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   1999: COLUMBINE MASSACRE   

Background

 

  • On April 20, 1999, two teens Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

  • The two walked into the school cafeteria, where they placed two duffel bags each containing a 20-pound propane bomb set to explode at 11:17 a.m. The teens then went back outside to their cars to wait for the bombs to go off. When the bombs failed to go off, Harris and Klebold began their shooting spree.

  • At approximately 11:19 a.m., Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, dressed in trench coats, began shooting where they gunned down many of their victims in the cafeteria and library. By approximately 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 other people. Shortly after 12 p.m., the two teens turned their guns on themselves.

  • The crime was one of the worst high schools shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen.

  • There was speculation that the two committed the killings because they had been bullied, were members of a group of social outcasts that was fascinated by Goth culture, or had been influenced by violent video games and music; however none of these theories was ever proven.

 

Life Threatening Toll: Injury and Death

 

  • The Columbine Massacre claimed 12 high school students’ lives as well as 1 teachers life and injured 24 others.

  • 300 people were trapped in the school for hours during the shooting

Eric Harris and Dylan Klehold caught on the high school's security cameras in the cafeteria shortly before committing suicide.

Columbine High school Cafeteria, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

Immediate Psychological Impact
 

  • Numbness, nervousness, guilt, irritability, and Intense affection for one another

  • Sudden death survivors are more prone to experience a sense of unreality, of helplessness, heightened feelings of guilt about having fled after the disaster, and a strong need to blame someone for the crisis.

 

Long-term Psychological Impact

 

  • Many students experienced extreme emotional distress as well as other symptoms of PTSD

  • The parents experienced an intense form of grief, and struggle to make sense out of their child’s death.

  • Teachers struggle returning back to the classrooms and experienced flooding in the midst of teaching a lesson. At the end of the year some teachers chose early retirement, changed schools. Many students were not able to return to the school as well.

  • The power within the community was the key to aiding support and healing for the families.

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