Colombine Shooting Essay, Research Paper

Columbine High School Shooting

It was a normal day at Columbine High School. Students came for another day of learning. But two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, it was a different story. The rampage started at 11:21am, with black trench coats and masks covering their face. Shooting guns first in the cafeteria to anyone whom was an athlete or a different race or color. Then going to the hallways screaming racial slurs and planting homemade bombs to explode even after the shooting was over.

Students ran outside for their lives to when the SWAT team came four hours after the 911 call from the school. Students were escaping through windows to be safe from the bullets firing through the school. The two gunmen were asking anyone if they were jokes to stand up and to be shot right in the head. Other students ran into room, filling the classroom up to escape. Students with there cell phones calling their parents and police. The shots stopped firing when Eric and Dylan rushed into the library killing several people and also killing them, which ended the shooting at 3:30(Internet 1).

After the shooting, police ran in and searched the whole school. Finding bombs that exploded everywhere. They saw students shot and killed lying on the floor. They look liked they were running away from the two high school seniors. The SWAT team finally came into the library when they saw bodies everywhere with bombs surrounding the gunmen.

Parents outside waiting for their children to come and comfort them. But the police told them to go home and find their children s dental records or anything to identify the bodies. Some parents sobbed and some threw up after they heard that information from the police. It made my heart stop a mother said while she was at a local gym with many other families (Internet 2).

At the end of the day the SWAT team made the school secured with just one bomb exploding in the cafeteria by the kitchen, luckily no one was injured. Thirteen people died that day with almost twenty getting injured. One victim was a teacher named David Sanders, a teacher and a coach at the high school. He saved many students lives by moving students into a closed classroom. But one of the gunmen saw him a shot him. He bleeds to death because the SWAT team didn t come in time to safe him. ()

Other victim included Cassie Bernall, Steve Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, and Kyle Velasquez. Days after the shooting they all had funerals to honor them (Internet 1).

The day of the shooting, many psychologists came to the students and try to help them through this tragedy. Dr. Jeffery Dolgan, head of the psychology department of the Children s Hospital in the town. He has a son that s a senior at the high school. He told him, watch the news only if he wants to,” Dolgan said, “and not to be overwhelmed. And if he does feel overwhelmed, to come and talk to me about it.” His main concerns were to the parents and try to advise them what to do about this subject. “It has to be a judgment call for parents. Some kids can be very traumatized by the news. Perhaps it would be best to turn off the television and just answer questions about it you, he says. “Parents may need a day or so before being able to assess it.” He suggests that if you are very upset, or if your child seems terribly traumatized, give yourselves both a “mental health day”(Simons1).

Donna Gaines, professor sociology at Barnard College, and wrote the book Teenagers Wasteland: Suburbia s Dead End Kids . Everyone was explaining it away by Satanism or screwed-up parents or the music, Gaines said. The suicide victims were at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The jocks on the top and their great claim to fame were these idiotic games (Mann).

The question on everyone s mind is: Who is to blame for this massacre? This question still plagues everyone to this day, why did this happen? The police and parents are pointing the finger on music, movies, and video game companies. Eric and Dylan were probably influenced by these things and with their anger by their classmates, revolted by shooting them (Almon).

Eric and Dylan listened to a lot of Marilyn Manson. People started blaming him for this shooting. His evil lyrics and satanic saying makes him a perfect suspect for the Columbine shooting as well as other violent crimes. He doesn t mean to influence this kind of violence. He cancelled his concerts in the Colorado area because of this turn of events. Manson said, “I have been asked to comment by numerous news organizations on the Colorado school tragedy. It’s tragic and disgusting anytime young people’s lives are taken in an act of senseless violence. My condolences go out to the students and their families.”

The major blame was the video game Corporation who sells the popular Doom and Quake games. These one-player games give teens a chance to kill people and monsters with realistic guns. Especially Eric, he was influenced by this game. He trained for the shooting by playing these games some of his friends say. He made plans of the shooting in the game of Doom by making a layout of the school (Simpson).

Almost a year after the Columbine shooting, everyone in the nation is still talking about it. Of course there has been other shootings, but this has been stuck in everyone s mind. I don t know why. Maybe because of how many people got hurt or the media made a big deal about it. During that week, every

Station was talking about the shooting. They ten minutes, a newscaster talked about it and I think they are making this was too big. They picked apart this story and made it sound like it was the worst thing that ever happened. Every time I turned on my TV there was a person at Columbine interviewing a student about the tragedy. I don t think it s fair to the parents and students of Columbine high School to hear that tragic day over and over again. They have been through so much with the deaths of their classmates and the emotions that are going through their minds.

My opinion about this subject is really strong. That s why I choosed this subject. I don t get to say much because I can t express it or can t put it in words. It s sad that the two teenagers planned that day out for two years. Having a web-site with all of their plans and satanic messages. And also having the police telling the parents to watch their children, maybe the shooting wouldn t have happened. The parents had a chance to stop their children or even change their ways and maybe the day would have been a normal day at Columbine High School.

Work Cited Page

The Tragedy at Columbine High School: Website http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/coroner/columbin.html

Almone, Tustin. Where to Place the Blame. Inside Denver.com: Internet 20 April 1999.

Mann, Judy. The Real Root Cause of School Violence. The Washington Post:

28 May 1999.

Simon, Janet. The Aftermath: Trauma s Effect on Kids. Inside Dever.com: Internet 20 April 1999.

Simpson, Kevin. Did Harris preview massacre on ‘Doom?” Denver Post.com: Internet 4 May 1999.