11th Anniversary of the Columbine Massacre

Adolf Hitler was born on this date in 1889. Eleven years ago, to “celebrate” the occasion, two teenage students from Littleton, CO—Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold—showed up at school armed with bombs, sawed-off shotguns and semi-automatic weapons. At 11:20 AM, they opened fire on their classmates. By noon, 12 students and one teacher were dead, and 24 others were wounded. The Columbine High massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

Unfortunately, Columbine was not an isolated tragedy—as underlined by similar incidents at Virginia Tech University and other schools. Violence in our schools on a dimension not previously imaginable remains a major problem for society.

Shootings of innocent people are always horrifying. But events like Columbine and Virginia Tech, which involve our children, are especially hard to take. It’s hard to focus on what lessons, if any, were learned from Columbine. But some were. The immediate aftermath was beefed up security at schools across the continent. On a deeper and more meaningful level, educators, parents and even students gained a new awareness of the dangers of bullying and the importance of communication. Sadly, however, much still remains to be done.

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