Essay/Term paper: Columbine

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities Essays

School violence, is an issue that is hard to deal with. There are things that may be done to decrease it but it does not seem like it will ever go away. Parents send their children to school to learn, to have fun, to pass notes, and to meet new people, not to be shot at and never have the chance to come home ever again. They should not have to think or be afraid of sending their child to school and never seeing them. Last year one of the worst school shootings took place at Columbine High School. Not only did it effect the famlies of the victims and of the killers, pretty much the whole nation was involved and many people were brought in to figure out what had happened, and why it happened. This incident brought our nation together, and touched many people in some way or another, whether it was kids going to school, parents sending their child to school, or all the people involved in the investigation. It was a day that many people will not forget what happened, and how it affected so many people.

It seemed like just another average day on Tuesday April 20, 1999, until hell broke out. Two students of Columbine High School, walked into their school and opened fire on students and faculty. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were armed with 95 explosive devices when they stormed in and began their terror. The explosives, enough to wipe out the school and hundreds of students, included 48 carbon dioxide bombs, 27 pipe bombs and 11 1.5-gallon propane containers. Most of the bombs did not explode. The two Columbine seniors also had seven devices with 40-plus gallons of flammable liquid and two duffel bags containing 20-pound liquefied-petroleum gas tanks. (USA Today, 1)

13 people were killed, while 22 others were injured in this horrible tragedy. The extent of their arsenal was not revealed until around the last week of March when members of the Littleton Fire Department met with Gov. Bill Owens' Columbine Review Commission, The Denver Post reported Monday.

''As bad as this was, we were so very, very lucky,'' said Chuck Burdick, operations chief of the Littleton Fire Department. ''It could have been so much worse.''

Following the April 20 massacre, authorities believed Klebold and Harris had made about 60 bombs.

''I look at Columbine High School as a true act of domestic terrorism,'' Rick Young, an investigator and bomb technician, told the Post.

Young would not explain why the bombs did not go off except to say it was because of ''very simple electronic failure.'' He also said Harris and Klebold used unstable fireworks powder to make the bombs.

Young and other officials are so worried the killers' plans and arsenal could be used as a blueprint to launch other attacks, they would not tell the commission why the bombs failed.

Some of the people they killed, were killed because of their skin color, their status amoung the high school, or because of their religious beliefs. One student named Cassie Bernall, a 17-year-old junior was killed because she believed in God. Cassie's martyrdom was even more remarkable when you consider that just a few years ago she had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had embraced the same darkness and nihilism that drove her killers to such despicable acts. But two years ago, Cassie dedicated her life to Christ, and turned her life around. Another student, Isaiah Shoels, 18, senior, was the only black student shot. Suffered health problems as a child and had heart surgery twice. Wanted to attend an arts college and become a music executive. Small in stature, but lifted weights and played football and wrestled. Bench-pressed twice his weight.

"He was the nicest person I knew," remembers classmate Justin Norman. "He would always go up to you and say, 'What's up?' even if you didn't know him."

A transfer student from Lakewood High School, he was shot in the head execution-style in the school library, specifically because of his race and athletic interests, witnesses said. His father says he believes that account.

"He was black and he was an athlete," Michael Shoels said. "That's why my son died. Because of the color of his skin and the achievements that he wanted to do for himself, that's not a reason to die."(5)

Many people involved in the investigation, in one way or another were touched by the incident and it made it hard for them to work on the scence. More then 100 detectives from local, state and the federal government were on the biggest criminal investation in Colorado history according to the "Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers". (Dan Luzadder and Kevin Vaughan, 2) An eerie silence fell over Columbine as investigators walked through the high school and began their investigation. Back-packs were all over the flooded cafeteria and library and pagers and cell phones were going off, as parents were trying to contact their children. The Strobe lights from the fire alarms that are used for the deaf continued to flash for the next three weeks.

One investigator especially was touched emotionally like never before when she arrived on the scene of "hell". Kate Battan was 41 years old and was recommended to be name lead investigator. Her specialty was financial crimes, but she had worked plenty of homicide cases in seven years as a detective. Batton and over one hundred other detectives used sophisticated computers to track thousands of tips and pieces of evidence and enhance bits of hard to see videotape. They would conducted 4,500 interviews with students, teachers, parents, and others who had been at columbine that day, and anyone who knew Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.(USA TODAY,2)

As Batton and other investigators walked through the high school, it was hard for them to hold back tears. The bodies of 10 victims were still in the same place they spent their final minutes in the library (the other two victims were killed outside). They walked through the school and it was incredible. They could see the scarred carpet, singed by a bomb, computer screens were in pieces from shotgun blast, and as the bodies of the victims lay on the ground the only thing Batton could think of was her own daughter.

"I just felt so sad," she said. "It was like I wanted to hug everyone of them for their mom and dad."

Trying to find out what happened at columbine is like the hardest jigsaw puzzle they could find and it had been dumped on the ground. The amount of evidence was huge. Any speak of blood, glass, or chunk of lead could be proven crucial. There were thousands of leads to follow, and people to interview. Every kid that had been at school that day could have seen something important.

April 20 will be upon us shortly and counselors are trying to prepare for what ever might happen. Many kids will probably need counseling, and the for the few days around April 20, it will be hard for them to move on and remember the friends and peers they lost one year ago.