Columbine High School Research Articles

The consequences of high‐fatality school shootings for surviving students

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of high‐fatality school shootings on the subsequent outcomes of the survivors of those events. We focus specifically on the shootings at Columbine High School (Littleton, CO), Sandy Hook Elementary (Newtown, CT), and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL). We assess the subsequent educational record, including attendance and test scores, and the long‐term health consequences of surviving students. In all analyses, we treat the timing and location of these events as random, enabling us to identify causal effects. Our results indicate that these high‐fatality school shootings led to substantial reductions in attendance and test scores. These educational effects appear to be larger than the effects of shootings with fewer fatalities estimated by others. Children who survived the Columbine shooting were more likely to die by age 30, particularly among boys. They experienced higher levels of suicide and accidental poisonings (overdoses).

Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound Annie Bartos (bio) Safe, adj. (1): secure, unharmed; still alive or existing; immune from punishment. Our house is no more than three miles from the shooting range. My daughter's outdoor preschool is closer, less than one mile as the bullet flies. "What's that sound?" my almost-five-year-old daughter asked me. "I think those are gun shots," I said. "Are they going to kill us?" she asked. "No, honey. You are safe." The words fell out of my mouth, meant to convince myself as much as her that a shooting range is not dangerous. That shooting ranges are essentially schools to teach gun safety, for people to practice a skill. That the sound of bullets is nothing to be alarmed about. The website for the range states firearms that can be used there include: all handguns and rifles; any shotguns and loads; pistols, pistol-caliber carbines up to .45 ACP; rifles using rim-fire cartridges; shotguns with 7.5 shot or smaller; rifles with ammunition up to and including 50 caliber BMG; black powder firearms; handguns using rifle-caliber ammo. None of these guns should be able to reach farther than 400 yards, about a third of a mile. Therefore, the bullets fired at the shooting range should not reach the site of her preschool. The website also advises: Read range rules upon arriving. If only rules kept people safe. Rules, in their expression as laws, are simply meant to regulate, to keep order. Safety is not the primary goal, but rather a possibility. Statistics confirm this impossibility. Unintentional shootings, accidents from improperly stored firearms, and suicide by gunshot are the leading cause of death for people under the age of twenty-four. The data show the numbers continuing to rise, rather than plateau. And schools are hardly safe havens. On April 20, 1999, I was in my last year of college in Boulder, less than forty miles from Columbine High School. It was the early days of the internet, a year after Google launched, and a year before Wikipedia. I returned to my flat for lunch after my morning classes, and the house, partitioned into five separate flats, was quiet except for the sound of voices on a television. My housemate's door was wide open, and he called out my name when I came through the flower garden gate. The screen on his T.V. showed a line of kids running in single file, crouching their heads, herding together outside the school. Aerial views of a sprawling high school building; a parking lot; police cars; the flat, tree-less landscape surrounding the school. Groups of kids hugging, crying, huddling behind police vehicles. It was hard to know what was happening, but it seemed impossible. The words "never again" were declared. In the twenty-plus years that have passed since that April day, hundreds of thousands of kids in schools across the country have been exposed to gun-related violence during school hours. Not all these events have been televised or captured on social media. Most aren't even reported in the news. Every so [End Page 141] often, a particularly horrific shooting will breach the headlines, and the dead may be named. Year after year, "thoughts and prayers" have had minimal impact on federal gun legislation. When she graduated from preschool, public kindergarten inched my daughter a half mile further from the shooting range. But the sound of bullets is still heavy on the recess yard, mingling with the sound of the school bell, the P.E. teacher's whistle, and the screeching strings of student violin lessons. The gun range's very presence within earshot of a place of learning is a material and visceral reminder that shootings happen every day. For the next five years of elementary school, my daughter and her classmates will learn the drills for a fire, an earthquake, and how to "shelter in place." Their teachers will be trained in active shooter drills. They will instruct the children to run, hide, defend, or offend. Some of these kids will become friends while others might be bullied, envied, excluded. Some of these kids will have guns in...

The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927 by Amie Marsh Jones

Reviewed by: The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927 by Amie Marsh Jones Arnie Bernstein Amie Marsh Jones. The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927. Self-published, 2021. Pp. 235. Bibliography. Notes. Photographs. Paperback: $24.99. The May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, unfolded on television in what is now a familiar pattern. The story was easy to cover, something that is both ironic and infuriating. Since the Columbine High School shooting of April 20, 1999, in Columbine, Colorado, a template has evolved for media outlets covering large-scale school murder—a configuration used for mass school killings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and so many others. Cable news and broadcast networks interrupt their regular programming using the requisite plan to cover the unfolding horror. The relied-upon elements include reporters on the scene telling what they know, repeated images of victims fleeing the school grounds, interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors, law enforcement officials giving press conferences, and ubiquitous graphics coupled with dramatic music. In recent years, social media has gained ground in this unblinking coverage, with people inside the schools posting cell phone videos on TikTok and Twitter. Viewers are thrust onto the violent front lines in real time. It wasn’t always like this. On May 18, 1927, in the small farming community of Bath, Michigan, about sixteen miles outside of Lansing, an explosion rocked the local consolidated school, demolishing the north wing of the building in a matter of seconds. Not far from the scene, a farmhouse owned by Andrew Kehoe, a school trustee, was ablaze. Kehoe drove to the school, where he blew himself up in his truck, killing others in the process. The next day, the remains of his wife, Nellie, were found burned beyond recognition at the smoldering remains of their home. Five hundred pounds of dynamite were discovered beneath the undamaged main portion the school building; it was later estimated that about one hundred pounds of dynamite went off beneath the ruined north wing. In total, thirty-eight children and four adults were murdered, in addition to the deaths of Kehoe and Nellie. A sign found on the edge of Kehoe’s farm read “Killers Are Made, Not Born.” The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927 by Amie M. Jones is a thoughtful consideration of how America’s first mass school killing was reported by contemporary news sources. Just as today, people of the time wanted to know the basics of the massacre. Like modern audiences, they turned to the media for information. But in 1927 news reporting was mostly limited to newspapers. To a lesser extent, movie newsreels also got the word out. Radio, still struggling to find its voice, was not much of a factor. [End Page 120] There is an axiom, attributed to many sources, that newspapers are first rough draft of history. This adage provides a baseline that threads throughout the book, as Jones digs into the many tabloid stories by the reporters who headed to Bath in the wake the crime. In addition to Michigan papers, The New York Times and the Chicago Daily Tribune sent reporters to the scene. The Bath School bombing required a vocabulary necessary to match the terror of its sole perpetrator. The word “fiend” was often used to describe Kehoe. A common theme within the reportage was Kehoe’s terrorism contrasted to the town of Bath as a bucolic victim. This juxtaposition further emphasized the devastation, both physical and psychological, one man rendered upon his neighbors. The Bath School bombing was an incredible story, but it was wiped from front pages just a few days later when Charles Lindbergh took off from New York on his daring flight solo flight to Paris. The country—indeed, the world— was mad for “Lucky Lindy.” The media frenzy in Bath dissipated, which was probably the best thing that could have happened. A town bonded in collective mourning was no longer the hot story. Though repercussions of...

Media and Mass Shootings: Field Theory in CNN News Coverage of the Columbine High School and Parkland High School Mass Shootings

Through discourse analysis, this article seeks to compare the cable news coverage of the Columbine High School shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (n = 81) in the first two days of coverage using field theory, with CNN broadcast transcripts as the unit of analysis. The research showed that the shooter was the dominant shaping force in the CNN discourse in both school shooting events.

Creating a safe community: The transition project

Currently, research surrounding transition programs for students entering high school focuses on academic achievement outcomes. However, the prevalence of school shootings in predominantly white, suburban communities shows that students in these often academically competitive schools may need support to help them become more connected to the school community. Antony Farag and Bailey Verdone describe how the Transition Project at Westfield High School in New Jersey, launched soon after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, has helped the school build a community of trust, beginning when students enter the school in 9th grade. The program links 9th graders with 11th- and 12th-grade who lead them in discussions about community building. The program has become an integral part of the school, receiving support from teachers, administrators, and the local community.

Active shooter mitigation techniques.

This paper looks at current active shooter mitigation techniques employed by schools throughout the country in an attempt to mitigate casualties during an active shooter event. The researchers modified an existing Columbine High School agent-based model created by Jae Lee, MS, to examine if the introduction of a school resource officer (SRO), concealed carry weapon (CCW) holder, or both would change the outcome of the previous research. RUN.HIDE.FIGHT® scenarios were modeled with the same parameters of the previous work, but now included armed first responders during the incident to assess whether their presence decreased casualties through a reduction in response time. The researchers determined that the addition of either an SRO, CCW holder, or both significantly reduced casualty rates during an active shooter scenario.

Konsekwencje nieudanej interwencji wychowawczej i medycznej w procesie przeciwdziałania zjawisku bullyingu wobec uczniów z zaburzeniami osobowości i depresyjnymi na przykładzie studium przypadku: zabójstwo masowe w Columbine High School, 20 kwietnia 1999 r.

The objective of the paper is to posit that family care, educational systems, institutions, such as healthcare and law enforcement, when they fail to act in unison, may, in fact, contribute indirectly to a volatile school crisis, which in turn may evolve into disasters, such as school shootings and/or suicide. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre, compiled into a case study, has served as the empirical source for the study. Next to the poorly synchronised family and institutional efforts to correctly diagnose psychopathic traits in one per petrator and depression in the other, and failure to recognise their acute emotional crisis, two other variables contributing to the Columbine High shooting have been proposed. It is hypothesised that bullying (largely undermined and underestimated) to which Harris and Klebold had been exposed for at least four years, dur ingthe milestone 12 to 17 life stage, and the dysfunctional relationship between them, might have been the other massacre driving agents. Several negative repercussions of the Columbine shooting, such as worldwide copycat school shootings, resulting from a cult status of the Columbine murderers as well as their massive presence on the Internet and in pop culture, have been enumerated. Follow-up and further research studies have been proposed, including some quantitative projects, on bullying and cyber bullying among adolescents. Recommendations for decision makers have been listed.

The Harms of Structural Whiteness on Weapon Carrying, Policing, and Child Health.

The Harms of Structural Whiteness on Weapon Carrying, Policing, and Child Health.

High spirits: heavy metal and mental health

High spirits: heavy metal and mental health

Remaking Columbine

High school shootings in the United States generally receive enormous amounts of journalistic coverage and thus spark a lot of public interest. However, the topic appears to be taboo for mainstream cinema, and there are barely any films about real-life school shootings. This article seeks to show that Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003) is both an enlightening exception to this seeming contradiction and an interesting response to the popular narratives surrounding the Columbine High School shooting of 1999. The film is not only unique in its portrayal of a real-life school shooting but also in the way that it approaches the topic. There are three important processes that make this depiction of the Columbine High School shooting so powerful: remaking, remediating, and reflecting. First, Van Sant's film is a remake of Alan Clarke's 1989 film of the same name. Clarke's film depicts several incidents of gun violence in Northern Ireland without any commentary, and Van Sant employs the same techniques in his film about gun violence at a school. Second, the film critiques the discourse around the shooting, as it remediates video games for its filmic rhetoric. Lastly, Gus Van Sant de-narrativizes the shooting and creates a reflective space for the audience. These three aspects all influence the film's storytelling and cinematography, which aim at promoting reflection rather than providing a straightforward narrative.

Analysis of 48 Hours of Television News Coverage Following the Columbine High School Shooting

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine High School students started a shooting rampage, ultimately killing 12 students and one teacher, wounding 21 victims, then completing suicide. Using media frame analysis (MFA), we examined 265 transcribed major network television news stories aired during the 48 hours following the shooting. In these stories, we investigated the frequency of warning signs of youth violence. Though later disputed, stories included warning signs that fortified the myth of the juvenile superpredator. Television news coverage of school shootings often spotlights perpetrators, fuels false narratives, creates an inflated sense of risk and vulnerability, and fails to place such events in the larger context of youth violence. We urge professionals to contextualize news stories within a broader framework of youth violence; to support fact-based communication between the media, school administrators, and law enforcement; to eliminate the spotlight on perpetrators; and to carefully consider reactionary responses that are not evidence-based nor proven effective.

Correlates of the Number Shot and Killed in Active Shooter Events

Active shooter events have captured the public’s attention since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Although there has been research on various aspects of these events, only a single study has attempted to identify factors that are related to the number of people injured or killed in these events. This study was limited in that it only considered the presence or absence of a semi-automatic rifle. This paper expands on the existing research by examining several other factors that may impact the total number of people shot or killed during active shooter events.

The Survivor Network: The Role of Shared Experiences in Mass Shootings Recovery

ABSTRACT Social support from others with shared experiences can be an invaluable resource for individuals impacted by traumatic events, like school and mass shootings. While a growing body of literature explores the psychological impacts of these events on those who survive them, these studies predominantly focus on shootings at two universities, do not assess the effects beyond three years post-shooting, and rely almost exclusively on quantitative methodologies. To extend this body of literature, the present study relies on in-depth interviews with 16 survivors of the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine High School to explore the way in which they viewed various forms of social support during their trauma recovery process in both the short- and long-term. The findings indicate that the most effective support came from “similar others,” or those who had experienced the shooting in an analogous manner. Social support from the outside, even when well-intended, was viewed as unhelpful, while mixed perspectives were found related to community-level support. Based on these findings, broader consideration is given to the benefits of informal survivor networks.

Violence in Schools: Rare and Preventable With a ‘Culture of Safety’

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ProfessionalFull AccessViolence in Schools: Rare and Preventable With a ‘Culture of Safety’Mark MoranMark MoranSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:5 Dec 2019https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.12a15Abstract“See Something, Say Something” programs that encourage young people to come forward with concerns about someone who may exhibit signs of being potentially violent are part of a “safe school culture.”Twenty years after the mass shooting at Columbine High School, some American schools have become high-security zones with elaborate procedures for entry into the property, active-shooter lockdown drills, and zero-tolerance policies that allow students to be suspended for minor infractions. But schools are safer than the public has been led to believe by media attention to high-profile mass shootings, and at least some of these policies and practices that schools are employing may be counterproductive, according to the report “Mass Violence in America: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions” by the National Council on Behavioral Health (NCBH).“Your child is safer in school than she is driving with you in your car,” said Joseph Parks, M.D., medical director of the NCBH, at a session on mass violence at the IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference in October in New York. He was joined by John Rozel, M.D., an expert in threat assessment and president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (see story).They summarized the findings and conclusions of the National Council report, emphasizing the need for a public health—rather than a punitive or fear-based—approach to prevention of mass violence. The report addresses mass violence in general, but Parks and Rozel highlighted some special recommendations for schools.A priority of a public health approach to violence in schools is creating a positive climate for students to come forward because of mental health problems or concerns about other students who may be troubled.“See Something, Say Something” programs that encourage students to approach authorities with information about a possible threat are essential in the creation of a culture and climate of safety, allowing timely, nonpunitive identification of students displaying mental distress.A culture of safety also includes adequate teacher-student ratios and resources to provide in-school mental health and substance use evaluation and treatment or means for referral. And schools should make information about mental health widely available; the council recommendations specifically cite “Typical or Troubled?,” the APA Foundation program designed to help school personnel and others distinguish young people who are at risk or in need of treatment for mental or substance use disorders.At the IPS presentation, Rozel and Parks underscored several practices and policies that schools should not employ. Among them:Zero tolerance suspension policies. Many schools have adopted policies prohibiting not only guns or knives but all manner of objects or utensils that might be regarded as potentially dangerous, with suspensions or expulsions for violations. But suspensions and expulsions may increase a student’s isolation, alienation, and feelings of injustice and sense of hopelessness, which increase risk.High-cost hard security measures. Schools should avoid measures that create a correctional facility–like atmosphere such as bulletproof glass, armed security guards, and metal detectors. These are costly and, as physical reminders of potential danger, can create a threatening atmosphere and an environment not conducive to education. Less heavy-handed measures such as limited entry points into the school and surveillance cameras can be just as effective and less intrusive.Extremely realistic and dramatic active shooter drills. Some schools have employed surprise enactments with drawn guns and injury makeup. These can be traumatizing. “Shooter drills should be no more stressful or realistic than fire drills,” according to the council report. ■ ISSUES NewArchived

School Security in the Post-Columbine Era: Trends, Consequences, and Future Directions

Harsh and reactionary school security measures, including policing, surveillance technology, and emergency preparedness strategies increased substantially in the two decades following the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. These strategies have limited empirical support for preventing violence in general and mass shootings, in particular. Instead, they have proven to be problematic, often doing more harm than good by criminalizing student misbehavior, contributing to negative school climate, and having psychological impacts on students’ perceptions of safety. In recent years, many schools have started to explore promising alternative approaches, including threat assessment, positive behavioral interventions, restorative practices, and improving relationships between students and adults. This article reviews the trends in school security from the 1990s through the present, drawing on national data from the U.S. Department of Education and scholarly research on school security. Our specific focus will be on the changes in school security that have been made to prevent or minimize the impact of potential school shooters. We also discuss the consequences of the school security boom and the future directions to ensure school safety.

Introduction to Special Issue: The Legacy of Columbine—Implications for Policy After 20 Years

This introduction provides an overview to the special issue, which marks the twentieth anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School by considering the effect on policy addressing school violence and mass shootings. We asked each of the contributors to consider changes in their area of interest over the past two decades as well as future research and policy issues. The resulting five contributions take various forms: three are traditional scholarly articles, one is a personal commentary, and one is an afterword that combines a scholarly format with professional reflection. In our introduction, we summarize each one. As each article identifies the need for continued work in this area, and we conclude by providing a few examples of this research.

The Evolution of Active Shooter Response Training Protocols Since Columbine: Lessons From the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center

On April 20, 1999, two active shooters attacked Columbine High School. This attack became a catalyst that changed the manner in which law enforcement prepared for similar attacks at schools and other locations. Departments across the United States developed and adopted active shooter response training protocols. To assist law enforcement with this work, training centers were created including the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center. ALERRT was formed in 2002 and was named the national standard in active shooter training by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013. To date, ALERRT has trained more than 130,000 first responders from over 9,000 agencies in active shooter response. This commentary leverages our extensive expertise as directors of ALERRT. Specifically, we discuss how training protocols have evolved over the last two decades to include active shooter response teams, solo officer response, medical intervention training, integrated response training, and civilian response.

Afterword: The Columbine Effect on Culture, Policy, and Me

This afterword considers the cultural effect of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. I bring together the aspects of a traditional academic review with my personal reflections as a scholar who spent the past two decades researching its cultural and policy ramifications. Columbine is a noted milestone in the American cultural lexicon, and one that has become an important reference point for discussions of school violence and other social problems concerning youth. Columbine often serves as an inaccurate exemplar of the broader problem of youth violence, and this so-called “Columbine Effect” means that extreme cases exert a disproportionately strong influence on public discourse about the problem. Over the past 20 years, the net effect has been the acceleration of punitive anti-violence school policies that include policing, surveillance, and zero-tolerance policies. I consider my experience as a researcher in this area and conclude with modest suggestions for guiding policy development to mitigate the problem of violence in schools.

Black Girls Doing Time for White Boys’ Crime? Considering Columbine’s Security Legacy Through an Intersectional Lens

The 20th anniversary of the deadly shootings at Columbine High School provides an opportunity to take stock of policy changes it prompted. Two were the increased use of security personnel and exclusionary discipline. Although neither started in response to Columbine, both were greatly expanded in the wake of that event. Both also contributed to the current punitive school climate that has negatively affected students, particularly students of color. This article considers the experiences of Black girls. This focus is important given the general lack of attention given to Black girls despite their greater disparity in rates of discipline especially for minor, subjective infractions. This article seeks to provide a summary of the current literature to highlight trends in the use of security, the resulting disproportionate effect on Black girls, and the need to bring an intersectional perspective into current calls to reduce exclusionary discipline. The patterns summarized in this article highlight the need for criminologists, in particular, to include the experiences of Black girls in the post-Columbine security and policy discussions.

‘It’s a filthy goddamn helpless world’: Reimagining Columbine, Tate Langdon and the spectre of school shooters

Abstract You cannot watch the opening sequence of ‘Piggy Piggy’ without recalling the Columbine High School massacre of 1999, and it is these similarities that caused many media outlets to state that the series, already known for transgressive depictions of rape and murder, had ‘gone too far’. This article compares the fictional West Field High shooting with media reports of the Columbine shooting, and examines how the series reimagines the massacre – in keeping with American Horror Story’s (2011–2018) blending of the horror genre with real-life events in American history. By exploring stylistic and narrative choices made in Murder House, this article demonstrates how Tate Langdon is aligned to the perpetrators of Columbine, allowing Tate to occupy an intriguing space at the juncture between real-life trauma and fictional representation. This article details Tate Langdon’s subsequent adoption into the True Crime Community on Tumblr.com, where he often appears alongside the Columbine killers in fan products. Through an interrogation of how Tate is seen as an archetypal ‘twisted dream boy’, this article makes a connection between the depiction of Tate, the spectre of Columbine that is evoked within American Horror Story: Murder House and the under-researched area of the serial killer fandom.