No. 5: Columbine shooting

Editor's note: This story is part of a series titled "Top 10 News Events of Our Lives," published in December 2008. The stories were chosen and written by Daily staff writers. Our editors have shared some of their anecdotes on each event. We encourage you to leave your own memories in the Discussion section of each story.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out a plot that would leave 15 people dead and 23 wounded at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo.

This incident has become known as the Columbine shootings or the Columbine massacre. The study of this occurrence and other school shootings has helped law enforcement and school officials in determining who is at risk for this type of violent behavior.

When there is a school shooting, it is important to look at the characteristics of the offenders to try to figure out risk factors to identify who would do something like this, said Matt DeLisi, associate professor of sociology and coordinator of criminal justice studies.

ISU Police has long had a preventive system to identify these risk factors in students and faculty in an effort to prevent an event like Columbine.

“We initiated a preventative early identification, early intervention program back in 1993, 1994,” said Gene Deisinger, associate director of the Department of Public Safety. “We are trying to identify and assist persons whose behavior indicates there may be issues.”

ISU Police acts as a centralized location for the threat assessment program. If someone expresses concern about a particular person, that information reaches the police. ISU Police then checks other sources on the person in question and gives the person the help he or she needs.

It is really a reach-out, counseling-oriented approach, Deisinger said.

Shortly after Columbine, the U.S. Secret Service issued a study of school shootings called the Safe School Initiative.

According to the study, its goals were “to gather and analyze accurate and useful information about the behavior and thinking of young persons who commit acts of targeted violence in our nation’s schools, and to provide this information to school and law enforcement professionals with responsibilities to prevent targeted school violence.”

DeLisi said characteristics of offenders might include social issues, psychiatric issues, behavioral issues and family issues.

Social issues often play a big role in determining the risk factors of certain individuals. One of the findings of the Safe School Initiative was many of the attackers had experienced bullying and harassment that was long-standing and severe. In those cases, the experience of bullying appeared to play a major role in motivating the attack at the school.

In January 2000, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens formed the Columbine Review Commission to conduct an independent review of the shooting.

The review included this entry from Klebold’s journal in 1997: “I swear — like I’m an outcast, and everyone is conspiring against me … Fact: People are so unaware … well, ignorance is bliss I guess … that would explain my depression.”

The review also contained this account: “Harris left a more detailed written record … Like Klebold, he expressed feelings of isolation: ‘I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things,’ Harris said of his classmates at Columbine.”

Psychiatric issues are common in this type of violent offender, such as schizophrenia and depression, DeLisi said.

Klebold and Harris had been dealing with depression prior to the shootings.

The Columbine Review Commission report states that “police said Klebold also wrote of obtaining a gun and committing suicide and, in a November 1997 journal entry, Klebold said he wanted to go on a killing spree. Eric Harris apparently had been placed on antidepressant medication, but the commission was not able to obtain details.”

There is some controversy over the medication Harris was taking. Some reports say Harris had stopped taking the medication prior to the massacre. According to the Columbine Review Commission report, the autopsy results revealed a therapeutic level of the antidepressant drug Luvox. Some say this drug may have contributed to Harris’ rejection by the Marine Corps prior to the shooting.

Klebold and Harris had a history of delinquency or previous involvement with the juvenile criminal justice system.

“The pair had been arrested for theft … and had been suspended from school for hacking,” according to the Columbine Review Commission report.

The Safe School Initiative states that “most attackers engaged in some behavior, prior to the incident, that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.”

According to the Columbine report, Klebold had written a violent essay that raised a teacher’s concern, and Harris had created a Web page filled with threats.

Although Klebold and Harris fit many classic characteristics of disturbed and possibly dangerous youth, these characteristics cannot be used to define who is dangerous and who is not. There is not a specific profile for a school shooter.

“There are people who match the profile who will never become dangerous and there are people who don’t match the profile that will be dangerous,” Deisinger said.

According to the Safe School Initiative, “the use of profiles is not effective either for identifying students who may pose a risk for targeted violence at or — once a student has been identified — for assessing the risk that a particular student may pose for school targeted violence. An inquiry should focus instead on a student’s behaviors and communications to determine if the student appears to be planning or preparing for an attack.”

Staff comments:

"It failed to make a progressive leap at dealing with students with mental illnesses and instead of an intelligent nurturing approach, schools took the easy way out by profiling students. School systems were more concerned about preventing another Columbine than actually analyzing the cause of the problem"

— Thomas Grundmeier, online editor