Columbine Video

[janswizard]

Am I the only one who feels that the release of the Columbine video was in bad taste? I wonder how many students and parents who were trying to get on with their lives are going to have nighmares tonight?

Columbine was a tragedy, there's no denying that. And I hurt for the families that lost loved ones or for those who were injured during that tragedy. I can't see the positive in releasing those tapes of target shooting to the public. If, as I heard one news commenter say, it is a lesson to parents to be aware of what their children are doing, I don't need to see that tape to remind me that it is my responsibility to know what my children are doing.

[vbhoutex]

I'm sure you aren't the only that feels that way. I'm not necessarily against it, but I really see no need for it to be aired 4 years after the fact. Maybe it there were some trials still going on, it might make sense, but I don't know of any. However, I did hear on one broadcast that there is/are still an/some investigations going on about the fact that if someone did know about this before hand they could also be charged. At least one of and I think they said two of the people shown in the video are the people that were charged with providing the weapons. Also, at least one parent who lost a child in the has come out in favor of the release and in fact said it should have been done long ago.

[coriolis]

I saw the tape and don't think that it adds much to the story. No doubt that if one network runs it, all the others will to keep up.

I don't think that it was all that disturbing. I did feel disgust and sadness knowing that those are the kids that did what they did. The announcer made a big deal about what the kids said, but it's probably not that much different than what a lot of kids would say when they are fooling around. From seeing this video, I could not predict what they would do after.

Of course it makes you ask where were their parents, and how did these kids get access to all these guns?

[Miss Mary]

Jan - being a concerned, caring parent myself I can see where you're coming from. I was just browsing over on CNN website. Correct me if I'm wrong but the way I see it is this video is of an outing taken 6 weeks before the tragedy. Both the 2 boys responsible are seen shooting guns, at targets. Just the fact that these two will be displayed, probably joking and seemingly enjoying themselves will be very hard for the families who lost loved ones to watch. But more importantly to me is maybe it will show other communities that we all need to be aware of behavior like this. I know when I hear of a tragedy like a school shooting, you wonder if someone had seen the signs pointing to a shooting but thought it would blow over. Or did nothing about it, again hoping nothing would happen. I'm thinking this video will show how twisted these boys thinking truly was and now school administrators, teachers, parents and students themselves can watch for alarming behavior like this in the future. And report it. I welcome your thoughts. Now I didn't see the video, I just read the accompanying article explaining what the video entails. Here's a link for the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Central/10/2 ... index.html

Mary

PS - Ed, I agree. You wonder where the parents were in their lives. Too busy to even pay attention? Very tragic and so sad. A few others were involved and supplied weapons. An excerpt from the article:

_______________________
From CNN article:
Also you see a supplier. ... Mark Manes. He was sentenced to six years in prison for supplying some of the guns. He was released to a halfway house after about two years.

Also on this tape a gentleman by the name of Phillip Duran. ... He was sentenced to four and a half years for supplying these weapons. It was Duran apparently who taped most of this target practice, although others had their hand in it as well.

_______________________

[azskyman]

I'm troubled by the release of the video...even more bothered by the saturation of it every single newscast I look into. There is some claim that the release was requested, but what possible value can it have now but incite other disenchanted 16-year-olds to pick up some guns and play out the acts all over again.

Sorry...but I fail to see it as a relevant deterrent the way it is being played.

If they are going to play that video...perhaps they should follow it with a video of those same two boys as they were found in the school. In that order.

Disappointed and unable to see the purpose for it now.

[ColdFront77]

Did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's parents know they were on a snow-covered hillside six weeks before they shootings, in a national forest south of Denver?

[Lindaloo]

Based upon the experience I am having at this point in my life, I highly doubt that the parents knew anything.

[ColdFront77]

I agree, Linda. Not sure how much discussion about this angle of the story we will get.

[Lindaloo]

So true Tom.

[Miss Mary]

Refresh my memory everyone. Are these two boys the students who lived in a cul-de-sac and spent many weekends in one of their garages, building bombs and storing weapons? After that school tragedy, many neighbors came forward to say they thought all that garage activity, late at night also on school nights, was odd. If it's the same school shooting, then these parents had to have looked the other way. I know I'd be checking on my kids in the garage and asking - hey whatcha doing? I'd even lend a hand until of course I would see what they were up to.

I could be confusing two separate incidences also.

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

I saw Brooks Brown and Daniel Rohrbough's father on the Today Show this morning. Brooks was the classmate who came forward after the shootings with proof that he and his parents had alerted police to some of the activities of the boys BEFORE the shootings. Mr. Rohrbough is the father of one of the victims. Rohrbough said that he wanted the video to be released to show evidence about what was happening before the tragedy, as well as so the police could show that they weren't covering up anything.

[Josephine96]

I agree.. They should not have released the video of those 2 devil worshipers as well as whatever else was on that tape. The Columbine killers are dead and they can't bring the victims back either.

Violence in the schools is the current epidemic. Hopefully it will soon end..

[Lindaloo]

Excellent replies azskyman and Miss Mary.

[j]

I doubt the parents knew anything either. I'm tired of everybody trying to blame parents for everything wrong with kids today. You don't want to get me going on this one... These jerks were old enough to be trusted to be out of the house and out of sight of Mommy and Daddy, and even the best of kids, members of the Church youth groups, will find their way to the evil side, if evil is what they are!


If only an "accident" had happened while this idiot was blowing the smoke away from the barrel of the shotgun..perhaps this tradgedy could have been avoided.

[coriolis]

I saw on Bill O'Reilly last night that the number school killings has gone way down in the last 10 years. I forget the numbers, but they said that 10 years ago it was in the 100's and this year it's in the 10's
I know that security and policies have really tightened up in the last couple of years. Bullying is still a big problem, but that's another topic.

there was a thread about 5 months ago about whether the world is getting worse, or whether the reporting of bad things is now increased so we hear about things that we previously would not have heard about.

[j]

there was a thread about 5 months ago about whether the world is getting worse, or whether the reporting of bad things is now increased so we hear about things that we previously would not have heard about.

I think there is a lot to that...but in general, from what I observe on an everyday basis....we have a huge decline of morals, and I hate to think what its going to be like in 10 years. I'm sure by then the "f" word will added to Webster's and it will be nothing to see Music videos with fornication galore for all our youth to enjoy.

[GalvestonDuck]

Coriolis...good points. It could very well be that things are just being reported more than they had been in the past. Anyone who studies into crime history archives knows that there have been serial killers, mass murderers, child molestors, terrorists, and young killers for years and years.

[GalvestonDuck]

I think there is a lot to that...but in general, from what I observe on an everyday basis....we have a huge decline of morals, and I hate to think what its going to be like in 10 years. I'm sure by then the "f" word will added to Webster's and it will be nothing to see Music videos with fornication galore for all our youth to enjoy.

*sigh* J, I hate to break it to you, but the F word is there, along with all of the other "Seven words you can't say on televsion" that George Carlin used to include in his routine. We've had new dictionaries in our department for a couple of years now. The Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition contains even those two long words -- one is 10 letters and one is 12 letters.

And FX has "The Shield," which I like to a point, and "Nip/Tuck," which I just heard about today. Both shows, although they air on non-premium cable channels, have graphic language.

My favorite -- ER -- was the first network show to have the S word, when Anthony Edwards used it as an angry expletive after his character, Mark Greene, fell out of bed in Dr. Greene's final episode.

[j]

Holy Crap! I didn't know that It's happening sooner than I thought!

[GalvestonDuck]

Yup...sorry, just did a quick edit to add the info about the shows. You replied faster than I'd anticipated.