The morning of April 20, 1999, the majority of the population in Littleton, Colorado, believed the day would be like any other day; the normal commute to school or work, being at said school or work, then coming home to finish work, eat, and then sleep. For two teenage boys, this was not the case. These two boys, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, both had a plan to commit mass murder. But where did it come from, and why? Perhaps it is best to delve into their lives before the massacre. Eric Harris was born on April 4, 1981, to Wayne and Kathy Harris. Wayne Harris was a retired Air Force pilot who moved between 6 different bases. Kathy Harris was a caterer. As a result of his father’s career, Eric was moved from state to state. …show more content…
In almost every location, Eric was described as a normal, respectful young man. Eventually, he moved from New York to Littleton. Initially, the Harrises rented a home. Eric met Dylan Klebold in seventh or eighth grade, and they began to spend a lot of time together. After three years of renting, Eric’s parents finally bought a home just south of Columbine High. This is where he would meet Brooks Brown. Dylan Klebold was born on September 11, 1981, to Tom and Susan Klebold. Tom was a geophysicist and Susan, who goes by Sue, worked with handicapped people. Dylan lived in Colorado his entire life. Dylan is known to be remarkably smart, most notably participating in a program called Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students (CHIPS) for the majority of his elementary school career. He was also very active in this time period, playing T-ball, baseball, soccer, and was part of the Cub Scouts with close friend Brooks Brown. Dylan met Eric in middle school and found out that Brooks lived near Eric’s new home. The three boys were closely knit. Eventually, they added Nate Dykeman to their friend group. The four boys did most of their activities with one another. Eventually, Eric and Brooks had a falling out, causing Brooks to leave the group; Nate also distanced himself around this time but did not leave completely. Eric began to write death threats on his website, a majority of the threats towards Brooks. Eric and Dylan would go on Rebel Missions, which consisted of pulling pranks on houses around the neighborhood. Soon, Eric would throw a rock at Brooks’ car, breaking the windshield. At this point, Brooks’ parents had put up with enough from Eric. They alerted the police to Eric’s website and talked to the Harris parents. Eventually, Eric and Dylan began to create a plan of mass destruction. Planning for the Columbine massacre, or NBK as they called it, started at least a year before it was actually carried out. The boys had different plans and tactics but eventually settled on using two, large propane bombs in the cafeteria, bombs in their car, pipe bombs, and their four guns. The plan was for the propane bombs to go off in the cafeteria when it was at its peak population. The explosions would be large enough to make the library, which was settled above the cafeteria, fall down, killing anyone who was not already killed by the explosion. Then, people would stream out of the two main entrances, where Eric and Dylan would be situated, waiting to gun down those remaining students and teachers. The bombs in their cars would go off when first responders arrived, killing some of them as well. Obviously, that is not how NBK truly played out. On April 20, 1999, Eric and Dylan skipped their first three classes. They finally arrived at the school at around 11:10 AM. They parked their cars in front of the two main entrances. Brooks saw Eric park his car, so he decided to walk up and talk to him about the missed test in their shared third class. When confronted about the test, Eric responded with, “It doesn’t matter anymore.” Eric would then inform Brooks: “Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home.” He then tuned Brooks out, turning to unload the bombs from his car, which were concealed in duffel bags. Feeling uneasy, Brooks did leave the school campus. In a few minutes, Eric and Dylan carried the two duffle bags into the cafeteria and placing said bags under two tables. These bombs were set to explode at 11:17 when the cafeteria would be its busiest. The two teenagers returned to their cars to wait for the explosions. The two stocked up, placing their guns, pipe bombs, and ammo on their persons. When the bombs in the lunchroom failed to go off, Eric and Dylan grew impatient; they set the bombs in their cars, then headed to the front entrance. The gunmen opened fire, hitting Rachel Scott four times, with one hitting her head, killing her instantly. Richard Castaldo was sitting next to her and was also shot eight times, luckily surviving, but taking a critical injury to his spine which would leave him crippled for the rest of his life. Lance Kirklin, Danny Rohrbough, and Sean Graves had just left the cafeteria. They spotted the two gunmen, and thought they were pulling a senior prank, so they headed toward them; Eric and Dylan targeted them next. Lance was hit in the leg and chest, Danny was shot in the chest, and fell back on Sean. Lance attempted to run away but was hit in the leg again. Sean ran past, attempting to escape, before taking several shots to the back and abdomen before falling due to a bullet to the leg. Five other students attempted to run for safety. Michael Johnson was hit, but he was able to escape. Mark Taylor was hit and crippled. He fell and played dead. Anne Marie Hochhalter attempted to flee but was shot by Eric, which left her paralyzed. The gunmen lit and threw some pipe bombs at the school roof, grassy areas, and the parking lot. After missing any fleeing students, Dylan and Eric moved towards the school. Eric shot Daniel Rohrbough at close range, killing him. Lance Kirklin was shot again by Dylan but somehow managed to live. At 11:24, Coach Sanders and other staff directed students to exits or hiding spots.
At the same time, teacher Patricia Nielson spotted a male student carrying what she believed was a toy gun and she headed to him to inform him about how she did not approve of the joke and that he should “knock it off.” Eric spotted Nielson and quickly fired at her through a barrier of glass doors and injuring her shoulder. Nielson quickly understood the intensity of the situation and began to run to the library. Dylan and Eric entered the school shortly after. The two shooters made their rounds of the first floor, which was also the floor that held the cafeteria, which is where Coach Sanders was frantically trying to evacuate students. Eventually, he believed he had done his job and began to head out of the cafeteria and to the rest of the school to help more children. When Sanders reached the hallway, he spotted Eric and Dylan; he quickly turned around to retreat but was shot in the neck by Eric before he could move to cover. After patrolling the hallways, the duo decided to stop by the library, where the majority of the murders would take place. In the library, the deaths of the following students occurred, in order: Kyle Velasquez, Steve Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Matt Ketcher, Lauren Townsend, Kelly Fleming, Daniel Mauser, and Corey DePooter. The gunmen left the library at 11:36. In just 7 minutes, 10 people had been killed, 12 had been wounded. 34 had escaped, free …show more content…
from harm. The gunmen had enough ammunition to kill them all, but for some unknown reason, they did not. The gunmen visited the science wing and the cafeteria one last time before heading back to the library at 12:02. Between that time and 12:08, the two teens had finished their rampage. In total, 15 lives were lost that day, including Eric and Dylan’s. America still has no inkling as to exactly why those two boys carried out a plan for mass destruction.
Theories range from mental illness to bullying, which are always the usual suspects. But perhaps there was a deeper meaning. The world will never know, but what the world will know is their own opinion on the massacre. Personally, I find it a shame the boys felt like they had to go out and murder people who had done nothing to them directly. They had 17 days left until they would never have to see that school again. Dylan had spoken about what college he was going to; Eric had plans to join the Marines. Aside from the fact that they were almost finished with that chapter of their life, it is still shocking to me the evolution America has had from Columbine. This attack shook the nation; attacks like this were never heard of. After the shooting in Vegas last October, Columbine is no longer in the top 10 deadliest mass shootings on American soil. America has grown used to this type of thing, and it is nothing short of a disappointment. No person should see a shooting headline their newspaper and think, “Okay, nothing new to see here.” Not only is the desensitization of the nation an issue that stemmed from Columbine, but so is the new “no bullying policies” implemented in schools. Maryville has an environment very similar to Columbine: jocks are easy to recognize, tons of bullying and harassment happens every day, and there will always be the outsiders. I am in
no way saying Maryville is looking to get attacked, but I am saying that the zero-tolerance policy that Coulter claims we have is very clearly not here. This policy stemmed from Columbine and other school shootings, did it not? So then, why is it being shoved aside for other things, such as the multitude of athletic programs? Why are kids like my little brother being ignored? The word “Columbine” meant something once. The names Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold struck fear in parents’ hearts once. People listened once. What happened?
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 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
Derrick Wallace, an ambitious handsome straight A student at Monroe College, has his entire life set out. He has recently won his basketball championship game and received exciting news from his girlfriend, Julia, about her moving back to the city from upstate university.
It has been made clear through police investigations, that this killing spree was premeditated and carefully planned out by Marc Lepine long before it was carried out. He had purchased a lightweight rifle from a store and claimed that it was for hunting purposes (Maser, 1987). It was the last day of the fall semester and most students were looking forward to the Christmas break, unsuspecting of what was about to transpire. Marc walked into the school and sat near the registry office for a while before moving on to a classroom on the second floor. He walked in and divided the students according to their gender, then ordered the men to leave the room. Most students thought it was a prank initially, until he fired his gun and repeated his order in a more authoritative manner. He proceeded to shoot the women left behind as he declared his hatred for feminists, despite protests from the students (Maser,...
The next day he put on a trench coat, gathered multiple guns, bullets, a knife and drove his parents’ vehicle to school. He ran into a friend in the hallway before the horrific even and told him to leave. Right afterward, the shooting spree began. Kip shot his classmate, Ben Walker in the head and then went into the cafeteria...
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
Settled in 1845 Rosewood Florida was mainly used for lumber where it got its town name from a red color cut of cedar wood. Rosewood had both African American and caucasian settlers. In 1890 the pencil mill closed down because of Rosewood losing its population of trees. Most of the caucasian settlers moved to Sumner where they farmed citrus and cotton. In 1900 almost all of Rosewoods population was African Americans. And almost all of Sumner’s population was caucasian. The two towns were ok they basically just kind of stayed out of each other's way.
In the final count, sixteen kids lay dead along with their teacher, another twelve kids were wounded plus the two adults who met the shooter at the door. Only one boy in the gym made it through physically unharmed his name was Robbie Hurst, and he survived by hiding under the dead bodies of his best friend and another classmate (Pederson).
On December 14th 2012, just 11 days before Christmas, an awful tragedy happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. This awful event left a lot of unanswered questions and rumors about that day. The reason for that is because the shooter killed himself after shooting twenty young children and six adults. This tragedy open the eyes of everyone; made you want to hug your loves one just a little tighter, appreciate what you still have and never take a day for granted. Even our president Barack Obama felt the pain of all those who lost their loved ones in this event. He insured everyone that he will do everything in his power to make sure a tragedy like this will not happen again. However, did you know that there have been over 44 school shootings since the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary shooting? I know as a future teacher and mother I want to make sure my children are safe in this world and even at school. I want to be able to make a difference in this issue and have some knowledge to have I can do that. The society should understand what really happen during the Sandy Hook event, the reasons behind why school shootings/violence are rapidly increasing each year, and have some knowledge about what we, as a society, can do to help in order for us to start seeing a decrease of these events.
We all remember the day of the Littleton high school shooting also referred as the Columbine High School Massacre. When the flashing new lines of CNN News. 1999) stated that 25 people were killed at the High School by two heavily armed male students that also took their own lives; it was shocking and very disturbing. news to learn that something so horrible caused these students to kill their own peers. What was the reason that drove these students to kill? Was the students bullying?
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
No one can really give a definite answer for why school shootings actually occur. We look for clues and patterns to help to look inside the mind of those who do go into schools to kill others. First let us look at the Columbine shooting. The two reasons that were most believed in why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed thirteen students and their own were because they were bullied and wanted to get back at the guys who hurt them throughout high school. The other reason was we would never know. It was just a freak thing that could not be explained. The two killers wanted to be legends. They wanted to cause the most deaths in American History. They did wire the bomb properly so they were not able to kill as many people as they had planned. The bomb in the cafeteria would have killed at least six hundred people. The survivors were supposed...
1966, Charles Joseph Whitman climbed to the top of the iconic clock tower in the center of Texas University in Austin and killed sixteen and seriously injured thirty of his fellow Texas Longhorns. 1991, George Hennard, thirty-five, opened fire on forty innocent patrons at a Luby’s in Killeen, Texas, killing twenty-three of his intended targets. 1999, citizens in a small Colorado County of Douglas were distraught when the infamous Columbine High School massacre rocked their town. More recently, campuses like Virginia Tech, Purdue, and even an elementary school in Connecticut have had students and teachers brutally murdered at the hands of young adults (CNN).
According to Scott Anderson interview with Greg Ousley, the reason why young people commit crimes is because the environment that they live in. “I had been thinking about killing them every time I get mad,” he told his interrogator. “They don’t seem to understand me.” Indicative of either his youth or his mental state at that moment, Greg made a forlorn request of the detective: “Please don’t tell my family” (Anderson). Today teenagers are being abuse from their parents and are living in a negative homes and hanging out with misleading friends. The author of this article gives the main issue of the massacre which is his youth and mental anger issues. This states that the main problem is the lifestyle with his parents. Likewise in the article “Kids are Kids-Until They Commit Crimes” have a similarity about why their growth are not fully mature. It is a vexing question these days for under-eighteen crowd, the group we routinely write off as “only kids.” It’s why they can’t smoke, or drink, or go to R Movies without our OK. It’s is why they don’t vote. It’s why they have curfews. It’s why we fret over their Internet access and fuss about driving privileges” (Lunderstorm 45). Teenagers have restrictions about what they should not do every day in their lives. With this mindset, teenager have no other way, but to commit crimes to satisfy their needs and wants life. The reason why is since teenagers do not understand that they are committing crimes is because of their deficiency on thinking about the consequences and their actions. The reality is that juveniles are unintelligible on the decisions they