Students and teachers thought it was a prank. It was the week after prom, Seniors were
getting ready to graduate, and the idea that this was real was
unthinkable. But the unthinkable happened
on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, as it had before at other schools,
and would after. Two students, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold, would become infamous, remembered as deranged
teenagers who attempted to blow up their school, and when that failed, kill 13
people and then themselves.
Cullen, Dave. 2009. Columbine. New York: Hachette.
Until Sandy Hook, Columbine was the worst school shooting on
record. Harris and Klebold have been
villainized, psychoanalyzed, preached about and lamented, and yet, we know very
little about the actual lives of the boys behind the media-created myth. Journalist Dave Cullen, one of the first on
the scene the day of the shootings, would remain with the story for 10 years,
pouring over countless police records, interviews, and journals, in order to
bring the definitive book. “The result
is an astounding account of two good students with lots of friends, who were
secretly stockpiling a basement cache of weapons, recording their raging
hatred, and manipulating every adult who got in their way” [book flap]. Cullen debunks many of the myths that were
concretized during the media’s coverage of the shooting in the week that followed. For instance, the shooters were never part of
the Trench Coat Mafia, they weren’t bullied, they didn’t target jocks and
Christians. Harris was found to be a psychopath,
while Klebold was depressive, suicidal. Both were bent on annihilation. Together, they became a murderous dyad-the
perfect storm of teenage boredom , angst, and testosterone.
I picked this book off the shelves the day after the
Connecticut shootings, to see if it would shed any light on the tragic events
that happened there. What I found was a
book in the same vein as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Cullen carefully recreates the events of
the shooting, piecing together interviews and police reports to flesh out a
step by step plan. He explains the
science behind understanding the events, and he does a particularly good job of
explaining how the media and new mobile technology played a role in forming the
American opinion of Columbine. He
explains how good people made mistakes, how connections just weren’t made, and
how much of that was kept on the down low.
For example, a police investigator had opened a file on Harris a year
before the shootings. Both Klebold and
Harris were in a juvenile rehabilitation program to avoid jail time for
breaking and entering a year before.
Cullen makes a firm case for the evidence being there prior to the shooting
and our failure, as a society, to notice.
Particularly interesting are his interviews with local pastors about how
the shooting galvanized the local Christian community and differences of opinion
among the clergy about whether the shooting should be used to bring more people
to God. Most compelling was his
explanation of the psyches of Harris and Klebold, mostly through the work of
FBI criminal psychologist Dwayne Fuselier.
Cullen honors the victims and families of all the victims through his
careful work.
Rewards and Reviews
Edgar Award
"Top Education Book"--American School Board Journal
Alex Award Finalist--American Library Association
“Cullen,
acclaimed expert on Columbine,
offers a penetrating look at the motivation and intent of the shooters, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold. Drawing on interviews, police records, media
coverage, and diaries and videotapes left behind by the shooters, Cullen
examines the killers’ beliefs and psychological states of mind. Chilling
journal entries show a progression from adolescent angst to psychopathic rage
as they planned a multistage killing spree that included bombs that ultimately
didn’t detonate. Cullen goes beyond detailing the planning and execution of the
shootings, delving into the early lives of the killers as well. Graphic and
emotionally vivid; spectacularly researched and analyzed.” -- Vanessa Bush, Booklist
(April 2009)
“Any book about this tragedy can be hard to
read, and Cullen's detailed account of the gruesome killings and suicides is no
exception. Cullen's style can also make the book hard going, as he skips back
and forth through time and among different people involved in the event and
occasionally repeats himself. In the end, however, Cullen clarifies a lot of
misconceptions that evolved soon after the tragedy and provides new insights
into why it occurred, which makes the book definitely worth reading despite the
disjointed narrative.”—Terry
Christner, Library Journal (March 15, 2009)
“Cullen expertly balances the psychological
analysis—enhanced by several of the nation's leading experts on
psychopathology—with an examination of the shooting's effects on survivors,
victims' families and the Columbine community.
Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper
understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy
to stomach.” -- Publisher’s Weekly
(April 2009)
Ideas for Teaching
Using this with students might be difficult, but there are possibilities
for teaching psychological profiling that would work with an AP class. It would fit with discussions of teen
depression and suicide; however, I would be cautious in using the protagonists
as examples since their story ends in a worst-case scenario. It could also be useful for media studies, religious
studies or contemporary history.
Journalism and/or rhetoric teachers may find it useful for teaching
students how journalists construct a story.
It would be a good read for any school administrator concerned with
school safety.
