Last night I finished reading the first part of the book, Columbine. So far in the book, I have read the main parts of what happened to students and teachers inside of the school, and what has happened to the students, teachers, and families outside of the school.
The two boys kept journals of what they thought about and their plans for a mass murder. Dylan would usually just keep a notebook, but Eric wanted everyone to know what they had planned and why they did what they had decided to do. He took videos of himself and Dylan talking about it and letting out their anger. He drew pictures of where they would be going in the school to make sure they could get as many people as possible. In Eric's day planner the heading for April 20, 1999, had read "make TODAY count." They didn't want to mess up anything. That day had to go perfect for them.
Eric and Dylan had a plan that would for sure maximize their body count. They did have Act 1. Act 1 was when the two bombs inside of the cafeteria were suppose to go off. They were set for 11:17 a.m. The time that lunch "A" was starting and there was just going to be a big crowd. That was when most of the people in the school were suppose to be taken down, but when that didn't happen, they carried onto Act 2.
Act 2 was simple: they were going to go into the school and shoot anyone in their path. Eric had a shotgun and Hi-Point 9mm carbine rifle. Dylan had a Intratec TEC-DC9 handgun and a shotgun as well. The barrels of both shotguns had been sawed off for concealment. They also had pipe bombs and carbon dioxide bombs. So they went to the different sides of the school that they had planned. Eric was more willing to shoot the students and adults that he saw. Dylan, on the other hand, did not get into it as much.
Some teachers told their students to get under desks to hide. Other teachers like Dave Sanders got as many people out of the cafeteria as possible when he heard about the first shootings. There were even teachers that thought that the whole thing was just some stupid senior prank. Those teachers made their students stay where they were and kept on going with class.
The people in the hallways and outside were the easiest to get, which made them the first targets. Afterwards, Eric and Dylan went into the classrooms, the cafeteria, and the library to search for more people. Groups of students and teachers started coming out of the school and were being sent to buildings for their family and friends to find them. During this time, cops were surrounding the building not knowing what to do. There were also SWAT team members going into the school to search for the suspects and for remaining survivors.
Four hours after the attack had started, the SWAT team had found Eric and Dylan lying dead in the library. They had committed suicide. Some parents had realized that their kids were never going to come home. Others rejoiced with tears of happiness when they were able to find their children. One dad was a retired negotiator for the FBI. His son went o Columbine, that's how he got on the case. Had had to worry about what as going on in the school instead of what type of condition his son was in. Some parents, like Brad and Misty Bernall, wouldn't accept that their daughter, Cassie, was gone. They still had hope that she was just hiding in the school.
The friends of Eric and Dylan were taken into questioning. The Harris and the Klebold families were told to hide away in case anybody were to take their anger out of the boys' families. There was still a long way to go until detectives would know the whole reason for why Eric and Dylan had planned a mass murder.
For this blog in particular, my class was asked to come up with different level questions for what we are reading.
Level 2 Questions
1. Why would have SWAT teams taken 4 hours to find Eric and Dylan in the library?
2. How did Eric get Dylan to join in on the shooting?
3. How did the parents react to the shooting once they heard about what was going on?
4. How did the retired FBI negotiator have to deal with not knowing how his son was?
5. What made Eric and Dylan think of a plan such as mass murder?
Level 3 Questions
1. How would you deal with the pain of losing a family member?
2. What would you have done if you were one of the teachers at Columbine High School during the shooting?
If I was a teacher at Columbine High School during the shooting, I would've told my students to hide until we were contacted otherwise. There was no way to tell if it was just a prank, but if that happend right now people would most likely believe it because of the events of Columbine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ty, I would have my students hide under desks or in the corner where the shooter couldn't see that there was people in there. I would have also probably put black paper over the window in the door so it looked as if the lights were off and the room was vacant.
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