Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Columbine High School massacre
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
====Bullying==== Early stories following the massacre charged that school administrators and teachers at Columbine had long condoned bullying by jocks and this explained the motive.<ref name="kassb">{{cite news |url=http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/1003col4.shtml |title=Students tell of bullying at Columbine High |first=Jeff |last=Kass |date=October 3, 2000 |newspaper=[[Rocky Mountain News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010221025234/http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/1003col4.shtml |archive-date=February 21, 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Lorraine |last2=Russakoff |first2=Dale |date=June 12, 1999 |title=Dissecting Columbine's Cult of the Athlete |page=A1 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm |url-status=live |access-date=October 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009035341/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm |archive-date=October 9, 2014}}</ref> The link between bullying and school violence has attracted increasing attention since.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Long |first1=Colleen |title=Secret Service study: Most school shooters were badly bullied, showed warning signs |url=https://coloradosun.com/2019/11/07/school-shootings-columbine-high-gun-violence-sandy-hook/ |work=Colorado Sun |agency=AP |issue=Crime and Courts |date=7 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dr. Froggé |first1=George |title=Bullying and Its Correlation with School Violence |url=https://www.ebpsociety.org/blog/education/388-bullying-and-its-correlation-with-school-violence |website=Evidence Based Community |publisher=Austin Peay State University |date=20 October 2019}}</ref> Accounts from various parents and school staffers reported bullying in the school.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colorado News and Denver News: The Denver Post |url=https://extras.denverpost.com/news/col1003a.htm |access-date=2022-01-12 |website=extras.denverpost.com}}</ref> Reportedly, Harris and Klebold were regularly called "[[Faggot (slang)|faggots]]".<ref>{{cite news |date=April 30, 1999 |title=The Community: Columbine Students Talk of Disaster and Life |newspaper=The New York Times |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/043099colo-voices.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611192303/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/043099colo-voices.html |archive-date=June 11, 2011}}</ref> Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years;" however, they also stated several times on the tapes and in the journals that no one else was to blame, nor could have prevented the attack.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/columbine_basement_tapes_1.0.pdf|title=Transcript of the Columbine "Basement Tapes"}} "There is nothing you guys could have done to prevent any of this. There is nothing that anyone could have done to prevent this. No one is to blame except me and Vodka [Klebold's nickname]. Our actions are a two man war against everyone else."</ref> Dylan when talking to his father about the jocks had stated, "They sure give Eric hell." but he also said that the jocks tended to leave him [Dylan] alone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Klebold|2016|p=187}}</ref> Brown also noted Harris was born with mild [[Pectus excavatum|chest indent]]. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2002|p=51}}</ref> Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, who knew Harris, noted they were picked on. Vanderau recalled that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them.<ref name="under">''Investigative Reports: Columbine: Understanding Why''. A&E. 2002</ref> It has been alleged that Harris and Klebold were once both confronted by a group of students at CHS who sprayed them with ketchup while referring to them as "faggots" and "[[queer]]s". Klebold told his mother it had been the worst day of his life.<ref name="kle189">{{Harvnb|Klebold|2016|p=189}}</ref> According to Brown, "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it." According to classmate Chad Laughlin, it involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons. Laughlin also stated, "A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us...There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.westword.com/news/forgiving-my-columbine-high-school-friend-dylan-klebold-5834485 |title=Forgiving my Columbine High School friend, Dylan Klebold |author=Prendergast, Alan |date=April 17, 2009 |newspaper=Denver Westword Post}}</ref> A similar theory was expounded by Brooks Brown in his book on the massacre, ''[[No Easy Answers]]''; he noted that teachers commonly ignored bullying and that when Harris and Klebold were bullied by the jocks at CHS, they would make statements such as: "Don't worry, man. It happens all the time!"<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm |title=Dissecting Columbine's Cult of the Athlete |access-date=October 15, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 12, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309020347/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Cullen, as well as psychologists dispute the theory of "revenge for bullying" as a motivation. While acknowledging the pervasiveness of bullying in high schools including CHS, Cullen claimed they were not victims of bullying. He noted Harris was more often the perpetrator than victim of bullying.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cullen|2009|pp=158–159, 208}}</ref> In an entry by Eric Harris in his journal, he stated that even if he were complimented and respected more by his peers, the attack would have still, in all likelihood, occurred.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Langman |first1=Peter F. |author1-link=Peter F. Langman |title=Eric Harris: The Search for Justification |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_search_for_justification_1.3.pdf |website=schoolshooters.info |access-date=9 November 2023 |quote=If people would give me more compliments all of this might still be avoidable... but probably not.}}</ref> In another entry by Eric in his journal he says not to blame the school's administration for the attack as the staff is doing a good job running the school.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Langman |first1=Peter F. |author1-link=Peter F. Langman |title=Eric Harris: The Search for Justification |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_search_for_justification_1.3.pdf |website=schoolshooters.info |access-date=9 November 2023 |quote=God damnit do not blame anyone else besides me and V [Vodka, i.e., Dylan] for this. Don't blame my family, they had no clue and there's nothing they could have done, they brought me up just fucking fine... don't blame the school... the admin[istration] is doing a fine job.}}</ref> In a fact check published on April 19, 2019, on the eve of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the massacre, Gillian Brockell in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' underscored that, contrary to the popular view, their attack was not revenge for being bullied.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/19/bullies-black-trench-coats-columbine-shootings-most-dangerous-myths/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421033120/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/19/bullies-black-trench-coats-columbine-shootings-most-dangerous-myths/ |archive-date=April 21, 2019 |title=Bullies and Black Trench Coats: The Columbine Shooting's Most Dangerous Myths |first=Gillian |last=Brockell |newspaper=Washington Post |date=April 19, 2019 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Author Jeff Kass who has also published a book on the attack believes that bullying wasn't the cause.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/20/columbine.myths/ |title=Debunking the myths of Columbine, 10 years later - CNN.com |website=www.cnn.com}}</ref> Peter Langman also argues against bullying being the cause of the attack.<ref name="schoolshooters.info">{{cite web |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/search_for_truth_at_columbine_2.2.pdf |title=The Search for Truth at Columbine |author=Peter Langman |date=31 July 2014 |website=schoolshooters.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_search_for_justification_1.3.pdf |author=Peter Langman |date=3 February 2016 |title=Eric Harris: The Search for Justification |website=schoolshooters.info}}</ref> Other researchers have also argued against the bullying hypothesis.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1080/15564886.2017.1307295 |title=Columbine Revisited: Myths and Realities About the Bullying–School Shootings Connection |year=2017 |last1=Mears |first1=Daniel P. |last2=Moon |first2=Melissa M. |last3=Thielo |first3=Angela J. |journal=Victims & Offenders |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=939–955 |s2cid=148745392 | issn=1556-4886}}</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Columbine High School massacre
(section)
Add topic