Archives wants Columbine records here:
The National Archives have suggested holding the depositions of the Columbine Killers’ parents for 20 years, but after the 20 years, they would unseal the records.
The agency said that any materials from Columbine given to it would be of significant historical value and would never be destroyed. Archives officials said their general philosophy is open access to records.
The agency’s proposal was in response to U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock’s suggestion that the Columbine depositions be sent to the National Archives, where they would remain sealed for 25 years.
Then, Babcock proposed, the National Archives would decide if the depositions are of significant social value. If they are, the agency could release them to the public. If not, they’d be destroyed.
The National Archives said, however, that after receiving court records, the normal practice of its Denver center is to assume legal custody after 20 years. Then it normally gives the public full access to the records, it said. But if Babcock rules to seal the records for a longer period of time, the agency said it would abide by his wishes.
That’s better than having them destroyed after 25 years, but still not acceptable. The depositions must be made public, and they must be made public now.
The Denver Post agrees with me.
On Monday in Boulder, Del Elliott prepared congressional testimony about stopping violence among teenagers.
On Monday in Salt Lake City, an 18-year-old hid a shotgun and a pistol under his trench coat and randomly killed five people and seriously wounded four at a shopping mall.
Are you paying attention, Judge Babcock? Lewis Babcock is the federal jurist who will soon decide whether to seal the civil depositions of the parents of Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold for 25 years.
Babcock or anyone else who thinks that nothing bad can come from blocking access to those documents for a quarter-century is deaf and blind.
The Utah shootings didn’t occur in a school. But the trench-coated teenage perp who went on a seemingly casual killing spree reeks of Columbine.
In 25 years or even 20, the depositions will provide no answers. We need those answers, and we need them now. I’m still puzzled as to why Judge Babcock wants to keep them sealed for a quarter of a century. That’s too long for victims and their families to get answers.
