TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • The Eric Harris Journal

    The Eric Harris Journal

    I heard on the news today that Eric Harris’ journal was finally released today. I also read an article at Yahoo that the plans for the Columbine massacre were made at least a year in advance. Let’s think about that for a second. A year in advance. The article also states sheriff’s investigators had drafted an affidavit to search Harris’ home a year before the attack, but the search was never carried out. Let’s think about that again. A year before the attack. The article also states that the sheriff’s office had said that it was unclear if a search warrant would have turned up the shooting plans. Would it have hurt to try? So it seems that not only were his parents at fault for letting all this go under their noses, but it seems the police dropped the ball as well.

    Anyway, I’m getting off the subject. I went to the website that had the journal at http://www.westword.com. It was unbelievable what this bastard wrote and no one ever noticed. On a page dated 4/26/98 he talks about what they intend to do. At the end of that entry, he states that if they escape police, they’ll hijack a plane and crash it into NYC. He also says that no one should be blamed for the shootings except for him and Klebold. He says not to blame his parents because they had no idea what was going on.

    Sorry, but if their parents were doing their job, none of this would have happened. When I was a teen, I used to hate it when my parents searched my room. But all they ever found was cigarettes and girly mags. Now that I’m a parent, I see why they did what they did. I’m going to search my kids’ rooms every chance I get. I do not want to be that parent that ends up on the news trying to defend their child even though they killed scores of people.

    The handwritten entries were the most disturbing. The hate must have just dripped from his pen. Talking about how he and Klebold were the only ones who knew everything and had the whole world figured out. He also talks about how he would have liked to lure a girl to his room, have sex with her, and then rip her throat out.

    He did have at least one moment of lucidity. When he wrote about an anger management class that he had to take, it seemed like progress was being made. It seemed like he was coming to terms with his anger. But as we all know, it didn’t work. I wonder why it wasn’t followed up.

    He actually wrote down that he and Klebold bought the shotguns and what else they bought. How in the world did they afford such an arsenal? Where did they get that kind of money for 2 shotguns, a rifle, 2 switchblades, and all that ammo? Parents perhaps? I know they had jobs, but still…..

    But nothing disturbed me more than this……

    Just think. All of this could have been prevented.

  • Mass. Bombing Plot Foiled

    Mass. Bombing Plot Foiled

    You know. It’s been a long time since I’ve written a worthwhile post. Sometimes that’s a good thing because it means that things aren’t too fucked up in my world. Then I read that police in Massachusetts foiled a plot in which three high school students planned to bomb their high school and shoot fleeing teachers and students as they escaped the building.

    In an article that I read on Yahoo, they state that police were tipped off by the school janitor who found the plans outlying the attack. Police found in the suspects’ homes shotgun shells, bomb-making instructions, knives, flares, and pictures of themselves with weapons. Of course, the word Columbine was thrown around once or twice and with good reason.

    When I read this article at the BostonHerald.com they said this….

    “McKeehan, who often dressed in Marilyn Manson T-shirts and a long, black trenchcoat with choke-collar chains, had shaved the sides of his head and wore his hair pulled back in a ponytail, which he frequently dyed different colors, said Kimball and a neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified.”

    Here we go again. Look, when I was 17 I wore a black trench coat, had long hair and wore Ozzy t-shirts, but I never threatened to blow up a school. But this case goes way beyond that. Apparently, the lead suspect, Eric McKeehan, had fits of violence. It seems he was estranged from his family and that his parents did not want anything to do with him. One of the other juvenile suspects allegedly has ADD and was distraught over his father’s death from cancer. Boo-freakin’ hoo. We’ve all had a rough life. Some rougher than others. But this is still no excuse to plot the deaths of dozens, if not hundreds.

    And in this article from the Boston Globe Online, the mother of one of the suspects, who took in the other two suspects prior to the arrests, denies everything. She says that the shotgun shells were from a hunting trip. And that the kids were “gentle” and “misunderstood”. Then the article goes on to say…

    “She said the students may have made some threats, but that they never really intended to hurt anybody.”

    Excuse me? People who are gentle and misunderstood do not make threats to kill others. Sounds to me like another case of “not my kid”. People just do not want to take responsibility for any of their actions. Is this what we’ve become as a nation? Should the nation’s motto be “it’s not my fault”? Suck it up, America. Be responsible and keep a better eye on your kids.

  • Columbine Families Sue Video Game Manufacturers

    Columbine Families Sue Video Game Manufacturers

    I read this article today about some of the families of the Columbine shooting victims are suing video game manufacturers. They are singling out the popular game “Doom” specifically. As usual, I will preface this by saying again my heart goes out to the victims’ families. Not a day goes by where I don’t pray for them. But I think their latest efforts are misguided. Suing the video game manufacturers for the billions they’re asking for just seems a little too much to me.

    The video games are not to blame. To me, the blame lies squarely on the parents of Harris and Klebold. For those of you who may not know in Doom, you are a “space marine” and you go around shooting aliens with big guns and the aliens bleed red blood.

    It is a pretty violent game. I’ve played it a few times myself. This is not a game for kids or teens. When I first played it, the game was clearly rated “M” for mature. Meaning, only 17+ should play the game. If I caught my son playing this game, he’d be grounded until his wedding day. The game did not make these kids killers. Egomania and inattentive parents did. If they should sue anybody it should be the parents, which they already did and won, or the retailers who sold them this game, or whoever bought it for them.

    I hate to say this but suing the video game manufacturers looks like some ambulance chasing lawyer whispered into their ears. It looks very opportunistic.

  • Suspected School Bombing Plot

    Suspected School Bombing Plot

    I came across an AP article on Thursday about a 14-year-old boy in Georgia who was discovered to have who had several guns, Nazi posters, $4,900 in cash, and bomb recipes in his room in relation to a suspected bomb threat against his middle school. 10 other homes of students were raided as well. Now the media is labeling them as “goths” but I guess that’s par for the course these days. Now the article goes on as the AP interviewed the boy’s father. He tried to defend his son by stating the following…

    The boy’s father told The Associated Press on Thursday that the handguns belong to his son-in-law, who is visiting from Illinois. The pistols were stashed in his son’s room to keep them away from younger children, he said. “He is not a violent kid,” the father said. The boy pulled bomb-making recipes off the Internet only to demonstrate to his father how easily teens could find such instructions online, the father said. As for the drawing of Adolf Hitler seized from the boy’s room, the father said his son once wrote a school report on Adolf Hitler and got a good grade for it. He said his son claimed the $4,900 belonged to a friend.

    Now, I’ve been a victim of extreme coincidence, but this sounds so far-fetched. Even to me. It sounds like the father is trying to cover his own ass for either not knowing that this was going on or, he was encouraging this behavior. The guns, the bomb instructions, Nazi paraphernalia, it all fits together too nicely. And the old “He’s holding the $5,000 for a friend” routine is a classic case of “Not my child” syndrome. Unfortunately, this just another case of parents who have no involvement in their children’s lives. With all the recent outbreaks of school violence, I fear another tragedy might happen this 20th. For the love of God, I hope I’m wrong.