Not Always A Model Child
One of 13 victims slain at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., was Cassie Bernall. The 17-year-old was asked at gunpoint, moments before she was killed, if she believed in God. Her answer was yes.
Since then Cassie has become a role model for many. But some may be surprised to learn that Cassie was not always a model child. To set the record straight, her parents Misty and Brad Bernall spoke with CBS News This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.
"We realized a number of years ago when Cassie had turned her life around that Cassie had a story that we would like to share with other parents and teen-agers," says Misty Bernall.
Misty Bernall reveals in a new book she has written, She Said Yes, the Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall, that at one point Cassie got involved with some friends into a cult.
She had even found letters in Cassie's room saying such things as: "Kill your parents. Murder is the answer to all of your problems."
"Misty was devastated that the little girl we had loved and put so much time into could dislike us that much, could hate us that much," notes Brad Bernall.
"It was just a total surprise to learn that she had this other personality that we knew absolutely nothing about," he adds.
Initially, they spent a lot of time with Cassie, disciplining her, and they forbade her to go out with her old friends, Misty Bernall recalls.
"We wouldn't let her out of our sights, so she didn't have the opportunity to run away. At one point we caught her walking out the door and told her she had some alternatives of places to go, but she couldn't go where she wanted to go," she adds.
Yet, the Bernalls say, there was a turnaround after their daughter attended a youth retreat at a Christian school.
"Cassie told me that they were praying and that she felt an actual physical weight lifted from her shoulders," says Misty Bernall. "She had a joy for life from that moment on."
"She said, 'Mom, I've changed. I know that you don't believe me but I'm going to prove it to you.' She did, and our relationship then began to be based on trust," recalls Misty Barnall.
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She envisioned sharing their story with parent groups and youth groups, talking about how there's hope for kids to turn their lives around. But April 20, when Cassy died, her dreams changed and Missy Bernall's book was the result. It includes contibutions from her husband.
"I think that the adolescence period is laced with a friendship of parent and child, and it's seasoned with layers of when parents have to put their foot down," says Brad Bernall.
"That's an uncomfortable period for parents and children. You have to do the job of parenting; you can't leave it to someone else," he adds.
A lot of people had put some blame on the parents of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, but the Bernalls say after having experienced how some kids can put up such a good front, they say they can't blame the parents.
"It put us on the same playing field that we were both parents who had lost a child. We had the support of the community and the nation and they didn't. I grieved for all the parents who lost children," adds Misty Bernall.
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