Rally more MTV than memorial service as Columbine enrollees 'take back our school'

By Holly Kurtz
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Under a sky as silver and blue as their school colors, Columbine High School students returned Monday to a building where plaster, paint and the passage of time have erased most traces of America's bloodiest school shooting.

They started the first day of the school year with a rally that was more MTV than memorial service.

They finished by shoving their new identification badges into their knapsacks and heading home with school supply lists, hugs from friends and a healthy dose of hope.

"I was so excited, I felt like I was on a sugar high," said Kayla Harrison, 14, a freshman.

"I think everyone is happy to be back among their friends."

Principal Frank DeAngelis welcomed students by looking to a future designed to prevent the past.

He urged them to report harassment and other problems, saying "snitching may save a life."

He called for tolerance and respect, a strategy that addresses the resentment apparently felt by killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

"I would encourage you to eat lunch with someone you do not know and go up and talk to someone you have never met," he said. "If for some reason you do not feel a part of our family let someone know."

A human welcome wall of Columbine alumni and families greeted students as they streamed into a parking lot.

It was the same parking lot the nation watched them leave on April 20 with their hands on their heads and fear in their eyes.

This school year is expected to bring all Jefferson County schools new security measures, including additional police officers and identification badges for high school students and staff.

Security was extra-tight Monday at Columbine with four armed guards, and dogs sniffing for bombs and drugs.

But attendance was normal. About 95 percent of the 2,000-strong student body showed up, school district area administrator Barbara Monseu said.

Final enrollments are not available, but Monseu said there are at least 140 more students this year than last. More than 100 students asked to transfer to Columbine from other schools, she said. No students were asked to stay away, she said.

Among the missing Monday were Anne Marie Hochhalter, Mark Taylor, Sean Graves and Rich Castaldo, who were injured in the shootings. One teacher and an administrator decided to take leaves of absence, Monseu said.

"Take Back Our School" was the theme of the 7:45 a.m. outdoor rally that kicked off the day.

Students kept time to bands chosen by a 1998 graduate -- Pearl Jam, Everclear and Big Head Todd and the Monsters, whose lead singer, Todd Mohr, is a Columbine alumnus. They danced in "We Are Columbine T-shirts."

Cameras filming the event live for CNN and local and national stations panned to pretty cheerleaders, a parent singing the school's new alma mater, the flag rising to the top of the staff for the first time since April 20, and new student body president Mike Sheehan telling the story of "Rebel Man" -- a pane of glass bearing the mascot's image that survived after the killers and SWAT teams swept through the school.

Sheehan's Rebel Man tale was one of the rally's only direct references to the shootings by Klebold and Harris that left 12 students, one teacher and the killers dead.

That wasn't right, said Brian Rohrbough, whose son Daniel was killed.

"They completely left out the victims, those who lost their lives, those who will never be the same," Rohrbough said.

Evan Todd, a junior who was wounded in the library, said he was surprised there was no moment of silence.

"It just seemed like the rally was a way of putting on a Band-Aid and forgetting about it," he said.

Future events will memorialize those killed, area administrator Monseu said. Today's focus was moving forward.

Moving forward came easily for most, but not for all.

"A lot of us started off the day feeling some trepidation," said English teacher Paula Reed, who began having nightmares two weeks before returning to the school where she lost two speech team members.

"I didn't want to come back. As you can see there is still some pain. But I knew I had to. For me to abandon them wasn't an option."

Her students, it turned out, were just fine. They ended the day at 2:30 p.m. smiling.

But a dozen students used a "safe room" where kids could talk to counselors if they felt scared, Monseu said.

Sophomore Nick Bonbar thought it was "freaky" when he found out this year's schedule included math in the same room with the same teacher he had during the April 20 shooting. And junior Elisha Encinis felt nauseated as she passed the temporary wall blocking the library where 10 students died.

Then there was Marjorie Lindholm, 16, who didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. Monday.

It had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with returning to normalcy.

The normalcy of being a typical teen-ager.

She was waiting, she said, for her spray-on tanning lotion to dry.

Teen-age normalcy is exactly what DeAngelis has wanted since April 20.

"I have waited for months to say this, and I say it with great pride: Columbine, we are back!" was his welcoming cry to the students.

Reporters M.E. Sprengelmeyer, April Washington, Karen Abbott and Kevin Vaughan helped report this story.