Columbine High School massacre: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox_civilian_attack|title = Columbine High School massacre|location = Columbine High School|date = April 20th, 1999|type = [[School Shooting]]|deaths = 13 (15 including perpetrators)|non-fatal_injuries = 24|perps = [[Eric Harris]]

[[Dylan Klebold]]|image = REB & V.jpg|caption = Columbine shooters Eric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold (right) on CCTV.|target = Anyone with a white hat (the jocks)|numparts = 2}}

[[Dylan Klebold]]|image = REB & V.jpg|caption = Columbine shooters [[Eric Harris]] (left) and [[Dylan Klebold]] (right) on CCTV.|target = Anyone with a white hat (the jocks)|numparts = 2}}

{{Quote|You guys will all die, and it will be fucking soon! I hope you get an idea of what we’re implying here. You all need to die! We need to die, too! We need to fucking kick-start the revolution here!|[[Eric Harris]]}}

The '''Columbine High School massacre''', also referred to as '''NBK''', was a [[school shooting]] and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado on April 20, 1999. The perpetrators, [[Eric Harris]] and [[Dylan Klebold]], killed 12 students and a teacher before turning the guns on themselves.

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At 12:08 p.m., Harris and Klebold turn the guns on themselves. Harris sat down with his back to a bookshelf and fired his shotgun through the roof of his mouth, killing him instantly. Just before shooting himself, Klebold lit a Molotov cocktail on a nearby table, underneath which Patrick Ireland was laying, which caused the tabletop to momentarily catch fire. Klebold then went down on his knees and shot himself in the left temple with his TEC-9.

== ~~Aftermat~~ ==

== Aftermath ==

{{Quote|I think the biggest challenge for me after the shooting was the anger I was dealing with towards the two shooters. I hated those guys, I used to fantasise about what it'd be like to get revenge on them.|Rachel's brother Craig Scott}}

=== Evacuation of Columbine students and staff ===

By 12:00 p.m., SWAT teams were stationed outside the school, and ambulances started taking the wounded to local hospitals. A call for additional ammunition for police officers in case of a shootout came at 12:20 pm. Authorities reported pipe bombs by 1:00 pm, and two SWAT teams entered the school at 1:09 pm, moving from classroom to classroom, discovering hidden students and faculty. They entered at the end of the school opposite the library, hampered by old maps and unaware a new wing had recently been added. They were also hampered by the sound of the fire alarms.

Meanwhile, families of students and staff were asked to gather at nearby Leawood Elementary School to await information. All students, teachers, and school employees were taken away, questioned, and offered medical care in small holding areas before being bussed to meet with their family members at Leawood Elementary. Some of the victims' families were told to wait on one final school bus that never came.

Patrick Ireland had regained and lost consciousness several times after being shot by Klebold. Paralyzed on his right side, he crawled to the library windows where, on live television, at 2:38 pm, he stretched out the window, intending to fall into the arms of two SWAT team members standing on the roof of an emergency vehicle, but instead falling directly onto the vehicle's roof in a pool of blood. He became known as "the boy in the window". They were later criticized for allowing Ireland to drop more than seven feet to the ground while doing nothing to try to ensure he could be lowered to the ground safely or break his fall. Lisa Kreutz, shot in the shoulder, arms, hand, and thigh, remained laying in the library. She had tried to move but became light-headed. Kreutz kept track of time by the sound of the school's bells until police arrived.

At 2:15 pm students placed a sign in the window: "1 bleeding to death," in order to alert police and medical personnel of Dave Sanders' location in the science room. Police initially feared it was a ruse by the shooters. A shirt was also tied to the doorknob. At 2:30 p.m. this was spotted, and by 2:40 p.m. SWAT officers evacuated the room of students and called for a paramedic. Hancey and Starkey were reluctant to leave Sanders behind. By 3:00 p.m., the SWAT officers had moved Sanders to a storage room, which was more easily accessible. As they did so, a paramedic arrived and found Sanders had no pulse. He had died of his injuries in the storage room before he could receive medical care. He was the only teacher to die in the shooting.

Kreutz was finally evacuated at 3:22 p.m., along with Patti Nielson, Brian Anderson, and the three library staff who had hidden in the rooms adjacent to the library. Officials found the bodies in the library by 3:30 p.m. By 4:00 p.m., Sheriff Stone made an initial estimate of 25 dead students and teachers, fifty wounded, and referred to the massacre as a "suicide mission. U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a statement.

Stone said that police officers were searching the bodies of the gunmen. They feared they had used their pipe bombs to booby-trap corpses, including their own. At 4:30 pm the school was declared safe. At 5:30 pm, additional officers were called in, as more explosives were found in the parking lot and on the roof. By 6:15 pm, officials had found a bomb in Klebold's car in the parking lot, set to detonate the gas tank. Stone then marked the entire school as a crime scene.

At 10:40 pm, a member of the bomb squad, who was attempting to dispose of an un-detonated pipe bomb, accidentally lit a striking match attached to the bomb by brushing it against the wall of the ordnance disposal trailer. The bomb detonated inside the trailer but no one was injured. The bomb squad disrupted the car bomb. Klebold's car was repaired and, in 2006, put up for auction.

=== Immediate aftermath ===

On the morning of April 21, bomb squads combed the high school. By 8:30 am the official death toll of 15 was released. The earlier estimate was ten over the true death toll count, but close to the total count of wounded students. The total count of deaths was 12 students (14 including the shooters) and one teacher; 20 students and one teacher were injured as a result of the shootings. Three more victims were injured indirectly as they tried to escape the school. It was then the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

At 10:00 am, the bomb squad declared the building safe for officials to enter. By 11:30 am, a spokesman of the sheriff declared the investigation underway. Thirteen of the bodies were still inside the high school as investigators photographed the building.

At 2:30 pm, a press conference was held by Jeffco District Attorney David Thomas and Sheriff John Stone, at which they said that they suspected others had helped plan the shooting. Formal identification of the dead had not yet taken place, but families of the children thought to have been killed had been notified.

Throughout the late afternoon and early evening, the bodies were gradually removed from the school and taken to the Jeffco Coroner's Office to be identified and autopsied. By 5:00 pm, the names of many of the dead were known. An official statement was released, naming the 15 confirmed deaths and 27 injuries related to the massacre. On April 22, the cafeteria bombs were discovered.

In the days following the shootings, Rachel Scott's car and John Tomlin's truck became memorials, and impromptu memorials were held in Clement Park. On April 30, carpenter Greg Zaniserected 15 six feet tall wooden crosses to honor those who had died at the school. Daniel Rohrbough's father cut down the two meant for the gunmen, not wanting the killers to be memorialised in the same place as their victims. There were also fifteen trees planted, and he cut down two of those as well. Beef they were removed, Kyle Velasquez's father also protested Eric and Dylan's crosses.

=== Motive behind the massacre ===

The shooting was planned as a terrorist attack that would cause "the most deaths in U.S. history", but the motive has never been ascertained with any degree of certainty. Soon after the massacre, it was thought Harris and Klebold targeted jocks, blacks, and Christians. Both sought to provide answers in the journals and videotapes, but investigators found them lacking. In a letter provided with the May 15 report on the Columbine attack, Sheriff John Stone and Undersheriff John A. Dunaway wrote they "cannot answer the most fundamental question—why?" On May 3, 1999, an issue of ''Newsweek'' was dedicated to the massacre, with the cover asking "Why?" in large print.

The FBI concluded that the killers were victims of mental illness, that Harris was a clinical psychopath, and Klebold was depressive. Dr. Dwayne Fuselier, the supervisor in charge of the Columbine investigation, would later remark: "I believe Eric went to the school to kill and didn't care if he died, while Dylan wanted to die and didn't care if others died as well."

In April 1998 (a year before the shooting), Harris wrote a letter of apology to the owner of the van as part of his diversion program. Around the same time, he derided him in his journal, stating that he believed himself to have the right to steal something if he wanted to. By far the most prevalent theme in Klebold's journals is his private despair at his lack of success with women, which he refers to as an "infinite sadness." Klebold had repeatedly documented his desires to kill himself, and his final remark in the Basement Tapes, shortly before the attack, is a resigned statement made as he glances away from the camera: "Just know I'm going to a better place. I didn't like life too much."

According to this theory—used by Dave Cullen for his 2009 book ''Columbine—'' Harris had been the mastermind. He had a messianic-level superiority complex and hoped to demonstrate his superiority to the world. Klebold was a follower who primarily participated in the massacre as a means to simply end his life.

There have been other attempts to diagnose Harris and Klebold with mental illness. Peter Langman believes Harris was a psychopath and Klebold was schizotypal. Professor Aubrey Immelman published a personality profile of Harris, based on journal entries and personal communication, and believes the materials suggested behavior patterns consistent with a "malignant narcissism ... pathological narcissistic personality disorder with borderline and antisocialfeatures, along with some paranoid traits, and unconstrained aggression". The FBI's theory has been met with criticism. Critics cite the fact that Klebold, not Harris, was the first to mention a killing spree in his journal. They also cite evidence that Harris was depressed as well, such as his prescription for antidepressants.

The link between bullying and school violence has attracted increasing attention since the massacre. Both of the shooters were classified as gifted children who had allegedly been victims of bullying for years. Early stories following the shootings charged that school administrators and teachers at Columbine had long condoned bullying. Critics said this could have contributed to triggering the perpetrators' extreme violence. Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years."

Accounts from various parents and school staffers describe bullying at the school as "rampant." Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, Harris's eighth-grade science partner, reported that Harris and Klebold were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them. Reportedly, they were regularly called "faggots".

Klebold is known to have remarked to his father of his hatred of the jocks at CHS, adding that Harris in particular had been victimized. Klebold had stated, "They sure give Eric hell." Brown also noted Harris was born with mild chest indent. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him.

It has been alleged that during junior year, Harris and Klebold both had been confronted by a group of students at CHS—all members of the football team—who sprayed them with ketchup and mustard while referring to them as "faggots" and "queers". According to Brown, "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots...That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it." Classmate Chad Laughlin stated "I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." According to Laughlin, it involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons. Laughlin also stated "A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us...There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board."

A year after the massacre, an analysis by officials at the U.S. Secret Service of 37 premeditated school shootings found that bullying, which some of the shooters described "in terms that approached torment", played the major role in more than two-thirds of the attacks. A similar theory was expounded by Brooks Brown in his book on the massacre, ''No Easy Answers''; he noted that teachers commonly ignored bullying and that whenever Harris and Klebold were bullied by the jocks at CHS, they would make statements such as: "Don't worry, man. It happens all the time!"

Dave Cullen disputes the theory of "revenge for bullying" as a motivation. While acknowledging the pervasiveness of bullying in high schools including CHS, he has claimed they were not victims of bullying. He said Harris was more often the perpetrator than victim of bullying. In a fact check published on April 19, 2019, on the eve of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the massacre, Gillian Brockell in The Washington Post underscored that, contrary to the popular view, their attack was not revenge for being bullied.

=== Cassie Bernall's legacy ===

[[File:Cassie_Bernall.jpg|thumb|left|207px|Cassie Bernall was first believed to have said "Yes".]]

For a long time after the shootings, it was believed that Cassie Bernall was the girl in the library who was asked by one of the shooters: "Do you believe in God?" and was subsequently shot because she said "Yes". There is still controversy surrounding this -- according to the Columbine Report, several witnesses claim that the conversation occurred between gunman Eric Harris and surviving victim Valeen Schnurr. Valeen herself has verified this fact. However Joshua Lapp, a witness to the library shootings, said in his interview with investigators that the shooters asked several people if they believed in God and the answers given didn't seem to dictate who was shot or not.

For a long time after the shootings, it was believed that Cassie Bernall was the girl in the library who was asked by one of the shooters: "Do you believe in God?" and was subsequently shot and killed because she said "Yes". There is still controversy surrounding this -- according to the Columbine Report, several witnesses claim that the conversation occurred between gunman Eric Harris and surviving victim Valeen Schnurr. Valeen herself has verified this fact. However Joshua Lapp, a witness to the library shootings, said in his interview with investigators that the shooters asked several people if they believed in God and the answers given didn't seem to dictate who was shot or not.

Still, according to witness statements and the Columbine Report, here's what happened to Cassie: When the shooters entered the library she, like many other students, was hiding under the table she'd been sitting at when substitute teacher Patti Nielson entered the library and told everyone to get down. She had her hands over her face, perhaps to keep from seeing what was happening as she could hear other people being shot and killed in the library, near to where she was hiding.

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=== Rachel Scott's legacy ===

[[File:Rachel_Scott.jpg|thumb|182x182px|Rachel Scott, who is commonly believed to be the girl that was shot for her faith.]]

{{Quote|When they got to the top of the stairs, that's when they saw Rachel. They shot her from a distance. She was mocked for her faith. They knew her, they had a class with her. And the last moment of her life was Eric pulled her up by her hair and said "Do you still believe in God?". And she said "you know I do." And he said "Well, go be with him."|Craig Scott}}[[File:Rachel_Scott.jpg|thumb|182x182px|Rachel Scott, who is commonly believed to be the girl that was shot for her faith.]]

The "girl who said yes" was later ~~said~~ to be Rachel Scott, the first victim of the massacre. Due to allegedly declaring her belief in God before being shot, Rachel became an angel to the media, and ~~she~~ became an inspiration to countless students. The organisation Rachel's Challenge, which has helped reduce suicides and prevent school shootings, was named after her.

The "girl who said yes" was later believed to be Rachel Scott, the first victim of the massacre. Due to allegedly declaring her belief in God before being shot, Rachel became an angel to the media, and also became an inspiration to countless students. Rachel's father became a public speaker, as did her brother Craig years later. The organisation Rachel's Challenge, founded by the Scott family which has helped reduce suicides and prevent school shootings, was named after her.

Scott was a devout Christian with a strong interest in becoming an actress or a religious missionary after graduating from Columbine High School.

Scott was a devout Christian with a strong interest in becoming an actress or a religious missionary after graduating from Columbine High School. The young girl was initially notable for Columbine investigators and historians for being the shooting’s first victim, but would later be discovered as far more than that.

~~The young girl was initially notable for Columbine investigators and historians for being the shooting’s first victim, but would later be discovered as far more than that.~~

Investigations after the tragic event reported that Eric Harris asked Scott whether she believed in God before he killed her. In the early days following Columbine, this claim was made more than once — Cassie Bernall was thought to have been killed specifically because she was asked this question and answered in the affirmative.

[[File:Screenshot 2020-05-02 at 08.52.49.png|left|thumb|220x220px|Footage of Rachel from a home video.]]

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Although possible Rachel didn't interact with Eric and Dylan, her story still inspires people to this day, and the "Do you believe in God" exchange is mentioned on Rachel's plaque in the Columbine Memorial.

==Legacy of the shooting==

[[File:VgSvQS1.jpg|thumb|182px|Eric and Dylan cosplayers.]]

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 {{Mature}}
 {{Infobox_civilian_attack|title = Columbine High School massacre|location = Columbine High School|date = April 20th, 1999|type = [[School Shooting]]|deaths = 13 (15 including perpetrators)|non-fatal_injuries = 24|perps = [[Eric Harris]]
-[[Dylan Klebold]]|image = REB & V.jpg|caption = Columbine shooters Eric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold (right) on CCTV.|target = Anyone with a white hat (the jocks)|numparts = 2}}
+[[Dylan Klebold]]|image = REB & V.jpg|caption = Columbine shooters [[Eric Harris]] (left) and [[Dylan Klebold]] (right) on CCTV.|target = Anyone with a white hat (the jocks)|numparts = 2}}
 {{Quote|You guys will all die, and it will be fucking soon! I hope you get an idea of what we’re implying here. You all need to die! We need to die, too! We need to fucking kick-start the revolution here!|[[Eric Harris]]}}
 The '''Columbine High School massacre''', also referred to as '''NBK''', was a [[school shooting]] and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado on April 20, 1999. The perpetrators, [[Eric Harris]] and [[Dylan Klebold]], killed 12 students and a teacher before turning the guns on themselves.
@@ Line 161: / Line 161: @@
 At 12:08 p.m., Harris and Klebold turn the guns on themselves. Harris sat down with his back to a bookshelf and fired his shotgun through the roof of his mouth, killing him instantly. Just before shooting himself, Klebold lit a Molotov cocktail on a nearby table, underneath which Patrick Ireland was laying, which caused the tabletop to momentarily catch fire. Klebold then went down on his knees and shot himself in the left temple with his TEC-9.
-== Aftermat ==
+== Aftermath ==
+{{Quote|I think the biggest challenge for me after the shooting was the anger I was dealing with towards the two shooters. I hated those guys, I used to fantasise about what it'd be like to get revenge on them.|Rachel's brother Craig Scott}}
+=== Evacuation of Columbine students and staff ===
+By 12:00 p.m., SWAT teams were stationed outside the school, and ambulances started taking the wounded to local hospitals. A call for additional ammunition for police officers in case of a shootout came at 12:20 pm. Authorities reported pipe bombs by 1:00 pm, and two SWAT teams entered the school at 1:09 pm, moving from classroom to classroom, discovering hidden students and faculty. They entered at the end of the school opposite the library, hampered by old maps and unaware a new wing had recently been added. They were also hampered by the sound of the fire alarms.
+Meanwhile, families of students and staff were asked to gather at nearby Leawood Elementary School to await information. All students, teachers, and school employees were taken away, questioned, and offered medical care in small holding areas before being bussed to meet with their family members at Leawood Elementary. Some of the victims' families were told to wait on one final school bus that never came.
+Patrick Ireland had regained and lost consciousness several times after being shot by Klebold. Paralyzed on his right side, he crawled to the library windows where, on live television, at 2:38 pm, he stretched out the window, intending to fall into the arms of two SWAT team members standing on the roof of an emergency vehicle, but instead falling directly onto the vehicle's roof in a pool of blood. He became known as "the boy in the window". They were later criticized for allowing Ireland to drop more than seven feet to the ground while doing nothing to try to ensure he could be lowered to the ground safely or break his fall. Lisa Kreutz, shot in the shoulder, arms, hand, and thigh, remained laying in the library. She had tried to move but became light-headed. Kreutz kept track of time by the sound of the school's bells until police arrived.
+At 2:15 pm students placed a sign in the window: "1 bleeding to death," in order to alert police and medical personnel of Dave Sanders' location in the science room. Police initially feared it was a ruse by the shooters. A shirt was also tied to the doorknob. At 2:30 p.m. this was spotted, and by 2:40 p.m. SWAT officers evacuated the room of students and called for a paramedic. Hancey and Starkey were reluctant to leave Sanders behind. By 3:00 p.m., the SWAT officers had moved Sanders to a storage room, which was more easily accessible. As they did so, a paramedic arrived and found Sanders had no pulse. He had died of his injuries in the storage room before he could receive medical care. He was the only teacher to die in the shooting.
+Kreutz was finally evacuated at 3:22 p.m., along with Patti Nielson, Brian Anderson, and the three library staff who had hidden in the rooms adjacent to the library. Officials found the bodies in the library by 3:30 p.m. By 4:00 p.m., Sheriff Stone made an initial estimate of 25 dead students and teachers, fifty wounded, and referred to the massacre as a "suicide mission. U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a statement.
+Stone said that police officers were searching the bodies of the gunmen. They feared they had used their pipe bombs to booby-trap corpses, including their own. At 4:30 pm the school was declared safe. At 5:30 pm, additional officers were called in, as more explosives were found in the parking lot and on the roof. By 6:15 pm, officials had found a bomb in Klebold's car in the parking lot, set to detonate the gas tank. Stone then marked the entire school as a crime scene.
+At 10:40 pm, a member of the bomb squad, who was attempting to dispose of an un-detonated pipe bomb, accidentally lit a striking match attached to the bomb by brushing it against the wall of the ordnance disposal trailer. The bomb detonated inside the trailer but no one was injured. The bomb squad disrupted the car bomb. Klebold's car was repaired and, in 2006, put up for auction.
+=== Immediate aftermath ===
+On the morning of April 21, bomb squads combed the high school. By 8:30 am the official death toll of 15 was released. The earlier estimate was ten over the true death toll count, but close to the total count of wounded students. The total count of deaths was 12 students (14 including the shooters) and one teacher; 20 students and one teacher were injured as a result of the shootings. Three more victims were injured indirectly as they tried to escape the school. It was then the worst school shooting in U.S. history.
+At 10:00 am, the bomb squad declared the building safe for officials to enter. By 11:30 am, a spokesman of the sheriff declared the investigation underway. Thirteen of the bodies were still inside the high school as investigators photographed the building.
+At 2:30 pm, a press conference was held by Jeffco District Attorney David Thomas and Sheriff John Stone, at which they said that they suspected others had helped plan the shooting. Formal identification of the dead had not yet taken place, but families of the children thought to have been killed had been notified.
+Throughout the late afternoon and early evening, the bodies were gradually removed from the school and taken to the Jeffco Coroner's Office to be identified and autopsied. By 5:00 pm, the names of many of the dead were known. An official statement was released, naming the 15 confirmed deaths and 27 injuries related to the massacre. On April 22, the cafeteria bombs were discovered.
+In the days following the shootings, Rachel Scott's car and John Tomlin's truck became memorials, and impromptu memorials were held in Clement Park. On April 30, carpenter Greg Zaniserected 15 six feet tall wooden crosses to honor those who had died at the school. Daniel Rohrbough's father cut down the two meant for the gunmen, not wanting the killers to be memorialised in the same place as their victims. There were also fifteen trees planted, and he cut down two of those as well. Beef they were removed, Kyle Velasquez's father also protested Eric and Dylan's crosses.
+=== Motive behind the massacre ===
+The shooting was planned as a terrorist attack that would cause "the most deaths in U.S. history", but the motive has never been ascertained with any degree of certainty. Soon after the massacre, it was thought Harris and Klebold targeted jocks, blacks, and Christians. Both sought to provide answers in the journals and videotapes, but investigators found them lacking. In a letter provided with the May 15 report on the Columbine attack, Sheriff John Stone and Undersheriff John A. Dunaway wrote they "cannot answer the most fundamental question—why?" On May 3, 1999, an issue of ''Newsweek'' was dedicated to the massacre, with the cover asking "Why?" in large print.
+The FBI concluded that the killers were victims of mental illness, that Harris was a clinical psychopath, and Klebold was depressive. Dr. Dwayne Fuselier, the supervisor in charge of the Columbine investigation, would later remark: "I believe Eric went to the school to kill and didn't care if he died, while Dylan wanted to die and didn't care if others died as well."
+In April 1998 (a year before the shooting), Harris wrote a letter of apology to the owner of the van as part of his diversion program. Around the same time, he derided him in his journal, stating that he believed himself to have the right to steal something if he wanted to. By far the most prevalent theme in Klebold's journals is his private despair at his lack of success with women, which he refers to as an "infinite sadness." Klebold had repeatedly documented his desires to kill himself, and his final remark in the Basement Tapes, shortly before the attack, is a resigned statement made as he glances away from the camera: "Just know I'm going to a better place. I didn't like life too much."
+According to this theory—used by Dave Cullen for his 2009 book ''Columbine—'' Harris had been the mastermind. He had a messianic-level superiority complex and hoped to demonstrate his superiority to the world. Klebold was a follower who primarily participated in the massacre as a means to simply end his life.
+There have been other attempts to diagnose Harris and Klebold with mental illness. Peter Langman believes Harris was a psychopath and Klebold was schizotypal. Professor Aubrey Immelman published a personality profile of Harris, based on journal entries and personal communication, and believes the materials suggested behavior patterns consistent with a "malignant narcissism ... pathological narcissistic personality disorder with borderline and antisocialfeatures, along with some paranoid traits, and unconstrained aggression". The FBI's theory has been met with criticism. Critics cite the fact that Klebold, not Harris, was the first to mention a killing spree in his journal. They also cite evidence that Harris was depressed as well, such as his prescription for antidepressants.
+The link between bullying and school violence has attracted increasing attention since the massacre. Both of the shooters were classified as gifted children who had allegedly been victims of bullying for years. Early stories following the shootings charged that school administrators and teachers at Columbine had long condoned bullying. Critics said this could have contributed to triggering the perpetrators' extreme violence. Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years."
+Accounts from various parents and school staffers describe bullying at the school as "rampant." Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, Harris's eighth-grade science partner, reported that Harris and Klebold were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them. Reportedly, they were regularly called "faggots".
+Klebold is known to have remarked to his father of his hatred of the jocks at CHS, adding that Harris in particular had been victimized. Klebold had stated, "They sure give Eric hell." Brown also noted Harris was born with mild chest indent. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him.
+It has been alleged that during junior year, Harris and Klebold both had been confronted by a group of students at CHS—all members of the football team—who sprayed them with ketchup and mustard while referring to them as "faggots" and "queers". According to Brown, "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots...That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it." Classmate Chad Laughlin stated "I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." According to Laughlin, it involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons. Laughlin also stated "A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us...There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board."
+A year after the massacre, an analysis by officials at the U.S. Secret Service of 37 premeditated school shootings found that bullying, which some of the shooters described "in terms that approached torment", played the major role in more than two-thirds of the attacks. A similar theory was expounded by Brooks Brown in his book on the massacre, ''No Easy Answers''; he noted that teachers commonly ignored bullying and that whenever Harris and Klebold were bullied by the jocks at CHS, they would make statements such as: "Don't worry, man. It happens all the time!"
+Dave Cullen disputes the theory of "revenge for bullying" as a motivation. While acknowledging the pervasiveness of bullying in high schools including CHS, he has claimed they were not victims of bullying. He said Harris was more often the perpetrator than victim of bullying. In a fact check published on April 19, 2019, on the eve of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the massacre, Gillian Brockell in The Washington Post underscored that, contrary to the popular view, their attack was not revenge for being bullied.
 === Cassie Bernall's legacy ===
 [[File:Cassie_Bernall.jpg|thumb|left|207px|Cassie Bernall was first believed to have said "Yes".]]
-For a long time after the shootings, it was believed that Cassie Bernall was the girl in the library who was asked by one of the shooters: "Do you believe in God?" and was subsequently shot because she said "Yes". There is still controversy surrounding this -- according to the Columbine Report, several witnesses claim that the conversation occurred between gunman Eric Harris and surviving victim Valeen Schnurr. Valeen herself has verified this fact. However Joshua Lapp, a witness to the library shootings, said in his interview with investigators that the shooters asked several people if they believed in God and the answers given didn't seem to dictate who was shot or not.
+For a long time after the shootings, it was believed that Cassie Bernall was the girl in the library who was asked by one of the shooters: "Do you believe in God?" and was subsequently shot and killed because she said "Yes". There is still controversy surrounding this -- according to the Columbine Report, several witnesses claim that the conversation occurred between gunman Eric Harris and surviving victim Valeen Schnurr. Valeen herself has verified this fact. However Joshua Lapp, a witness to the library shootings, said in his interview with investigators that the shooters asked several people if they believed in God and the answers given didn't seem to dictate who was shot or not.
 Still, according to witness statements and the Columbine Report, here's what happened to Cassie: When the shooters entered the library she, like many other students, was hiding under the table she'd been sitting at when substitute teacher Patti Nielson entered the library and told everyone to get down. She had her hands over her face, perhaps to keep from seeing what was happening as she could hear other people being shot and killed in the library, near to where she was hiding.
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 === Rachel Scott's legacy ===
-[[File:Rachel_Scott.jpg|thumb|182x182px|Rachel Scott, who is commonly believed to be the girl that was shot for her faith.]]
+{{Quote|When they got to the top of the stairs, that's when they saw Rachel. They shot her from a distance. She was mocked for her faith. They knew her, they had a class with her. And the last moment of her life was Eric pulled her up by her hair and said "Do you still believe in God?". And she said "you know I do." And he said "Well, go be with him."|Craig Scott}}[[File:Rachel_Scott.jpg|thumb|182x182px|Rachel Scott, who is commonly believed to be the girl that was shot for her faith.]]
-The "girl who said yes" was later said to be Rachel Scott, the first victim of the massacre. Due to allegedly declaring her belief in God before being shot, Rachel became an angel to the media, and she became an inspiration to countless students. The organisation Rachel's Challenge, which has helped reduce suicides and prevent school shootings, was named after her.
+The "girl who said yes" was later believed to be Rachel Scott, the first victim of the massacre. Due to allegedly declaring her belief in God before being shot, Rachel became an angel to the media, and also became an inspiration to countless students. Rachel's father became a public speaker, as did her brother Craig years later. The organisation Rachel's Challenge, founded by the Scott family which has helped reduce suicides and prevent school shootings, was named after her.
-Scott was a devout Christian with a strong interest in becoming an actress or a religious missionary after graduating from Columbine High School.
+Scott was a devout Christian with a strong interest in becoming an actress or a religious missionary after graduating from Columbine High School. The young girl was initially notable for Columbine investigators and historians for being the shooting’s first victim, but would later be discovered as far more than that.
-The young girl was initially notable for Columbine investigators and historians for being the shooting’s first victim, but would later be discovered as far more than that.
 Investigations after the tragic event reported that Eric Harris asked Scott whether she believed in God before he killed her. In the early days following Columbine, this claim was made more than once — Cassie Bernall was thought to have been killed specifically because she was asked this question and answered in the affirmative.
 [[File:Screenshot 2020-05-02 at 08.52.49.png|left|thumb|220x220px|Footage of Rachel from a home video.]]
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 Although possible Rachel didn't interact with Eric and Dylan, her story still inspires people to this day, and the "Do you believe in God" exchange is mentioned on Rachel's plaque in the Columbine Memorial.
 ==Legacy of the shooting==
 [[File:VgSvQS1.jpg|thumb|182px|Eric and Dylan cosplayers.]]