The Columbine Effect

April 20th is a day of the year that stands out for me. It is my father’s birthday. He would be 90 years old if he were alive today. My dad was a memorable man; kind, charismatic, extremely intelligent, a hard worker and very handsome. I adore celebrating his life as well as celebrating that I am his daughter.

April 20th is a day of the year that also gives me pause and heavy heart. At the start of each new year, I check the calendar to determine the day of the week April 20th will fall on. Every year, I pray it will be a weekend. It is the anniversary of Columbine. One word...everyone understands the gravity of that devastating and tragic event. However, not everyone understands the Columbine Effect. There have been school shooting on or around the anniversary of Columbine for the las twenty-five years. Every week now, there are school shootings across the United States. In the past ten years there have been ?? school shootings at every level, elementary, middle school, high school and universities. We will never know the exact number of averted shooting; those who profess to ‘copycat’ Columbine but are thankfully averted.

The first and most sensational of shootings, Columbine conjures up images that are hard to erase.involving . What we did not realize at that time is the impact this tragedy had for so many who who feel marginalized to re-enact this travesty as a means to self-empowerment.

Then, we never could have predicted the most innocent of all, the kindergarteners would be killed. We didn’t realize some of the parents did not keep their own guns locked up safely. We did not realize some of the parents would actually buy the guns their child would use in a mass shooting. Do we realize this today, over twenty-five years later?

Did the two Columbine shooters realize the domino effect they set in motion? When they left for their high school that day, that were Harris and Klebold thinking? Did they wonder what would happen to enormous amount of bomb materials left behind in one of their bedrooms. While their planning and diaries spanned almost a year, their shooting took place over the course of less than an hour. Did they become distracted in the days before the shooting or did they seem uncharacteristically calm? In the months before their heinous act, they continued to earn good grades, hold down jobs, interact with their families all the while unfolding a plan of unprecedented magnitude. Their diaries contained simple, but detailed plans of not just their shooting, but the steps they would take to get there.

On April 20th, 1999 two high school seniors planned an act of violence so egregious, that young people who weren’t even born yet have hero worshipped them and researched everything they could find about that day, April 20, 1999, when ?/ people were murdered by two seniors wearing trench coats.

Initially, this case was investigated and analyzed in great detail. Now twenty-six years later, many youth, both enfranchised and disenfranchised, have read the instricases of this event online. Many have glorified the shooters, Harris and Klebold who stepped over a line most would not have perceived possible. Many have sensationalized their plans and identified with the emotions Harris and Klebold were feeling.

While ?? Number of shootings have occurred since that awful day in 1999, the one travesty is that very few of us have an understanding of what it is that draws a young person into such a violent world. No one asks why it is that so many shooters who have followed this duo, clearly identify with them. For many, the execution of that awful school shooting resonates in a way that empowers them. They understand the ridicule Harris and Klebold endured and envision themselves in that same role to bring some type of control back in to their lives. The thought of a shooting spree that will ensconce a vision of their power over their community, that will live on in perpetuity, fills them up. The relentless ridicule they have endured has pushed them so far to the edge they become unhinged. Initially, many want to kill themselves. After identifying with Harris and Klebold their execution that becomes a plan, becomes more elaborate. They envision carrying out another Columbine, yet making it more grand. They will live on in a way they are not able to identify with in their present lives.

Are these acts impulsive or well planned? Always....they are well planned even if the execution of the plan deviates a little from its origination. If these acts are well planned and organized, where do they store their weaponry and the materials they will need to carry out what may seem like as a far fetched plan. They almost always store them in their bedroom, accumulating their cache over time. Why aren’t they stopped? Who is going in to the bedroom on any regular basis? For many parents, they believe their child’s privacy is a right and not a privilege, so they acquiesce.

After every shooting, someone close to the shooter will either say, “We never saw this coming” or they say, “We saw that child was off, had problems...” Most of the time, no one steps in for the duration. They may make a gesture or one phone call. Then the situation is dropped, the teen moves on to another year. There are many young people struggling right now and sadly, I predict we are just at the tip of the iceberg. The amount of implosion is insurmountable yet many do not know how to identify a young person who is becoming unhinged. Those who know there is ‘something wrong’ may be unclear how to proceed.

Now, as more and more families are pushed to their limits, they are struggling to meet the family’s basic needs. There is and will continue to be more disconnection within the family. The youth are then spending more time identifying and connecting with others online, from all over the world. They find a sense of empowerment as they cross the line. While this act may initially seem insane, it feels satisfying to them. It invigorates them.

Columbine was not the first school shooting case I would engage with in my career as a criminologist. The Evan Ramsey case in 1997 was the first one for me. Evan shared with me, “They hurt me so deep in my core, I didn’t know who I was anymore.” The diaries of many line the walls in my office. All the heartache and needless death. The last line of one of the Columbine Diaries ended with, ‘if you only would have allowed me to be your friend, to go to your parties, but no you told the weird kid, Eric, to go away.”

April 20th for me is a challenging time of the year, reflecting the cases I have averted, the ones I have not, and fearful of the ones that we will see again, all too soon. Is anyone listening to the clues they are sharing to avert these senseless acts of desperation and death to so many innocents.

Adolescence

Thirteen year old Jamie Miller is a seemingly typical sweet boy to most who knew him. Yet, this story....can it be true? From a family, not unlike yours and mine, some days struggling, others less so. How far can a teen be pushed against the wall before they snap?