Perhaps on of the best know and worst school shootings in history, the Columbine school massacre has for years made people think bullying lead to all of the destruction. With this news piece written a year ago is talks about another angle that after years of investigation has lead to show that the two responsible were actually not just two regular boys but two that would be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Basically saying they were psychopaths and there is more to the story then once told.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm
Just wanted to let you know that you forgot to post the link to the article.
When I was at Hawkeye Community College, they had a speaker from the Columbine Fire Department (I think it was the Battalion Chief or something like that) come and speak about that unfortunate day. It was extremely interesting because he laid out the timeline of events that happened leading up to and after the shooting began (many of which I had never heard about because the media did not even know about it).
His presentation was more geared towards making law enforcement agencies aware of how to handle an emergency situation of that magnitude. He also pointed out where emergency personnel went wrong.
Another interesting piece of information that he spoke about was about the shooters themselves. You kind of hit on it above, when you talked about they did not do this because they were being bullied. Media originally portrayed both shooters as being "loners" who were viciously isolated from their classmates through taunting and acts of bullying. In fact, both of the shooters actually had other friends that they hung out with on a regular basis. There was a whole group of them. Interestingly enough, as the speaker pointed out, when Kleibold and Harris laid out their duffel bags full of explosives, one of the spots where they put a bag was at the lunch table where their group sat everyday. So when the media tried to portray this tragic event as an act of revenge, they were highly mistaken. It didn't matter who they were shooting at or trying to kill, they simply wanted to cause as much destruction and loss of life as they possibly could.
This article was pretty eye opening. Being a young kid in school during the time of these shootings, I can remember it pretty well, and I also can remember the rumors the circulated around this crime, such as them being members of gangs, parents having bought those guns and other things. They way I recalled it, was that these boys were supposed to be obvious children in need of help, which they did not receive, thus resulting in these horrible actions. This article, however, shows a different side to the story. And honestly, it’s almost worst than that. There is a quote in the article about trying to stop someone from murdering if they are suicidal, which is eventually what happen to these kids. It is scary to think about how dangerous these people are, when there motive is so broad, that they just want to take vengeance out on the world.
Another thing which I was not aware of was the fact that they planned to murder almost everyone in the whole school with bombs. Its horrible how planned out this was, and scary to think that these kids planned to do it. It is hard to understand how people come to be like this.
Here is a link to a map of school shootings since the early 90’s.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/graphic-school-killings.htm
There was so much information in the article that I hadn't known prior to reading it. I find it rather amusing how the stories got altered and situations got added in that never happened. For instance, the whole "shooting the girl because she believed in god" thing. When I think about Columbine I generally think about that story because that's what I've always been told happened. But now to know that that's totally invalid is a little frustrating because I don't know why the media would make up that story. I find it extremely eerie that one of the boys wore a "Natural Selection" t-shirt the day they did the shootings. If that isn't messed up, I don't know what it. But that's slightly an oxymoron because in the end he killed himself, so was he implying that he wasn't naturally fitted as well? All in all this story is one that's always going to boggle peoples minds, but I think that everyone should read into it a little more to get their facts straight.
Reading this article really opened my eyes to this whole situation...until I read the comments below it. People were saying that this article is "garbage" and not true. Which person is really correct, I don't know. But I know when I was reading this article, the statement that made me kind of upset was the fact that the story of the girl getting shot because she said she believed in God was not true...until I read a comment about it. The individual who commented about this statement said this story IS true, and the girl's mom actually came to an assembly to talk about it. I'm not sure if it's true or not, because obviously the perosn who knows the story about it is gone. But if the story is in fact false, it upsets me that the media did that, and isn't there even a book on that whole situation, entitled "She Said Yes"?
I didn't know a whole lot about the two boys who did this, but this article provided some information on it. I just don't know if it's all true or not based on the comments and critics people were giving it. This is a perfect example of how media can really alter what we hear and see, and maybe we shouldn't believe everything they tell us.