Tag Archives: Columbine High School

Doves, heartbreak and hope on 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre

A man looks at a line of crosses commemorating those killed in the Columbine High School shooting on the 20th anniversary of the attack in Littleton, Colorado, U.S., April 20, 2019. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

By Keith Coffman

LITTLETON, Colo. (Reuters) – A week-long series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre culminated on Saturday with a remembrance ceremony celebrating the lives of the 13 victims slain in the rampage.

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine students, just three weeks shy of graduation, stormed the suburban Denver school armed with shotguns and semiautomatic weapons, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide.

Addressing hundreds of people gathered at Saturday’s service in a park next to the school, Dawn Anna, mother of slain student Lauren Townsend, spoke on behalf of all the families of the victims about their sense of loss.

“Our hearts have huge holes in them, but our hearts are bigger than they were 20 years ago,” Anna said.

Patrick Ireland, whose fall out of a school library window into the arms of firefighters, which became one of the iconic images of the massacre, spoke of his long physical and emotional recovery.

“You’re a victim only if you allow yourself to become one,” Ireland said.

Thirteen doves were released at the end of the ceremony.

For the relatives of those killed, April 20 evokes a mix of emotions from sorrow and anguish to fond memories of loved ones.

Betty Shoels, the aunt of murdered student Isaiah Shoels, said her 18-year-old nephew was a fun-loving athlete who was always smiling, despite feeling out of place as one of the school’s few African-American students.

“What I miss most is his laugh,” Shoels told Reuters. ”He was just a great kid who loved to joke.”

This year’s remembrances were marred this week when a Florida teenager, who authorities said was “obsessed” with Columbine, traveled to Colorado where she died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Evan Todd was a sophomore at Columbine two decades ago when he was wounded in the school library, where 10 of the students were killed. He said whenever he hears of school shootings or other tragedies somehow linked to Columbine, it reminds him that he was “part of something so gruesome and so public.”

He often recalls his football teammate Matt Kechter, who was shot dead just a few feet away from him.

“Sometimes I wonder what Matt would be doing now, what is life would be like,” said Todd, 35, who is the father of a one-year-old son.

He credits his family and Christian faith for getting him through the months following the tragedy.

“I’m just thankful that I survived,” he said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Chizu Nomiyama)

Columbine principal, haunted by 20-year-old massacre, still recites victims’ names

Former Columbine High School principal Frank DeAngelis pauses while speaking outside the school during a National School Walkout to honor the 17 students and staff members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in Littleton, Colorado, U.S. March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

By Keith Coffman

ARVADA, Colo. (Reuters) – Each morning for the last two decades, Frank DeAngelis has recited aloud the names of the 13 people killed at Columbine High School, where he served as principal during the 1999 massacre that marked a modern era of mass school shootings.

“When I wake up in bed each morning, that’s the first thing I do is recite the names. Then I go into my office and pray,” DeAngelis, 64, told Reuters in an interview. “They have been with me since that day and they’ll continue to be with me for the rest of my life in the Columbine community.”

On April 20, 1999, two heavily armed Columbine students stormed the school in suburban Denver, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, and DeAngelis, who retired as principal five years ago, will speak at some of the solemn events celebrating the victims whose lives were cut short.

For DeAngelis, the details of that day are never forgotten. As he shepherded about 20 students to safety down a corridor when the shooting erupted, DeAngelis came face-to-face with one of the shooters, who fired at him but missed.

“I saw a gunman coming towards me and everything was in slow motion,” he said. “But I so vividly remember the sounds of the gunshots breaking the glass behind me.”

SUICIDES AND THERAPY

In the days and weeks following the massacre, DeAngelis became the face of Columbine, giving countless interviews recounting the ghastly shooting and its heartbreaking aftermath.

But some of the hardest moments were still to come. DeAngelis led students, teachers, and parents through the dark days following the shooting, and through other gut-wrenching events that followed months and years later.

The mother of a girl left paralyzed from the shooting committed public suicide six months after the massacre. A little more than a year after the rampage, a Columbine student who witnessed murdered teacher Dave Sanders get shot in the opening salvo of gunfire inside the school hanged himself.

“I just joined a club in which no one wants to be a member,” DeAngelis said. “And I realized that my life had changed forever.”

He sought professional help to deal with his feelings of grief, sorrow and guilt, and relied on his Catholic faith to give him strength to share his experiences with other schools and communities that have endured mass shootings, from Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook to the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida.

DeAngelis, who had risen from teacher and athletics coach to principal before retiring after 35 years at Columbine, recently published a book, “They Call Me ‘Mr. De’: The Story of Columbine’s Heart, Resilience, and Recovery,” with all the proceeds going to various charities.

The book chronicles DeAngelis’ journey through therapy, and healing from trauma, which he hopes will “give some support” to those who have experienced similar tragedies.

“Not only in communities like this but people who go through some tough times in their lives,” he said. “Columbine has become a beacon of hope.”

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler)