~!~FrEaKs PaRaDiSe~!~-CoLumBiNe

On April 20th, 1999, two senior students named Eric Harris-18(right) and Dylan Klebold-17(left) of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, walked into their school with sawed off shotguns concealed under their trenchcoats. They carried semiautomatic weapons and planted pipe bombs and death as they strolled into school that day. They killed 12 students and a teacher. They finished the rampage by taking their own lives.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the "outcasts" at their school. They wore long black trenchcoats and wore black all the time. The "jocks" of the school labeled them as the "Trench Coat Mafia" and they embraced the name.

Before their "school massacre" Eric and Dylan made approximately 6 videotapes that were recorded in Eric's basement. On the tapes, they showed off the way their weapons fit under their trenchcoats. They talked aobut the "stuck up bitches" they went to school with. Dylan referred to two of them by name, Rachel and Jennifer. The two boys made fun of the way that their parents had no clue what they were up to. There were many signs that should have been taken seriously. For instance, Eric had a bowling class every morning. After the massacre, some students who had this class with him said that he would yell, "HEIL HITLER" every time he rolled a good ball. Also, just weeks before the massacre, Dylan handed in a school report that was so graphically violent that the teacher told his parents about it. "It's just a story," Dylan explained. They had made over 30 pipe bombs and a few 35 pound bombs made from propane tanks. How could their parents not have known? A few weeks before the gunmen rampaged through Columbine, they had made a tape for one of their classes, The teacher wouldn't show it to the class, and that wasn't the mistake, but then the teacher sent the tape to the police, even though there was no evidence of a crime shown. This shooting could have been prevented, if the right actions had been taken

Mistake #1 The police aren't trained to handle these things because no such training exists. Thre is no manual to the human mind. The parents would have been a better choice. They had motivation to solve the problem because their lives would be affected by any consequences of problems their children had.

Mistake #2 Someone decided to send an officer to the school to speak at an assembly about the evils of gothicism. The shooters were sitting in the assembly and probably got their first indication that their problems would continue after school. Their problems would not have continued after school, actually , but here was an adult of authority telling them he hated them just like the jocks and other groups in school they had problems with. they also knew everyone else in the assembly knew they were the individuals the officer was talking about. Imagine being in a school assembly about how bad kids who wore blue shirts were, while wearing a blue shirt. The Nazi's put jewish school children through the same experience, but they Jewish were desensitized. However, even after all of these previous things to the event, there are still some people who think that the shootings were at random.

A while after the high school attack, cops received an e-mail from Eric Harris threatening more deaths:

"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 ridiculed me, who have chosen not to accept me, who have treated me like I am not worth their time are dead Sure 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. 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 a bullet in my head-- but you woudln't be so lucky. All that I can leave you with to decipher what more extensive death is to come is "12skitzo" You have until April 26th. Goodbye."

The message was sent after Harris was dead, but they have not ruled it as a hoax, it is possible that it was sent by an unknown accomplice of the gunment.

The sheriff's department fround a diary in either Eric or Dylan's house but wouldn't say which. Alone with the diary, they found a detailed map of the school. It was marked at the places in the school that were poorly lit and the best places to hide. It also contained notations about the writers role as a "strange and different outsider." "We dont want jocks and other people putting us down." one diary entry said. Some people beleive that the weapons used in the attack were probably passed through several people before the killers obtained them. that someone, most liekly over 18, helped them get the weapons. Eric and Dylan's parents said that they "didn't know" that their children had weapons or anything of the sort. Eric and Dylan made fun of the fact that they didn't even have to hide most of their supplies.

Eric Harris had a web site that was pulled off the internet shortly after the attack. the web site held Eric's expressed passion for Hitler, and on the web site, it told that they were going to go to the school and "kill everybody" on Hitlers birthday...April 20th. Also on the web site, was a copy of the following poem.

WHAT I DONT SEE I DONT KNOW
WHAT I DONT KNOW I DONT WANT
WHAT I DONT WANT I DONT NEED
WHAT I DONT NEED I DONT FEEL
WHAT I DONT FEEL I DONT SAY
WHAT I DONT SAY I DONT DO
WHAT I DONT DO I DONT LIKE
WHAT I DONT LIKE I WASTE

I HAVE COME TO ROCK YOUR WORLD
I HAVE COME TO SHAKE YOUR FAITH
ANATHEMATIC ANARCHIST
I HAVE COME TO TAKE MY PLACE

I AM YOUR UNCONSCIOUSNESS
I AM YOUR UNRESTRAINED EXCESS
METAMORPHIC RESTLESSNESS

I AM YOUR APOCALYPSE
I AM YOUR BELEIF UNWROUGHT
MONOLITHIC JUGGERNAUT

SHOCKWAVE
MASSIVE ATTACK
ATOMIC BLAST
SON OF A GUN IS BACK

CHAOS-PANIC
NO RESISTANCE
DETONATIONS IN A DISTANCE

APOCALYPSE NOW
WALLS OF FLAME
BILLOWING SMOKE
WHO'S TO BLAME

FORGED FROM STEEL
IRON WILL
SHIT FOR BRAINS
BORN TO KILL

ALL ARE EQUAL
NO DISCRIMINATION
SON OF A GUN
A SIMPLE EQUATION

SON OF A GUN
MASTER OF FATE
BOWS TO NO GOD, KINGDOM OR STATE

WATCH OUT
SON OF A GUN
SUPERHERO NUMBER 1

Today, school life is different since the Columbine incident. In many schools there are metal detectors at the front door. More schools than ever have security cameras. Teachers have also become more alert about student's actions. I have experienced this first hand when I handed in a "graphic" story for a creative writing class, I was accused of taking a gun to school and almost expelled. Many things have changed since the Columbine incident, all of them except for the main reason school shootings happen and that is the way most students treat "outcasts". There is still name calling, there is still physical abuse, and there is still unfair treatment towards outcasts. Students who are different are driven to the edge by peer torment. I dont think that society would need these metal detectors, and security cameras if the torment would just stop. If we lived in a society where EVERYBODY was equal, then we wouldn't need these high tech pseudo-devices to stop violence.

I dont think school shootings will ever be a thing of the past. They will always be here... ALWAYS, until someone decides that everyone needs to be treated the same, no matter what their religion, style of dress, race, or decisions they make during the course of their life. In the future, society will most likely try to come up with "bigger and better" pseudo-solutions to the problems that have become of this world. I think what this society needs is to open their eyes and take a look at what exactly is happening. I'm not saying that I think eric and Dylan were completely right about what they did, I just think that it wasn't completely their fault and I dont blame them completely. If it wasn't for the way their peers treated them, then this maybe wouldn't have happened. In conclusion, I'd just like to say that Columbine is an example of what happens in a world that will not accept differnece but rather ridicule it.