Why They Did It Columbine High School is a dense populated school with many different types of groups and cliques. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did not fit into just one individual group, which predominantly classifies them as “outsiders”. Outsiders usually did not hangout with other cliques, and they did not seem to really fit in. Dylan and Eric were no exception and kept to themselves most of the time. The two boys had somewhat different personalities, but both wanted the same thing and felt the same way about Columbine High School. Dylan Klebold was a smart kid and behaved like a normal teenage boy would; nobody would have expected him to be one of the killers. He did not quite fit into the dominant jock culture of Columbine; Dylan was
However, it was a different story when it came to Eric Harris. Eric was the leader of the heist including when Eric, Dylan, and their friend Zach got together and ran “operations”. One other thing about Eric is that he had made it seem as if he was turning his life around after his acts of crime. His parents were fazed by his apologies and this gave Eric the chance to start planning out the attack on Columbine, during this time he was on prescription anti-depressants. The Columbine killers were two psychopath teenagers filled with rage and anger toward the
Eric Harris was by all accounts a normal high school teenager. Former classmate, Kyle Ross, said, “He was a typical guy. He didn’t seem anything like what is portrayed on TV”. Eric was nothing like what they made him out to be after the Columbine shooting but after it took place, many untold secrets came out that were both crucial and imperative regarding Eric and Dylan.
They had been planning since their freshman year. Both boys had mental illnesses that made them want to kill people, but neither of the boys acted on their instincts until their senior year of highschool. Eric and Dylan went through a series of events that eventually pushed them over an edge and caused them to act on their murderous instincts, which led to them acting out their plan. A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder that manifests itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of
It was just a normal day in Littleton, Columbine. Until it wasn’t. On April 20, 1999, one of the nation’s deadliest shootings would occur in Colorado, leaving many devastated. The two behind this massacre are Eric Harris, age 18, and Dylan Klebold, age 17. Both boys were considered social outcasts at school, both hated school, hated jocks, and loved computers and video games.
Tuesday April 20, 1999 from 11:19 to 12:08 a school shooting occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the names of the shooters who had planned to murder as many people as they could. Both students were raised in nice orderly fashioned homes and had to worry about anything. When they were home they had no worries, but once the came to school both were bullied for odd reasons. Harris was bullied for his looks and odd behavior.
The Columbine High School shooting—one of the many horrific mass shootings in U.S. history—affected the lives of many. The two shooters responsible were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, internally known as the “Trenchcoat Mafia.” From the discovery of Dylan’s journal to Eric’s hate towards society, and the disturbing videos they had made prior to their attack. Their easy access to weapons allowed them to execute their plan. Harris’s psychopathy and Klebold’s depression were one of the reasons why they plotted their attack.
“Investigations of school shooters have often found that two characteristics emerge: peer rejection and social rejection (p.311)”. Typically school shooters are students who have been bullied, picked on and marginalized. The majority of schools shooters lack social and coping skill and are picked on by their peers. As a group, school shooters lack social support and prosocial relationships. Some school shooters show a history of cruelty to animals while others display affection, attachment and empathy toward animals.
After his arrest Carneal stated, “people respect me now”(Leary, Kowalski, Smith and Phillips, 2003). Johnson had been repeatedly teased for being fat. Harris and Klebold both were teased, ostracized, and bullied by their peers, particularly athletes. The two boys made videos recounting instances when they had been bullied and ostracized and stated that the shooting was a form of retribution (Leary, Kowalski,
Cult Fandom This picture shows Dylan and Eric walking through the cafeteria. By this time they had removed their trench coats which had been used to conceal their weapons and they are carrying their guns in their hands, looking for potential targets. As hard as it may be to believe Dylan and Eric have become cult figures, some people even idolize them. The boys have become unlikely heroes especially for teenagers who feel alienated and angry with the world.
The book “Rampage The Social Roots Of School Shootings” written by Newman et al, offers many different views and theories behind the issues of Rampage school shootings. In this paper I will give the reader an in depth overview and evaluation of the aforementioned book. Offering researched based reasons to why these school shootings actually happen. They explore the communities of Heath and Westside, the grounds of two horrific acts of rampage shootings by Michael Carnell, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson. They explain various angles of there research such as identifying an issue, how signals given by children can be misinterpreted, the effects of social capital and how mental factors play a role in the acts of the shooters.
Journalist and author, Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, redefines how his readers understand the Columbine tragedy. His purpose is to illustrate the misconceptions Americans have of the shooting by explaining how these misconceptions came about and became rooted in Americans’ minds, although they were so unbelievably wrong. Cullen creates a blunt tone in order to get straight to the facts to show who Eric really was. Through his use of rhetorical devices in this passage, Cullen unravels that Eric was not a bullied outcast like so many believe, but a psychopath.
Initially in his journal, there was never any violence or murder mentioned. Any anger that was expressed was always aimed at himself. “My existence is shit,” he wrote in one entry. Dylan was lonely and depressed and everybody failed to see it, including his parents. Years after the tragedy, Sue and Tom Klebold accepted responsibility for that tragic mistake.
On April 20, 1999, two disturbed teenage boys Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began a killing rampage at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. This was considered one of the worst school shootings to occur at that time. In the morning of April 20, before noon, the two juveniles had killed 13 people to include 12 students and 1 teacher; they also wounded another 23 people before turning the guns on themselves. This event would change the theories as to why school shootings would occur. (History)
High School Cliques While high school experiences can be a complete bliss for most people, some might portray it as one of the seven circles of hell. Some might be indifferent about the whole thing and some might just not want to get out of that bubble even after leaving it all behind. It may be a place of about 6000 square feet or a million, that’s not what matters! But no matter what you want to say you just cannot deny that it’s a completely different world all in itself.
The Columbine shooting was one of the first mass school shootings in the US, and it was one of the first school shootings on the national radar in which the shooters killed twelve students and one teacher. People sometimes admire these people and reason people try to replicate this shooting is because they sometimes idolize former school shooters. These followers will try and replicate the former assailants, in which inducing another shooting/mass shooting. It is purely disgusting that people would idolize the monsters that committed these terrible attacks on innocent