Why?
There were plenty of warnings, but no one stopped two twisted teens
In a whole lot of ways, this is the worst so far. The death toll, the easily made bombs, the possible conspiracy, the lunatic rage fueled by a nihilistic teen culture, the sadism. And all the signs that it was coming had been brewing for a good long time. More than any of the five school massacres in the past 19 months, the killing of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School last week was preceded by a series of grim indications that something was wrong--terribly wrong--with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. But no one took them seriously. "These things don't just happen," says Mark Greenberg, an authority on violence prevention at Penn State. "These boys gave signals to their peers or others."
Though they considered themselves outcasts, Harris and Klebold stood out in every way. As part of a clique called the Trench Coat Mafia, they paraded around in long black coats, even in summer. They worshiped Hitler, addressed each other in German, and wore swastikas. At lunch, they played war games with cards, the winners giving the "Heil Hitler" salute. They wore armbands that proudly proclaimed: "I hate people." In writing class, they "always wrote about how killing people was good," says a classmate. "They had sick minds."
During a psychology class last year, they did a class project that centered on Gothic music idol Marilyn Manson and mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. "It was totally creepy," says Rachel Baker, a senior in the psych class. "Everybody was weirded out by it." They also made a disturbing video for a class last year, a macabre dress rehearsal of last week's massacre, showing the pair striding the school halls, pretending to shoot friends posing as their archenemies, the jocks.
The signs of trouble went beyond school. Harris and Klebold were arrested last year for breaking into a car. The father of another student had complained to police about their death threats and alleged bomb making. And Harris maintained a Web site, known to police, that proclaimed his violent leanings in no uncertain terms. Little is known yet about how aware their parents were of their sons' cache of weapons and explosives. The boys spent the weekend before the shooting pounding and breaking glass in Harris's garage. When neighbor Bill Konen heard the glass breaking--police believe it was used as shrapnel for bombs--he "assumed it was for an art project."
A disconnect. Then, on Tuesday, they walked into the school with a semiautomatic pistol, carbine, and two sawed-off shotguns, laughing and hooting while they shot up the place, killing 12 students and a popular coach before turning their weapons on themselves. Before they did, however, they planted at least 30 pipe bombs and other explosives, including one that police believe was intended to destroy the school.
At Columbine High, teachers and administrators have been largely mum since then. But a disconnect seems apparent. Principal Frank DeAngelis said, "The first time I heard of the Trench Coat Mafia was when it was brought out in the press on Tuesday." He said he was unaware of any violent writings or any racist statements by the boys. He said he knew who the boys were but did not have any dealings with them. But everyone else--students, teachers, and parents--all knew of them. "It's such a joke that the school is saying they didn't know there was a Trench Coat Mafia," says Stephanie Fredericksen, a Columbine freshman. "They were in the yearbook." By week's end, even the local district attorney agreed: "A lot of kids said, `We knew,' " David Thomas said. "The adults didn't. We are not doing a good job of listening to our kids."
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