Thesis /Question: What was the history behind the Columbine shootings? Who was responsible and what happened during the attack?
I decided to do my project on the Columbine HS shootings because I wanted to know more about the event as a whole. I knew that Columbine was known as a school tragedy and a lot of people remember it, but as far as who was responsible, what had actually happened during that attack, what the attack even was, and why everyone remembers it was beyond me. I did not know the details and that was my driving factor in choosing this topic. I wanted to know as much as I could about the perpetrators, and the event, and if there was more information, about the aftermath and how it affected other people directly and indirectly related to the event.
Eric was considered the mastermind of the duo, planning the outline of the attack on Columbine and being at legal age to buy some of the weapons used for shootings. He was born into a military family with loving caring parents. They moved around a lot, so he was not making as many friends as he wanted. He seemed confident in character and had good work ethic, but was bullied along with Dylan in school, although not as much. He took a medication called Luvox, which later revealed to have side effects that could make someone go psycho, as proven in some of Eric’s personal journals that included psychotic rants and messages of anger and violence.
Dylan was the taller of the two friends, and would seem menacing, but to his friends and family, was actually a quiet shy teen. He was born into an affluent family of partial Jewish religion and had loving parents and an older brother. He was said to not be the type to initiate violence or trouble, but could definitely be the one who could get caught up in it. He kept personal journals in which he ranted about hating his school, and wanting to partake in violent acts. Like Eric, he was able to hide his true identity and make things seem like they were normal, as he talked about plans of attending (and making a deposit to) ASU upon graduating from Columbine
http://goo.gl/maps/8Z1ii — This is the link for my customized map of Columbine related locations.
These locations include the high school itself, since it is the center of the entire event; the local public library and a nearby elementary school where, during and immediately after the shootings, students and parents had gathered to find out any information; and the homes of the Harris’ and Klebolds’ to see where they had lived in relation to the school and community, and also in regards to each other.
What I included here is my Timetoast timeline that includes detailed descriptions of the events that happened on April 20th, 1999 from the start of the shootings to early the next morning. The information can be found by clicking or copying and pasting the CNN link in your browser as all the information for the events that happened cannot fit in the space that Timetoast has provided.
All information that appears on my timeline is credited to the CNN links.
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/columbine-hs-1999-shooting ß The link to my Timetoast timeline.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/NARRATIVE.Time.Line.htm ß The link to the “Narrative Timeline” that I used for my Timetoast timeline; all rights got to www.cnn.com.
I also give credit to the rightful and correct websites for using their public pictures related to the Columbine mass shooting that I have accompanied to each box of my timeline.
Wordle 1: Text taken from “4-20: A Columbine Site”; This analyzes the body of text which talked about what happened in regards to those who died innocently and what words were used repeatedly to describe the scene and actions.
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6163619/ColumbinetheVictims This is the link to the Wordle associated with the victims of the Columbine massacre. I notice the words “victims, hospital, medical, injured” and “center”, are the larger of the rest of the words, meaning they are the words that show up repeatedly in the chosen text.
Wordle 2: Text taken from the same site and analyzes the body of text that explained the event in regards of every possible detail.
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6164165/ColumbinetheEvent This is the link to the Wordle associated with the Columbine event as a whole. I really like this Wordle because if someone did not know anything about the Columbine shootings, but were told that this Wordle was associated with happened during the shootings, I feel as if the person could give an educated guess as to what areas were most significant to the shootings and who were the most affected and important.
The Ngram shows a significant spike of the subject “school shootings” in English literature in between 1998 and 2001, while there was a slight increase in the subject of “columbine”, and an ongoing increase in the subject of “gun laws”. Obviously, the spike in “school shootings” is directly related to Columbine, because it was the most influential school shooting that had happened in between those years (in 1999), and because nationally published magazines and newspapers were reporting on the attack since it had started, not to mention the parents, friends, and experts on education/psychology/criminology, etc. started researching and writing about the subject from their own personal accounts and/or scientific accounts. Two examples of these include: Time magazine and the Denver newspaper.
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“We are… Columbine.”
Cassie Bernall, Steve Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechler, Daniel Mauser, Dan Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Laura Townsend, Kyle Velasquez, Dave Sanders, and all the other students and staff that were directly injured (i.e. Patti Nelson, Patick Ireland, Evan Todd, etc,), and for all the people in the Littleton/Columbine community, nation, and world, who have been affected by this tragedy (i.e. the family and friends of those who were injured and those who have died.
“15 deaths, 12 murders. Remember Columbine.”
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For the security and preservation of my project, I have two copies of my documents pictures, word documents, presentation; one on my flashdrive and one on my computer. I saved any other sites from the interent in my bookmarks. Security wise, I did not have to use passwords for anything the timeline, and I am the only person who knows my password, so I think that is safely protected. My timeline is public so I think if someone wants to use it, they would credit me as an original source or credit the sources I used.
References:
http://acolumbinesite.com/victim/surviving.html
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/0822fata1.shtml
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/NARRATIVE.Time.Line2.htm
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