibly in the south lower lot towards the east end. One female is down.”

Timeline

11:26- “Shots in the building. I need someone in the south lot with me.” Teacher’s 911 call from inside the library reports smoke coming in through the doorway. Two wounded students are saved by deputies. Harris, leaning out of a broken window on the set of double doors into the school, begins shooting a rifle. Klebold fires a semi-automatic weapon east towards the students in the main hallway and south down the library hallway. Teacher Dave Sanders is shot in the library before turning the east corner. Student is on the phone telling their mom to pick them up for three minutes after she sees gunman, she hides in the bathroom.11:27- Road block on Pierce Street at the southeast corner of the student parking lot. Harris and Klebold spend almost three minutes in the library hallway randomly shooting their weapons. A pipe bomb is thrown into the stairwell from the library hallway and lands in the cafeteria. Teacher Patti Nielson, hiding under the front counter just inside the library entrance, continues her phone contact with the Jefferson County dispatcher, yells for students to get under the tables. 11:28- Numerous students seek safety behind Taborsky’s patrol car on the school’s west side. Deputy Smoker radios that students are saying the shooter is wearing a black trench coat. A 911 call reports that students are injured outside the school.

Timeline

11:29- 11:36-

• Harris shoots down the length of the front counter. One student, crouched behind a paper copier, is injured by flying wood splinters from the counter.
• The gunmen walk through the library toward the west windows, killing one student on the way, before they shoot out the windows toward law enforcement and fleeing students.
• Law enforcement returns the fire.
• The gunmen then turn their attention to students inside the library. They kill four and injure four more in the west area of the library before moving back toward the library entrance to the east.
• Harris and Klebold shoot out the display cabinet near the front door before firing their guns in this section of the library, injuring five and killing three.
• Harris and Klebold leave the library’s east area and enter the center section, reloading their weapons at this point.
• Two more students are killed and two more injured in the library’s center section before the gunmen leave the library.
• In 7 ½ minutes, 10 people are killed and 12 more wounded. There are a total of 56 people in the library; 34 escape injury.
• Two library employees remain hidden in the television studio. One teacher hides in the periodicals room. Patti Nielson, originally hiding under the front counter, drops the phone. She ultimately crawls into the library’s break room to hide in a cupboard. All four women remain in the library until they are evacuated by SWAT around 3:30 p.m.

Timeline

11:36-11:44-

• From the library Harris and Klebold go into the hallway and walk towards the science area. Witnesses say the two looked through the windows of some of the classrooms’ locked doors, making eye contact with some of the students, but not attempting to break into the rooms or harm any more students.
• A teacher sees Klebold and Harris in the science hallway, stopping in front of the chemical storage room just east of where she is hiding.
• Several students witness the suspects shooting into empty rooms. Klebold and Harris also tape an explosive device on the storage room door next to the area where teacher Dave Sanders and several students are hiding. Witnesses say the gunmen do not appear to be overly intent on gaining access to any of the rooms. The gunmen easily could have shot the locks on the doors or through the windows into the classrooms, but they do not. Their behavior seems directionless.
• The videotape shows Klebold walking directly over to the same bomb after Harris’ failed attempts to detonate it. Klebold seems to be tampering with something on the floor.
• The suspects both take a moment to drink from water bottles left by students on the school lunch tables.
• A witness hiding in the cafeteria hears one of the gunmen say, “Today the world’s going to come to an end. Today’s the day we die."

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

Timeline

11:46-

• There is a partial detonation of a bomb and a fire in the cafeteria. The bomb is attached to smaller containers of flammable liquids that may have been ignited by a device thrown by Klebold. That explosion causes the fire in the cafeteria that activates 5 fire sprinklers in the area. The large 20-lb propane tank and the second complete bomb/duffel bag beside a nearby table do not explode. Deputy Searle, outside the building, reports a fire in the cafeteria.
• Four students run out of the cafeteria through a side door.

11:47-

• One student can be seen on the cafeteria videotape crawling out of the cafeteria side door.
• One gallon of fuel ignites in the area.
• Dispatch advises of reports of two suspects with UZIs, pipe bombs and shotguns.
• During its late morning news program, Denver’s KMGH-TV Channel 7 announces that Jefferson County has confirmed gunshots fired at Columbine High School.

11:49- Sgt. Ester reports that Denver Metro SWAT has arrived on the east side of the school.11:51- The 911 call made by Patti Nielson from the library is terminated by the dispatch center since no more activity could be heard on the line.11:52-

• Jefferson County Undersheriff John Dunaway arrives at the command post and authorizes SWAT to make an immediate entry into the school.

• Deputy Byerly reports shots fired on the east side of the building.
• The fire sprinkler system alarm in the cafeteria is activated.

"Do you believe in God?"

"Yes"

Timeline

11:53-11:55

• Law enforcement officers on the east side of the school report noises and shots coming from the school’s northeast side.
• Searle reports that Denver Police Department personnel are at the shed on the west side of the school and they have “long guns.”
• A two-hour 911 phone call (from 11:29 a.m. to 1:24 p.m.) from a school secretary and a school security officer hiding in the school’s main office reports shots fired in the office, into the ceiling and in the art hallway to the north.
• Dispatch gives the command post a description of one of the suspects: “Eric Harris, 5’10”, thin build, shaved blond hair, black pants and white T-shirt, light blue gym backpack.”
• Littleton paramedics transport student Stephanie Munson, shot in the ankle while escaping out the east main entrance, to Littleton Hospital.

Columbine Massacre Victims

Rachel Scott, 17 Daniel Rohrbough, 15 Dave Sanders, 47 Kyle Velasquez, 16 Steven Curnow, 14 Cassie Bernall, 17 Isaiah Shoels, 18 Matthew Kechter, 16 Lauren Townsend, 18 John Tomlin, 17 Kelly Fleming, 16 Daniel Mauser, 15 Corey DePooter, 17

Theories

• Revenge upon the high school ​‘jocks’ who bullied them Satanists
• White supremacists, choosing the date of the attack to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

"It’ll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, [video games] Duke [Nukem] and Doom all mixed together,” ​“I want to leave a lasting impression on the world.”- Harris' journal entry before shooting

Theories

• Claims that the shooters were wearing Marilyn Manson T‑shirts on the day of the shooting
• Claims that Harris and Klebold were inspired to kill by the music of Marilyn Manson.

"Killers Worshipped Rock Freak Manson" The Sun newspaper"Nutters Loved Evil Pop Hero"The Daily Star"Did goth culture turn two teenagers into killers?"The Guardian ​"Cult Following Of Rock Star Who Aped Serial Killer"The Times

Theories

10 U.S. senators sent a letter to Seagrams, the company that owned Manson’s record label, Interscope, requesting that it stop distributing ​“music that glorifies violence”. ​“I’ve been asked to comment on the Colorado school tragedy,” ​“It’s tragic and disgusting any time young people’s lives are taken in an act of senseless violence. My condolences go out to the students and their families.” on April 28, Manson chose to postpone five dates on his scheduled U.S. tour. ​“People are trying to deal with their losses,” he stated. ​“It’s not a great atmosphere to be out playing rock’n’roll shows, for us or the fans. -Marilyn Manson

Aftermath

• Parkland shooter, 14 y/o, was fascinated with Columbine
• Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter idolized the Columbine killers
• 15 y/o in Oregon shooter was inspired by Columbine documentary
• Wisconson teen held classroom hostage after readung a book about Columbine
• 2018 Santa Fe High School shooters dressed in trenchcoats, imitading the Columbine shooters

Effects

• Over 90% of schools now have a written crisis plan
• Over 75% of schools, as young as elementary, hold active shooter drills
• Drills weren't typical before Columbine, and now, active shooter scenarios are a common conversation for kids to have in schools
• The US averaged at least 1 deadly mass shooting a month in 2018
• The simple training is run, hide, fight. Some schools teach students about the best hiding places in the classroom, how to barricade the door and how to throw objects at an intruder as a distraction.
• Though new measures are in place in schools, mass shootings overall aren't on the decline.
• Due to the new protocols, school shootings are usually shorter, lasting just a few minutes until the gunman is confronted. And thanks to new security measures -- like surveillance cameras -- overall crime in schools, including theft and sexual assault, has decreased.

Although there is only two years worth of data from 2017-2018, the amount of injuries is more than the four year span of injuries from both 1999-2002, and 2012-2015. The amount of deaths is almost half of the four year time span from 2012-2015, and is more than the four year time span from 2999-2002.

Sources

https://www.statista.com/chart/17756/after-columbine_victims-of-school-shootings-in-the-us/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/04/18/school-shootings-didnt-start-columbine-heres-why-that-disaster-became-blueprint-other-killers-created-columbine-generation/

interdumhttps://www.kerrang.com/features/columbine-how-marilyn-manson-became-mainstream-medias-scapegoat/

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/NARRATIVE.Time.Line.htm

https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbine-High-School-shootings

https://time.com/5603165/columbine-high-school-building/

https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings

https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/20/remembering-the-13-victims-of-columbine-high-school-massacre-20-years-on-9228117/