Amy BoughnerI have started reading a book about Columbine by Dave Cullen. I read a good review, and apparently the author has delved a bit deeper and looks at the case as more than just what was reported the day of.
I remember the shooting at Columbine very well, and it hit me hard particularly, I think, because I was in my last year of high school at the time. The timing of the shooting was such that I was home from school in time to watch the live coverage while students were still running for their lives.
I also remember that the next day I was sitting in my OAC history class and our principal came on for announcements and ask for a moment of silence – 15 dead – and one of the thoughtless teenage boys in my class laughed – turned to the guy next to him and LAUGHED, saying “oh yeah, did you hear about that…”
The memory stings all the more because it was only two years later that same principal – a lovely, much-loved man – and his wife were shot to death themselves during a robbery.
So much has happened between then and now. So much bad has happened, some of which surpasses what happened that day, but the fact that those killers were my age, going through the same day-to-day life that I was. The fact that what they did never would have occurred to me before then. It seemed totally monstrous.
It is even more so now that I know they weren’t bullied kids who were targeting people. They did this thing because they wanted to, and at least one of them thought it was fun.
Never did it occur to me that my daughter would be doing lockdown drills at school.
That’s some legacy.
