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Principal questions notion that killers felt alienated from school environment
By Holly KurtzDenver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Schools nationwide searched for ways to make students feel safer and more welcome after Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were portrayed as alienated students. Thursday, Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis cast doubt on this portrait and the reactions it elicited as he testified before the Governor's Columbine Review Commission. He pointed out that Klebold worked on school plays and attended the senior prom days before the April 20, 1999, shootings that left more than 20 injured and 15 dead. He pointed out killer Eric Harris joined Klebold at the after-prom celebration. "Students who are alienated," he said, "do not attend a senior prom." Neither boy, he said, had any discipline problems at school, DeAngelis said. Nor did DeAngelis ever hear of or observe the rampant bullying some students reported after the April 20, 1999 tragedy. "If it was occurring," DeAngelis said, "it was not being reported." He described the "Trench Coat mafia" clique that was painted with such sinister light after the shootings as simply "a group of kids that wore black trench coats or duster coats." A group, DeAngelis said, of which Harris and Klebold were not even members. "I believe if there was an organization that served as a threat, I would have received phone calls from parents," he said, passing around the group's picture in the 1998 yearbook. DeAngelis told commissioners the tragedy appeared to have had only a slight affect on academic performance, with attendance slipping from 95 to 91 percent last year and ACT college entrance exam scores sliding slightly from 22.3 to 22 out of a possible 36. A dozen Jefferson County youths have committed suicide since the tragedy, including one from Columbine, said Dale Emme, president of the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program in Westminster. DeAngelis left commissioners — charged with examining the tragedy — with a list of recommendations for other schools, many of which Columbine has already followed. He said building blueprints should be stored outside the school so they're accessible to law enforcement agencies. School officials should be able to turn off alarms from outside the building so their noise doesn't impede rescue efforts. Schools and law enforcement agencies should have radios that operate on the same frequency so they can talk to each other during crises. There should be an emergency phone system in case regular lines get jammed. Schools, law enforcement agencies, businesses, community members and courts should share more information. And funding should be directed toward teaching students about respecting themselves and others, not toward elaborate security systems. As for explaining what did spark the shooting if it wasn't the school, DeAngelis offered commissioners this piece of advice: Watch the hate-filled videos the killers made at home. "The tapes," he said, "may provide some insight into the 'why' this occurred." Contact Holly Kurtz at (303) 892-5082 or kurtzh@RockyMountainNews.com. August 25, 2000
Schools nationwide searched for ways to make students feel safer and more welcome after Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were portrayed as alienated students.
Thursday, Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis cast doubt on this portrait and the reactions it elicited as he testified before the Governor's Columbine Review Commission.
He pointed out that Klebold worked on school plays and attended the senior prom days before the April 20, 1999, shootings that left more than 20 injured and 15 dead. He pointed out killer Eric Harris joined Klebold at the after-prom celebration.
"Students who are alienated," he said, "do not attend a senior prom."
Neither boy, he said, had any discipline problems at school, DeAngelis said. Nor did DeAngelis ever hear of or observe the rampant bullying some students reported after the April 20, 1999 tragedy.
"If it was occurring," DeAngelis said, "it was not being reported."
He described the "Trench Coat mafia" clique that was painted with such sinister light after the shootings as simply "a group of kids that wore black trench coats or duster coats." A group, DeAngelis said, of which Harris and Klebold were not even members.
"I believe if there was an organization that served as a threat, I would have received phone calls from parents," he said, passing around the group's picture in the 1998 yearbook.
DeAngelis told commissioners the tragedy appeared to have had only a slight affect on academic performance, with attendance slipping from 95 to 91 percent last year and ACT college entrance exam scores sliding slightly from 22.3 to 22 out of a possible 36.
A dozen Jefferson County youths have committed suicide since the tragedy, including one from Columbine, said Dale Emme, president of the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program in Westminster.
DeAngelis left commissioners — charged with examining the tragedy — with a list of recommendations for other schools, many of which Columbine has already followed.
He said building blueprints should be stored outside the school so they're accessible to law enforcement agencies. School officials should be able to turn off alarms from outside the building so their noise doesn't impede rescue efforts. Schools and law enforcement agencies should have radios that operate on the same frequency so they can talk to each other during crises. There should be an emergency phone system in case regular lines get jammed.
Schools, law enforcement agencies, businesses, community members and courts should share more information.
And funding should be directed toward teaching students about respecting themselves and others, not toward elaborate security systems.
As for explaining what did spark the shooting if it wasn't the school, DeAngelis offered commissioners this piece of advice:
Watch the hate-filled videos the killers made at home.
"The tapes," he said, "may provide some insight into the 'why' this occurred."
Contact Holly Kurtz at (303) 892-5082 or kurtzh@RockyMountainNews.com.
August 25, 2000
