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I remember back when I was in high school, another student attacked me, so I fought back in self defense, and tried to get away. Later we were called into the principle's office and they said they will likely expel me, even though it was self defense, and my parents intervened and talked the school out of it, and I just got suspended for a week instead.
This was in early 2000, so I wonder if Columbine had anything to do with it now...
I was only 9 years old when it happened. All I remember was my mom crying hysterically. What exactly happened that day?
More on what happened that day: Richard Castaldo, then 17, was one of the shooting victims of Columbine, who is paralyzed from the waist down.
It’s been 21 years since two Columbine students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher in what at the time was the largest mass murder at a school in the United States. Castaldo was one of the first targets that day in April of 1999. He was having lunch with a female friend on campus when the shooting began.
His friend was killed. A bullet severed Castaldo’s spine. He was 17 at the time, and was paralyzed from the waist down. He is now 38 and has been in a wheelchair ever since.
I lived less than two miles from Columbine. My kids were in elementary school, and after all the schools in the area were on lockdown, they were sent home with no explanation for the parents to explain what happened. Also, our neighbors included a boy who was friends with one of the victims, although they went to different schools.
For many years afterward, whenever I passed the school or saw it (our local sub shop had a view of the school), my stomach would clench.
So, in short, the massacre affected me personally -- although, of course, not to nearly the extent it affected the families and students of Columbine.
P.S. Also, most residents were outraged at the response of the Jeffco Sheriffs Department!. Although they were only following orders, many people considered those who responded to be cowards.
That sounds awful. Why would they do such a thing?
There's a curious thing that can happen when 2 people who are similar get together, intent to do violence.
Each as an individual couldn't do it on his own. But as a pair, they become a third entity. One person becomes the visionary, the planner, and the other becomes the executioner. The planner points the way and the executioner is the first to kill. Once the killing begins, the planner may join in, or may not.
The book "In True Blood", Capote's story of the Clutter family murders, was one of the first to explore this phenomenon. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were both anti-social criminals, but neither had ever killed anyone. While in prison, Hickock sensed Smith could kill but Hickock could not.
So in essence, Smith became Hickock's henchman, his trigger man. When they were released, Hickock searched out Smith, and over the next few months, the third personality formed between them. Hickock was interested in rape, and Smith was interested in murder.
This 2-man combination is actually pretty common with serial murderers. Typically, though, these guys are men, not children. And mass murder is very different from serial murder.
In Columbine, it's very hard to determine which boy was which. Eric Harris is the one who most experts believe to be the major planner, but both of the boys were equally depressed, anti-social, and fantasy driven.
The 3rd personality they created was extremely powerful. If they had been older, they might have lured at least one other person into the killings, but because they were all kids, neither was sophisticated enough to have the ability. There were at least 3 other boys who knew about the plan, but at the end, they all backed out.
It was actually a good thing that the pair were so young; Harris had some experience with bomb building from a job he had at a fireworks stand, but he lacked the technical knowledge to effectively arm a propane bomb. They had about 12 of them planted around the high school, but none went off.
As bad as it was, Columbine could have been much, much worse.
This 2-man combination is actually pretty common with serial murderers. Typically, though, these guys are men, not children. And mass murder is very different from serial murder.
In Columbine, it's very hard to determine which boy was which. Eric Harris is the one who most experts believe to be the major planner, but both of the boys were equally depressed, anti-social, and fantasy driven.
Eric Harris cajoled his friend Dylan Klebold, and it’s doubtful that Harris was depressed. He had just turned 18, and as the FBI profiler said, he had all the traits of a psychopath.
Klebold was clinically depressed and most likely saw this massacre as a way to end his own life. According those who spent hours studying both boys’ journals, Klebold fantasized about suicide for years without making an attempt. Apparently, his own parents didn’t realize how severe his depression was until after his death.
Quote:
Originally Posted by banjomike
There were at least 3 other boys who knew about the plan, but at the end, they all backed out.
At first it was thought that there were many others involved, but none of them had any idea of the magnitude of Harris and Klebold’s plan. Chris Morris--who called the police after first hearing about the massacre, Zack Heckler—who helped them make pipe bombs a couple of years before the massacre, Mark Manes—who supplied them with one of the guns, Robyn Anderson—who, at 18 lied about paperwork at the gun show where some of the guns were purchased, and who was also Dylan’s prom date a few days before the massacre, Brooks Brown—whose mother had notified police multiple times of Harris’s behavior, Nate Dykeman, who called Dylan’s father after he heard a description of one of the shooters, or Phil Duran, one of their coworkers from Blackjack Pizza....all claimed that they had no idea that this type of massacre would take place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by banjomike
As bad as it was, Columbine could have been much, much worse.
I would hardly call them cowards. In light of when these shootings took place and given the circumstances, setting up and securing a perimeter was the best strategy they had.
"Prior to Columbine, nobody understood what the term 'active shooter' meant."
They rush straight to the gunfire.
That's how the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School -- where two young men killed 13 people -- shaped the way law enforcement respond to active shooter incidents such as Wednesday's deadly rampage in Parkland, Florida.
"It changed everything," said James Gagliano, a retired member of the FBI's elite hostage rescue team.
Yes police were trained at that time to sit it out in anticipation of a hostage situation (although, still, common sense should have prevailed when shooting is occurring and someone send a text message saying "help I am bleeding to death"). Since then tactics have changed, and police are taught to go in immediately and engage.
Parkland was a failure by police where they stood by once again and didn't do there job, even in spite of the changed active shooter procedures. One officer was fired and I think charged with neglect. I assume he will never be trusted with a badge again.
I also think Columbine was the "copycat" touchpoint for every school shooting since then. The shooters got so much publicity that they became hero's to every young psycho loser in high school. Things might be different today if the media focused on the victims, and not the shooters. These are all copycat crimes. I wish they wouldn't even mention there names. Weapons, what they wear, what they watch on TV, internet postings....each time that is published it gives ideas to the next pshyco loser.
if im not wrong they also been preparing for a long time and recording each other with camera while doing so
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