On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this? Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were very intelligent; they each came from solid homes with a loving mother and father, and they had older brothers as well. In school, Klebold and Harris had each competed in sports like baseball and soccer. They also enjoyed operating computers for fun. Harris was born in Wichita, Kansas. His father Wayne Harris was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot who commanded eleven completely different positions in six bases at Ohio, Michigan, and New York. This forced the Harris family to relocate often before Wayne was forced to retire in 1993 thanks to cutbacks and he became a part-time supplier. At this time, on the month of July, the family settled down in Littleton, Colorado. They lived on a where they became best friends. In 1995, Harris started attending columbine high school, in the following year; the Harris family had bought a house very close to columbine high school. Klebold was born in Lakewood, Colorado. His father Tom ran a little business from home and his mother Susan was an employment counselor. The Klebolds attended a Lutheranism church however additionally he had seen some Russian human rituals, as Klebold's grandparent believed in the relig... ... middle of paper ... ...ce officers and paramedics that were outside. Sometime between 12:05 and 12:08, Klebold and Harris went to the side of the library and shot themselves in the head, ending the columbine massacre. It is difficult to pinpoint one trigger that started these two boys on a bloody rampage. They worked very hard to fool all those around them for over a year. Astonishingly, a few months before the event, the Klebold family took a four-day road trip to the University of Arizona, and Dylan had been accepted for next year. Throughout the trip, the Klebold's did not notice anything strange or uncommon regarding Dylan. Counselors and others did not notice them acting weird. Looking back, there had been telltale hints and clues that there was seriously wrong. Videotapes, journals, guns and bombs in their rooms would where not hidden and could easily be found if they had looked.
Two boys by the names of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School around 11:19 A.M. with 99 home-made explosives, a 9mm carbine, a pump shotgun, and a double barrel shotgun. As well as being accompanied by four knives. Both managed to murder thirteen innocent people in total, twelve students and one teacher.
The deadliest school shooting to have ever happened in the United States at a high school or grade school, happened less than two years ago. On December 14th, 2012, Adam Lanza, who was twenty years old at the time, shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, four times and then brought firearms to his former grade school Sandy Hook Elementary, and fatally shot twenty children and six adults. Then the shooter put his own gun to his head and fatally shot himself. All of the children were between the ages of six and seven years old, and all six adults who were shot and killed were females who worked at the school. Lanza's father believed that if he were there himself, his son would have had no trouble shooting and killing him too. He also theorized that Adam shot his mother four times for each of them; himself, his mother, his father, and his brother. After the tragedy, the school was torn down and many gun-control debates heated up and schools greatly improved their security to prevent anymore potential attacks. To this day, the motive of Adam Lanza, is still unknown but the effects are still felt in the world today.
On the morning of April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold approach Columbine High School, in Jefferson County, Colorado. Armed with one 10-shot Hi-Point model 995 carbine rifle, one Intratec AB-10 (TEC-9) pistol, two Savage 12-gauge shotguns, and as many as ninety-five explosive devices, Harris and Klebold enter the school near the cafeteria. Upon doing so, they are met with the words that God commanded unto Moses on Mount Sinai: Thou Shall Not Kill. Harris and Klebold tremble in fear and shame for what they have come to accomplish. Dropping their weapons, the boys fall to their knees, bow their heads in penance, and pray to God for forgiveness.
One of the most obvious characteristic of a school shooter would be parental neglect. This neglect was evident in both the Columbine shooters as well as fictional character, Peter Houghton. If Dylan and Eric’s parents took interest in their sons, they would have recognized the boys’ obvious dysfunctional thinking. Written on the front of Harris’s journal was, “I hate the fucking world.” (Rosenburg). He continued to write that he hates racists, martial arts experts, and people who brag about their cars. Through out the following pages, he continued to state what else he hates, including Star Wars fans, people who mispronounce words, and other ridiculous things. If parents believed that their sons were normal, the boy’s yearbook should have definitely raised a red flag. In 1988, the boys wrote about killing and retaliation, and even drew a picture of a person holding a gun with dead bodies surrounding them. A caption stated, “The only reason you’re still alive is because someone has decided to let you live.” Videotapes as well as guns and bombs were also in the boys’ rooms. Harris also made a w...
In its societal context, the Columbine school shootings are not an obvious part of a discernible sociological pattern. We know that approximately 4,500 youngsters are killed every year in intentional shootings, with thirty per cent of that number probable suicides. That's almost 13 a day, the same number as were killed in Littleton (The Washington Post, April 25, 1999). The data on school shootings, according to the Center for Communicable Diseases, indicate that only about 28 per cent actually occurred inside the school and that one-third of the victims were not...
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were average teenagers. They were very social, they worked, and they partied. Where Eric was outgoing and charismatic, he could get out of any situation, Dylan was shy and had a temper; he would easily get mad over someone or something. They became friends quickly and did most of their activities together. They were “math wizards and technology hounds,” Eric played soccer, Dylan was a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox, and they worked at Blackjack Pizza. These two were a team; Eric craved attention and approval when Dylan was unreliable. No one knew that they had one big secret that was about to get detonated.(Cullen 8-10)
Harris attended Johns Hopkins University to earn a criminal justice degree while continuing to work in the school system. It was while working as a member of a school’s security team that he realized he’d rather work with students than criminals. “I spent my day watching kids and watching the dynamics in schools,” said Harris. “I saw the value of teaching and that the right teacher and the right approach can determine whether or not the kids were engaged and if they got benefit out of the instruction.”
The school shootings at Westside Middle School were orchestrated by two juveniles. On Monday, March 30, 1998 two boys ambushed students and teachers outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew Golden a youth of 11 years and Mitchell Johnson who was 13 years old were responsible for this hideous tragedy. Apparently, Mitchell Johnson hid in the woods while Andrew set off the fire alarm causing the students and teachers to run out of the building. Armed with three stolen rifles and four handguns, the documentary explained that the two youth flushed kids and teachers out of the school by means of a false fire alarm then opened up on them. When they stopped shooting, four students and a teacher lay dead and 10 students were wounded.
The minds of these killers prove to be nothing short of fascinating to thousands of people. While many might read this book and see two cold-blooded teenagers that killed their peers for fun, there is definitely some gray area concerning whether or not the youngest killer, named Dylan Klebold, should
Seventeen years ago on April 20th, Dylan Klebold said a hasty goodbye to his mother and left for school earlier than normal. His mother, Sue Klebold, who believed that he had rushed out the door because he was in a hurry to pick up a classmate, was unaware that would be the last time she ever spoke to him. Eventually, at 11:19 am, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire, murdering thirteen people at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. In a CBS News article, Sue Klebold later revealed that: “[F]rom the writings Dylan left behind, criminal psychologists have concluded that he was depressed and suicidal. When I first saw copied pages of these writings, they broke my heart. I'd had no inkling of the battle Dylan was waging in his mind.”
Nobody could have predicted the tragic events that occurred on April 20, 1999. Soon, the town of Littleton, Colorado would be the setting for the deadliest shooting in US history. Students, parents and teachers all started their day like any other; parents dropping off their kids at the high school and teachers preparing for another day of learning. Little did they know that in two hours, everyone’s lives will change forever. The massacre started at 11:30AM. The whereabouts was the Columbine High School as two gunmen wearing black trench coats and ski masks threw explosives as well as shooting students and staff – killing up to 23 (actual body count was 15) and injuring over 20 people. Gunshots were constant throughout the school, as both gunmen stalked and terrorized the other students.
On “April 20, 1999”, Littleton, Colorado was forever changed (Larkin 4). Students of Columbine High School, Eric Harris, eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, seventeen, opened fire in the school at 11:19 a.m. (Larkin 4). Thirteen people were killed and more than twenty others were injured (“Columbine High School Shooting” 1). “The crime was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history” (1). The Columbine Shooting was one of the most violent and tragic shootings that could have possibly been prevented if the previous misdemeanors of Klebold and Harris would have been acknowledged by others around them.
On April 20, 1999 in a suburban town called Littleton, Colorado one high school was about to have one of the most tragic and deadly days in US history. Columbine High School was in the forefront of this tragedy. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire on their fellow classmates and teacher. These two students cut the lives short of thirteen students and one teacher. They then turned their guns onto themselves leaving the nation with no answers as to why? They did leave videotape. This videotape contained Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planning their attack on Columbine High School. This piece of evidence showed two students that were not part of the "in crowd". They were outsiders, losers, as some would consider them. They were taunted, humiliated, and disrespected by their classmates. But how can two intelligent students do something as deadly as they did. Was it because they had bad parents? Not at all, they even went out of their way to save their parents the blame by repeatedly saying that it was not their fault that they were about to do what they did. So what was the cause of all this tragedy and how can it be stopped so it can never happen again in our middle schools and high schools? Elliot Aronson a social psychologist wrote a book called Nobody Left to Hate, Teaching Compassion After Columbine. This book represents his ideas on how to use certain strategies to have a better school environment that teaches compassion, tolerance while putting education in a winning situation.
The Columbine High School Massacre happened on April 20, 1999. The Shooters were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two senior students who wanted to destroy the world they lived in. Their motives:
What made them even think about committing a massacre. Dylan Klebold was a depressant, he was depressed all the time and felt that everyone was intentionally leaving him out of everything. I think dylan killed all those kids people because he may have felt like he didn’t mean anything to anyone or that nobody liked him.