By Manny Gonzales
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

JEFFERSON COUNTY -- Columbine High School sophomore Jessica Watson couldn't believe it happened again.

After watching the news of the school shootings in Georgia on Thursday morning, Watson called friends who also are recovering from the April 20 tragedy at their school.

"We just don't know when it's going to end. We thought people would be more aware because of what happened to us and it wouldn't happen again," Watson said.

Columbine senior Michele Fox took the news with chilling equanimity: "You know it's not going to be the last one. It's just reality," she said. "Since it happened at our school, in suburbia, it can happen anywhere."

A student with two guns opened fire at Heritage High School in suburban Atlanta early Thursday, injuring six classmates. None of the injuries are considered life-threatening.

"We're really seeing this copycat phenomenon," said Jane Savage, mother of John Savage, a Columbine student who was trapped in the school library during the shootings but not injured. "It's not like the media did a bad thing telling people something terrible had happened," Jane Savage said. "Between what happened and the way the media covered it, the response has been huge, a wonderful outpouring of care and concern and love. People are taking better care of each other than ever."

"It seems that kids are saying to themselves, 'This is what I'll do with whatever I think is wrong,"' she said.

Savage is confident Columbine teachers will see the students through this latest setback. "The way they've hung on, and hung in there for the kids, I never want to hear anyone saying 'This teacher isn't doing enough for my kid,"' she said.

Brad Bernall, father of slain Columbine student Cassie Bernall, was shocked to learn of the Georgia shooting spree.

"The same question went through my mind as when the shooting happened here," he said. "That is, 'What are these kids thinking?"'

"Both (his wife) Misty and I feel like schools across the nation should maybe be shut down this Friday, to stop any more copycat attempts, and so that these kids could have the summer to rationalize it, and get over the foolishness of it," he said.

-- Denver Rocky Mountain News reporters Bill Scanlon, Brian Weber and Charlie Brennan contributed to this report.