I thought in honor of the anniversary of Columbine, I'd post this. I wrote it when I was 13.

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Tuesay, April 20, 1999

There has been another school shooting. Again! The 1998-1999 school year has gone by without a fatal shooting! Until now!

This time the high school was Columbine High School The unfortunate town with a lowered population this time is Littletown, Colorado. The fatality is as much as 25 people.

A school gang that had racist and anti-athlete views has at least 2 members that are suspects, and committed suicide.

The Shooting spree began at about 11:30 A.M. Mountain Time, or about 1:30 P.M. our time. One center of the shooting was the library. One eyewitness said there were about 10 people dead. They used explosives.

The shootings went on for hours. They say this may be the worst shooting in U.S. history.

I can't believe this happened again. If this shooting, with double-digit deaths, is not a cold, hard wake-up call to parents, teachers, and students, than I don't know what will be. The accused made many death threats but people laughed it off! That pisses me off so much!!! They could have gotten help, but people write off their behavior as typical teen angst. What is wrong with this society!? Last school year had about 43 people injured and 15 people killed!!! Why the f**k couldn't people have taken the death threats seriously? What is their f**king problem? Serious denial?

I turned on the TV ater 2:30 P.M. and before 3:00 P.M., and I see something on T.V. about some school shooting in Colorade. At that time I never dreamed it would turn so tragic. I thought maybe 10 kids and teachers wounded and 3 or 5 killed. Man, was I wrong.

What's weird is that April 20 is Hilter's birthday. Also, 420 is another name for weed. The school shooting had to have been planned for months, if not a year or so. Maybe that's the reason why today was picked. Also, this is the last April 20th before the Y2K. Maybe that had some significance.

It's so sad. The seniors are graduating at that high school in 3 weeks. That will be some sad and somber graduation ceremony. But I'm pretty sure they'll cancel it. April 20, 1999 is a date that town isn't likely to forget. Also, cigarette ads on billboards are being removed. Trivial.

That's all for tonight.

Wednesday, April 21, 1999

The final death toll count is 15 dead. 2 of them were the gunners. 12 were students and 1 was a teacher. The 2 gunmen were members of a clique called the Trenchcoat Mafia. Is being shot in school the price we have to pay for growing up in the late 1990's? I love the the 1990's. But it's times like these that make me want to live in the 1950's. Or the 60's.

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So, there you have it. That was how I saw things when I was 13.

I did a senior paper about this six years later, and my opinion basically got shaped by this book where a witness who knew the guys, talked about how they kept going to the police warning them about their behaviour, and the police did nothing. It's called No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death At Columbine. It's a pretty good book, and basically the impression I got is that Eric Harris was one crazy sumbitch with grandoise delusions, while Dylan Klebold was easily led around. And that on the surface is was about bullied kids vs. the popular jocks, but it was much, much more complicated than that.

It's crazy reading my reaction to this as being the most incredible mass school shooting ever, when eight years later there'd be a massacre at Virginia Tech that'd kill over 30 people. It's amazing what hindsight can give a person.