<p>[Debunking</a> the myths of Columbine, 10 years later - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/20/columbine.myths/index.html]Debunking”>Debunking the myths of Columbine, 10 years later - CNN.com)</p>
<p>Somehow it just doesn’t seem possible that it’s been ten years. I still remember the horror and the sadness of that day so clearly.</p>
<p>I have read everything I can get my hands on about Columbine and this new round of information is very interesting and informative. It was such a horror, and now it appears that a lot of the information we got 10 years ago is not correct. It seems the two shooters were your basic psychopaths who were not treated unusually badly by their peers. They happened to find each other, and the rest is tragic history. The incredible thing is that if their bombs had worked, the death toll would have been over a thousand and we would not be focusing on just 13 lost lives. They were not targeting anyone in particular- they wanted the whole place blown up and everyone dead- blacks, whites, jocks etc.</p>
<p>I am in the process of reading the book referenced in this article.</p>
<p>Actually Cullen identifies Eric Harris as a psychopath, and Dylan Klebold as a depressive who had been contemplating suicide for some time.</p>
<p>Harris saw himself as a superior person who wanted to put the entire, inferior world out of its misery. Since he couldn’t take on the whole world, he wanted to make as big a statement as possible, which included the bombs. He planned more of a terrorist attack, which failed when the bombs didn’t go off.</p>
<p>Both kids had been in trouble with the law. Both sets of parents were very involved with their children.</p>
<p>10 years is a long time, or not a long time. A current teacher at Columbine was a sophomore there 10 years ago, but the principal is the same guy who was there 10 years ago. An article I read said that Columbine changed the way law enforcement approaches these situations. Previously they were trained to secure a perimeter and wait for a swat team. Now they are trained to go for the shooter immediately.</p>
<p>All of the deaths and injuries at Columbine took place within 15 minutes of the beginning of the incident.</p>
<p>Here is a partial ist of the warning signs compiled by the FBI (from the book):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The FBI cautions however that</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s just really, really sad. Ten years later it’s still sad.</p>
<p>I wasn’t there. All I know is what I read on the internet. </p>
<p>[Shoot</a> first: Columbine tragedy transformed police tactics - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-19-columbine-police-tactics_N.htm]Shoot”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-19-columbine-police-tactics_N.htm)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, there was a teacher who bled to death over the course of hours, while waiting for help.</p>
<p>[‘Columbine</a>’ by Dave Cullen – Newsday.com](<a href=“http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-bkcullen1212608839apr09,0,2623803.story]'Columbine”>http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-bkcullen1212608839apr09,0,2623803.story)</p>
<p>“a kid matching most of its warning signs [is] more likely to be suffering from depression or mental illness”</p>
<p>What? The FBI said that? Maybe if by “mental illness” they mean narcissistic or antisocial personality disorder. Other than alienation, the symptoms on that list have nothing to do with depression. Depressed people typically think that they are worthless and blame themselves for everything.</p>
<p>fendrock, thanks for pointing out about the Harris/Klebold parents. Everything I have read (and I live/work within minutes of Columbine) suggest these were caring, involved and attentive parents. And for so long, the cliche response to Columbine was always “there must have been something wrong with those families.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, Harris himself, in a goodbye video to his parents told them, there was nothing they could have done to stop him, and chillingly quoted Shakespeare:‘Good wombs have borne bad sons.'</p>
<p>The fact is that in this gun-happy society, any quack can get a weapon and kill, even clean-cut suburban kids from good families.</p>
<p>This story is still chilling, horrific, tragic, and sad even ten years later (hard to believe it has been ten years already). And there have been many more school shootings since then and I hope we never become desensitized. I don’t know how the families of victims have coped. </p>
<p>I also feel sorry for the parents of the two boys who carried out this mass murder. Besides losing their sons, they have to deal with the aftermath of the effect their sons had on so many lives and also questioning their own lives and what they could have done (likely nothing). I feel that when kids go wrong, the parents are often to blame and sometimes that is accurate. But many times, parents can be very caring and involved and have kids who go on to do bad things. People will always look at these parents and truthfully any parent can end up with a very troubled kid. We can count ourselves lucky if we are not in such a situation.</p>
<p>(I do wonder, however, how these boys managed to hide these weapons from their families…perhaps I snoop too much but I can’t imagine how my kids could have managed to hide all that stuff from me)</p>
<p>I recall watching the horrible images on the news that day. It was just so chlling and sad. Personally it was a bit of a double whammy that day. Exactly 11 years earlier one of the first school shooting incidents took place in a wealthy Chicago suburb. This one was done by an adult woman named Laurie Dann. I was a teacher in the Chicago area at that time. I can tell you that security changed dramatically in my school after the Laurie Dann incident, but we were more concerned with adults and their actions. I often wonder if we would have been prepared for a student assault.</p>