Reflections on Columbine

A decade after Columbine, we still search for the reasons for the murder of 12 students and a teacher.

Most theories and explanations have proved untrue or illogical. Two new books offer comprehensive, journalistic studies of the Columbine massacres. In numerous interviews, the authors debunk many myths of Columbine but can't find conclusive answers. The only partial explanation was the killers' mental state, according to psychological reports. But the unsatisfying conclusion leaves few solutions or prevention strategies.

I don't pretend to have devoted nearly as much time and energy to reporting on Columbine as authors Jeff Kass and Dave Cullen, but I covered the aftermath of Columbine for community newspapers in Jefferson County.

I saw the grim evidence when the sheriff's office eventually opened its vaults. Walking through Columbine High School while reporting on unrelated stories, the hallways and rooms were horribly familiar. Windows were replaced and the bullet holes covered, but nothing would remove the stain on Columbine as the site of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

The county school board faced harsh scrutiny while struggling to balance the protection of students with maintaining an open and welcoming atmosphere. I covered weekly school board meetings where stoic board members broke into tears talking about the massacre.

I covered a broad slate of candidates vying to replace Sheriff John Stone, who was all but forced to retire. I heard their theories and saw their rage about law enforcement actions before, during and after the massacre. Most of them suggested they could have prevented the killings or minimized the body count in a situation for which there was no precedent or protocol.

I typed in the letters from county residents calling for investigations, venting rage, offering theories and spreading blame. They proposed arming every teacher, arresting every student who issued threats or recorded angry thoughts, turning schools into fortresses and allowing school prayer. None were practical ways to prevent the massacre.

Nor were the explanations adequate for the horrific shootings.

We now know Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not bullied, were not members of the Trench Coat Mafia and weren't outcast loners.

Blaming "The Matrix" or violent video games doesn't make sense. Other shootings and attacks occurred long before the release of "Doom."

Harris and Klebold were not racist or anti-Christian. Their victims follow no pattern or stereotype. Cassie Bernal's story of being shot after claiming her belief in God was later discredited.

Brian Rohrbaugh, father of a Columbine victim, blamed the massacre on the secularization of a society with legal abortion and no official public school prayer. Studies, including those of Kass and Cullen, dispute the idea.

Instead, they reach the difficult conclusion that Harris and Klebold were mentally ill, not sick enough for institutionalization but harboring dangerously anti-social thoughts and behaviors. Furthermore, Harris may have been the egomaniacal psychopath while Klebold is often described as his lonely follower.

The theory is largely and sadly unsatisfying, and offers few feasible possibilities for prevention.