Columbine Families Mourn Virginia Tech

On Eighth Anniversary Of Attack, They Also Question A Judge's Ruling Sealing Info About The Killers

(CBS/AP)  As they mark the eighth anniversary of the Columbine school shooting and mourn the recent victims at Virginia Tech, many Littleton families also are questioning a judge's decision to seal information about the killers.

Columbine High School was closed Friday, as it had been every April 20 since the 1999 attack in which two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

Invoking the Columbine tragedy, Gov. Bill Ritter asked state residents to join a bell-ringing and moment of silence for the Virginia Tech victims on Friday.

"We experienced a terrible tragedy at Columbine High School," Ritter said. "The people of Colorado will stand in solemn silence on the anniversary of that dreadful day with the people of Virginia as they grieve."

The trauma of this week's tragedy was shared by Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis.

"Immediately, my thoughts went back to April 20, '99, and vivid memories. It really does. It retraumatizes you," DeAngelis told CBS News correspondent Lee Frank.

But federal Judge Lewis Babcock's decision earlier this month to seal for 20 years the testimony of Harris' and Klebold's parents about the boys' home lives has infuriated some survivors and victims' relatives, who feel the information could help prevent future school rampages.

"I don't think you can stop every crazy person. But some of the things Babcock locked up show what these crazy kids did," said Don Fleming, whose 16-year-old daughter, Kelly, was killed in the attack. "It's no use to anybody if it is locked up."

"If society knew, it could possibly prevent future shootings," Fleming said. "We're finding out that everything that the latest killer did is similar to what Klebold and Harris did."

Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday before taking his own life, called Harris and Klebold "martyrs" in a videotape.

Fearing the effects of both the Virginia Tech tragedy and the Columbine anniversary, some high schools in other parts of the country canceled classes for the day.

Schools in Yuba and Sutter counties in California were closed after a 28-year-old man allegedly threatened a massacre there.

Tenafly, N.J., schools were closed after a bomb threat was found scrawled in pencil on a door in the high school, specify April 20.

"I don't want my kids in school. God forbid it's true," parent Debbie Werner told WCBS-TV.

Not much has changed in the eight years since Columbine, said Tom Mauser, whose son was killed there.

"We still have a lot of angry people. We still have a lot of firearms, and it's been a pretty deadly mix for us," Mauser told Frank.

In his ruling, Babcock cited a need for confidentiality and concerns that releasing the testimony from the Columbine killers' parents could encourage copycat crimes.

Many in this suburb of Denver think the decision was a mistake.

"Are the people of Virginia going to wait 20 years?" said Dawn Anna, whose 18-year-old daughter, Lauren, was killed at Columbine.

For some here, watching events unfold in Virginia was a painful reminder of the chaos and suffering thrust on them eight years ago. The parents of students slain at Columbine met this week to deal with the shock of the Virginia killings. The judge's decision dominated their conversation.

"I felt like I was looking at Lauren's murderer. It's as if someone has been cruelly replaying April 20," Anna said.

The Harrises and Klebolds commented publicly only through their lawyers. Michael Montgomery, an attorney who represented the Harris family, said the judge "made an absolutely appropriate decision." The judge declined to comment Thursday.

Much information about the Columbine killers is available on the Internet, including video clips of the two practicing their marksmanship, Harris' diaries, and Web sites dedicated to both killers.

Authorities learned that Harris and Klebold played violent games, made violent videos at school and were bullied.

Researchers into school-related violence support the Columbine families' position on releasing the tapes, noting the relative frequency of violent campus incidents. The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2002 that were 220 school-related shootings from 1994 to 1999, resulting in 253 deaths.

"The judge said the tapes were incendiary. We have plenty of things already that stimulate violence," said sociologist Ralph Larkin, author of "Comprehending Columbine."

Katherine S. Newman, a professor at Princeton who has written about shooting rampages, said the information should be released.

"A 20-year lag deprives the rest of the country of what might be valuable insight," she said. "Indeed, having done a lot of research with the families of victims, they are left with a big hole in the middle not only by the loss of their children but by the unanswered 'why' questions."

[davek455]

columbine, virginia tech, 10 years from now there will be two or three more events/places to add to this list thanks to the NRA and its guerilla tactics...I am so saddened and disgusted that things never change, that politicians are so weak-spined that they allow the NRA to convince people that hollow point bullets are a second amendment right of Americans.

[noaanhc]

davek455

You are so right,we are being held hostage by the NRA terrorists who are no better than Al-Queda.
Our politicans are spineless wimps because they value their cushy jobs in Congress and are happy to go along with the status quo.So until they are willing to confront this home grown terror group,
we have to live with the embarassment of having the highest murder rate in the democratic world.

[ndkennedy-2009]

Davek455 and noaanhc

I am in 100% complete agreement with you two. It's ridiculous to think that our government so to speak has the ability and power to stop or help stop future attacks that will happen at the rate that things are going. I can't believe that our politicians wouldn't look at an alternative to this ridiculous idea brought up by the NRA. How about this, instead of giving students weapons to defend themselves. We hire a set amount of security personal, police, or how ever one would like to refer to them. Whom are armed and trained properly to defend themselves and others (students in this case).

I'm a 20 year old college student and I personally would personally say that I would feel much safer living in a secure environment protected on a much better level than knowing that I would have to live in fear because the kid sitting next to me carries a gun.

What happens if a student gets mad at a teacher and says, "I'm gonna kill her for giving me an F on my paper." And another student hears this, and then reports to their Dean or head counselor of this. How are you supposed to take this type of comment non-literal, when the student saying it, in fact has the capability of doing just that, and "killing their teacher." Even if he or she did not mean it, it just puts our students and teachers in that much of a higher paranoia state.

[ndkennedy-2009]

I think I'm going to write to one of the politicians in regards to this matter because I am in such distraught at the moment I don't even feel like going to school this week. That's another can of worms in itself as well. Kids will be too scared to go to school because they will know that they are going to be at school with a handful of armed students, and what happens if they say the wrong thing to them. They get their life taken?

Please feel free from anyone of both sides of this argument to address my points that I have given, I would LOVE to hear them and further discuss them.

[gunownerdan]

"Let me make a point here, in case this isn't becoming extremely clear. My state has gun control laws. It did not keep Hennard from coming in and killing everybody! What it did do, was keep me from protecting my family!"
- Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp, Killeen Texas Luby's massacre survivor

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-- Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria in "On Crimes and Punishment"(1764)


a-human-right.com

[davek455]

I grew up owning a gun. From 8 years old on I owned a gun. For hunting. Why I hate the NRA is that they are against outlawing cop-killing hollow point bullets. They are against outlawing assault weapons. Hollow point bullets and assault weapons are not necessary to hunt with or defend yourself with. Our founding fathers I would imagine would not be in favor of these two examples of what the NRA defends.

[noaanhc]

Dr Hupp

I am not in favor of bannning you or anyone else from carrying a handgun for personal protection.
I truly wish you had that weapon on you on that horrible day at Lubys.You may have been able to save many of those lives lost that day.
My beef is we don't need high powered assault weapons such as M-16,or a AK-47 just to name two.
They were not created to hunt deer with but to kill people on a war battlefield.The military or law enforcement officals only should have access to these kinds of guns.I also don't have a problem with someone owning a rifle or shotgun to go deer hunting or small calibar guns for target shooting or sheet shooting.
Why also does the NRA constantly oppose the ban on hollow points bullets than can penetrate the body armour worn by police.Why do they oppose a ban on military assault weapons.Why does every other democratic nation restrict these guns to the police and the army.I think if the founding fathers could visit 21st Century USA they would be so shocked and appaled by how violent our nation has become in the last 230 years and saddened that we have the highest murder rate than any other democratic nation.

[glidescube]

I truly wish you had that weapon on you on that horrible day at Lubys.You may have been able to save many of those lives lost that day.
My beef is we don't need high powered assault weapons such as M-16,or a AK-47 just to name two.

I have an M16 AND and AK47 and I don't see why those should be banned when statistically they are used in a miniscual number of mass shootings. Thnink about it...have you ever tried to put an assualt rifle in your pocket or under your shirt?

Most gun crimes are commited by hand guns not assualt rifles because these weapons are too unwieldly and difficult to conceal.

[connieo27]

I cannot condone the banning of guns or ammunition for one reason and one reason only. We cannot keep these things from the people that truly want them anyway. They WILL get what they want. It is a waste of legislative time.

Does legislation stop drug use? Does it stop theft? Does it stop murder? It does NOT. We need to realize that responsibility lies squarely on our own shoulders to commit to a better, more moral environment. We cannot expect lawmakers to make our world right or safe. We need to know that we bear responsiblities.

We keep moving further and further away from ALL religion-based beliefs. I am not pushing any one religion down anyone's throat. Just look at what the teaching of all religions entail, they clearly advocate behaviors of truth, respect, decency and love.

[connieo27]

I am not being Polyanna about this. I realize that evil abides among us all, however, it is our job to be certain that we espouse the behaviors set forth in our religions. We have become such wimps when it comes to doing and expecting what is morally right! We expect so little of ourselves individually. The devil did NOT take over this world overnight. He has worked in very very sublte ways... slowly but surely leaving his mark on our lives and consuming our thoughts.

We have become so fixated on our own wants and desires that even our own NEEDS are neglected. I see it over and over again. We have huge appetites for entertainment and distraction. We cannot stand anyone who tells us to look at ourselves! We pay the price now for my generation full of "free love" and "if it feels good do it" and so on and so on. We have learned to expect so much less from ourselves. It makes me sad to see such decline.

[connieo27]

I grieve for the families of VT. I am so sorry for their losses. Pushing gun control and other legislation will not negate the potential for more evil. All we can do now is remember that we each have a responsibility to make our world better. It is the only way. It is the right way.

The closeness of the VT community is inspiring and has given me a new hope. I see that they have determined that evil will not prevail! They have asked only for our prayers, support and respect for their privacy. Nothing more. I saw such inspiring behaviors of bravery, love and sacrafice. Where the opportunity for hate to grow was enormous, they have risen above that and absolutely refused to let it govern their lives. They have faced the horror and found the strength and fortitude to conquer it. I am in such awe of that community. They have done what is right and what should be done. If the media will now let them alone to gather more strength from within, they will prevail. God bless them all.