the world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.

we've all heard the story.
april 20, 1999. twelve years from today.
two boys walked into their highschool and gunned down their peers, killing thirteen before taking their own lives.
but what do we really know about
COLUMBINE

we know the heart wrenching story of patrick ireland. the boy from the library who took a bullet to the brain. he crawled the expanse of the library to the window where he used all his strength to heave himself out, without the use of one side of his body. we see the picture of him dangling halfway down the side of the school with swat members trying to reach for him before he falls. he fell. but he got back up. patrick ireland is one of the most inspiring stories i have ever heard.

we know the incredible story of cassie bernall's devotion to faith, which turns out to be a complete falsity. such a sad truth. what will forever be immortalized in flyleaf's song "cassie", turns out to be a misconception by survivors- but who can really blame them. eric harris did ask one of the students if she believed in god, and her answer was yes. this student, however, was not cassie bernall, but instead valeen schnurr whose life was spared. it's tragic to think that the martyr to the student survivors of columbine was not true, but cassie bernall's image was forever one of hope to those seeking closure.

we know the story of rachel scott. she was the first to be slain by the boys on this day twelve years ago. she had no idea of the planned massacre, but she knew that she was not going to live a long life. her goal was to live a full life each day, in order to be remember as something extraordinary. and extraordinary is what her country wide tour "rachel's challenge" is, to say the least. her family has traveled all over the states, including mlhs, in order to inspire students to live to be more than average. it's truly a touching presentation.

when i think about school shootings, i think about (1) columbine, and (2) frontier middle school. frontier was nothing compared to columbine, but it being a hometown horror makes it something of more personally terrifying. the story of barry loukaitis and his troubles with home life and antisocial personality and issues with bullying is nothing like the stories of erick harris and dylan klebold. erick and dylan were not students who were picked on and isolated, as we come to think of when we think about those students who lash out. they were popular amongst their friends, and known throughout the school. they were just some truly messed up kids. erick, the psychopath, and dylan, the suicidal one, were two kids who had a true animosity towards humanity and a society full of what they dubbed "lower life forms".

we think about school shootings as impulsive, and just go in and let loose. but columbine was much different. it was full of strategic planning, planning that went down to the second. erick and dylan had planted bombs in the school designed to kill, but also cause students to flee, and then stationed themselves outside of the school where they would have the best angle to gun down as many students as possible. they never planned to enter the school. they even planted a decoy bomb out in a field to distract local police from the tragedy that was about to unfold. columbine was not a spur-of-the-moment deal where the boys just got sick of living. columbine was a sick plot born in the soul of a manipulative psychopath.

the columbine story is one of the most disturbingly gripping tales that i have ever heard. what i thought i knew about the shooting turned out the be almost ninety percent false. reading dave cullen's novel about the massacre turned out to be one of the best decisions i have made. i would recommend to any who are interested in learning more to pick this book up. cullen spent ten years accumulating the facts that went into this book. he researched the killers, the victims, the religion that took hold. he recreated the massacre in such detail that your stomach will turn and you'll have chills for days. but would you expect anything less?

may the victims of this vicious crime against humanity rest in peace: rachel, danny, dave, cassie, steven, corey, kelly, matthew, daniel, isaiah, john, lauren, and kyle.
may the victims and the killers parents and the survivors get the closure they'll forever be searching for.
and may the world never forget columbine.