U.S.

Columbine Rival Reaches Out

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 29, 1999 / 10:18 AM EDT / CBS

Columbine High School students are preparing to go back to school Monday, but they wonÂ't be going back to Columbine. Instead, they will finish the school year at nearby rival Chatfield High School.

For half of each school day, the building will be used by the Chatfield students. It will be given over to the Columbine students for the other half.

"I think that weÂ're ready," Columbine senior Krissa Eggert told CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Jane Robelot. "I think that everybody is anxious to get with our teachers and with the students so we can all just be together and start the healing process."

Columbine senior Tammy Schwartzott said she would rather graduate from high school at Columbine.

"We donÂ't want to graduate at a different school, but we have to," Schwartzott said. "I think a lot of people just have to go back to put closure to this and to grasp the fact that it happened."

Eggert and Schwartzott, both friends of shooting victims Lauren Townsend and Dave Sanders, said that being together is what is most important for the Columbine students.

School officials have made many plans to help ease the students' anxiety. Chatfield students are doing their part, too, decorating the school with welcome signs and messages of encouragement.

Chatfield High student Brad Laurvick is helping the Columbine studentsÂ' transition. He said the Columbine-Chatfield rivalry wonÂ't disturb the healing process.

"Everybody knows someone at Columbine," Laurvick said. "WeÂ're rival schools but weÂ're still the same."

Barbara Monsue, assistant superintendent of both high schools, told CBS News that several support systems will be in place for the Columbine students:

Each classroom will be assigned a mental health professional or a victim assistant.
"Safe rooms" will be available for students who need additional support throughout each school day.
The campus supervisors and community resource officers will be the people who the students already know from Columbine.
Parent volunteers will be at Chatfield, with the main goal of helping the students feel safe and secure.

"This has been Â… a friendly, good rivalry, and the students [at Chatfield] have gone out of their way to welcome their friends from Columbine," Monsue said. "While they're rivals in high school sports, they're very friendly in terms of the interaction outside of the school."