Tag: Eric Harris

  • Did computer addiction cause Columbine?

    Study links computer denial to Columbine:

    This is one of the more sensible explanations for Columbine I’ve heard in a long time.

    Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a killing rage at Columbine High School in 1999 because they were abruptly denied access to their computers, an Oregon psychiatrist says in a published study.

    The two young men relied on the virtual world of computer games to express their rage and to spend time, and cutting them off in 1998 sent them into crisis, said Jerald Block, a researcher and psychiatrist in Portland.

    “Very soon thereafter – a couple of days – they started to plan the actual attack,” Block said.

    Block published his research in the current issue of the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, a peer- reviewed journal.

    The paper is likely to generate debate, said Cheryl Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and Media at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

    Block sifted through thousands of pages of documents released by Columbine investigators and said he believes both Harris’ and Klebold’s parents banned them from their computers after the two were caught breaking into an electrician’s van in 1998.

    Harris and Klebold had each previously been temporarily kept off computers at school or at home, and after each incident, Block said, the boys’ writings or behavior became more violent.

    Block said he worries about people immersing themselves so deeply and also about cutting them off cold-turkey.

    “How do you pull them out, without triggering homicidal or suicidal behavior?” he asked.

    Personally, I don’t think that was the only reason but it very may well have been a major one. However, those two cowardly scumbags were so selfish and spoiled that Dr. Block may be on to something.

  • Beware of anti-bullying laws

    VIEWPOINT ~~ Beware of anti-bullying laws:

    This is a great editorial on why anti-bullying laws are ineffective. Here’s my favorite part of the article.

    Government regulation of offensive speech opens the door to any complaint of being offended, by anyone, for any reason. The Columbine killers have often been described as victims yet they themselves routinely rejected and harassed all classmates who did not share their antisocial beliefs and behavior. Then they ironically protested of being bullied when their offensive behavior did not endear them to their peers. Had speech laws been in effect at Columbine, students like Klebold and Harris would have made numerous frivolous bullying complaints just to punish everyone they didn’t like.

    So wouldn’t that be anti-bullying laws being used to bully?

  • The penultimate insult

    The penultimate insult

    Attack plan on school server:

    One of the Columbine killers apparently downloaded plans for a spree of violence into a school computer the day before the shootings, possibly a final act of defiance that might have derailed the massacre if someone had checked the files.

    At least 18 pages found in Eric Harris’ school computer files are dated April 19, 1999, about 8:30 a.m. Among the clearest indicators of the rampage that he and Dylan Klebold carried out the next day is a sort of crude list that mentions, “prepare explosives” and “shells.” Another sheet carries the notations “cannon fuse” and “napalm tests.” Drawings of battle gear and what appear to be a swastika are on other pages.

    “Had myself or anyone in a position of authority seen these, there would have been a definite confrontation, immediately,” Richard Long, former head of technology for Columbine High School, said Friday. “We would have certainly talked to those individuals.”

    But such a scenario was unlikely. The school did not routinely check student computer files partly because it would take so long, Long said. Such files were accessed by authorities only in response to suspicious activity.

    Long was also familiar with Harris and Klebold. They were his student assistants for their first two and a half years at Columbine before they got busted for hacking into the computer system and stealing locker combinations.

    Long saw the two boys change from “bright-eyed” freshmen to teens with darker attitudes. He believes that downloading the material the day before the shootings – if that is indeed what happened – may have been one way of thumbing their noses at authority.

    “They carried propane bottles into the school,” he added. “How much more bold can you be?”

    The last sign to go unheeded.

  • Of God and the Psychopath

    Of God and the Psychopath

    The Columbine Diaries: Old Wounds … New Passions:

    I’m usually not one to force my religious beliefs on others, but I don’t hide the fact that I’m a Christian. And by Christian, I mean one who tries to follow in the teachings of Christ and believes that Christ is the son of God. Not, “bible-beating zealot who thinks you’re going to hell because you don’t believe in the same things I do”. Now having said that, let me share this article with you about a youth pastor from Littleton, Colorado…

    I was a youth pastor in Littleton with a youth group made up primarily of Columbine students. In fact, for a time the Bernall family attended our church and Cassie attended some of our meetings. I had made an appointment to meet a student on the Columbine campus for lunch on April 20th, but that morning I woke up feeling very sick and decided to stay home. At 11:30 I got a phone call from one of my interns who was sobbing and urging me to turn on the television.

    At first the images struck me as a fire at the school, but within seconds the cold hard reality of what was really going on sunk in to my conscious mind.

    The unthinkable was happening. If you were old enough to remember that day, you know what I’m talking about. A quiet suburban neighborhood was transformed into a war zone, except instead of soldiers being shot, there were innocent teens going through hell on earth.

    Over the next several months I met with each of my students who were there to let them pour out their anger and grief, and somehow try to answer the unanswerable question of why God would allow this to happen.

    Now seven years later the old wounds are reopened with the release of over 900 pages of documents from the killers. Inside you’ll find what you probably expected…angst, hate, vitriolic diatribes, and even a glimpse into the thinking patterns of a psychopath and a depressive.

    I’ll be honest, I wasn’t excited about the release of these diaries, I don’t enjoy reliving the feelings of that day. Yet as I have processed things the past few days, I was given an insight that hadn’t occurred to me before.

    Perhaps sometimes when old wounds are opened, new passion is born. And that is the case with me today. I work with a ministry that is trying to reach every teen in America with the life changing message of the gospel, and we believe with all our hearts that the message of Christ is the answer to violence in the schools.

    One of saddest entries in these diaries is from one of the killers who hoped to find peace in the afterlife. The tragedy of that is that the peace he sought was available to him in this life, and perhaps if he would have found it, 15 families would still have their loved ones. Our hope and prayer is that God will take the calamity and heartbreak of Columbine and use it to reach thousands, even millions of anger ridden students who may simply be looking for peace.

    Say what you will about religion, but maybe if Harris and Klebold had a little more “Thou shalt not kill” in their lives, we wouldn’t even be discussing this.

  • Media reaction to the records

    Media reaction to the records

    Some media reactions to the Columbine records…

    NPR:

    NPR reporter Jeff Brady has read through much of the material. He says it is sometimes difficult to tell who wrote what, but he says he believes that this line came from the journal of gunman Eric Harris:

    “I am full of hate and I love it. I hate people and they better f—— fear me if they know what’s good for them.”

    Jeff says the writings depict Harris as an emotional person whose “thought processes are really deep but really disturbing at the same time.”

    Washington Post:

    The newly released papers suggest that the two seniors dropped several clues about their plans in advance. But they were not enough to prompt intervention.

    I disagree that they weren’t enough to prompt investigation. There was too much evidence for not one person to notice.

    Scripps:

    If we didn’t all know that in this case, it ended in bloody mayhem, this could be any parent agonizing over an adolescent’s serious misbehavior and trying to make certain the young person faces up to the consequences and learns better. Which Harris appeared to do, while he was in the program and conforming to its requirements, but secretly he was boiling with rage. He lied to everyone, he was proud of the lies and he fooled the people who were doing what they could to rescue him.

    How can any parent read these lines and not wonder, “Could that be my child?”

    Kotaku:

    The video game references that I’ve read in excerpts (not having had time to consume the entire document yet) paint Harris more as an obsessive fanboy, period, than particularly driven by the game itself.

    Time Magazine:

    The parents of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have often been portrayed as disengaged from the lives of their sons and unaware of the dark paths lying ahead. But 936 pages of evidence taken from the killers’ homes and cars were released by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office on Thursday, and a notebook kept by Eric’s father, Wayne, details a parent’s involvement in his child’s downward spiral.

    But was still clueless to everything.

    Denver Post:

    In one passage, he foreshadows the blame game that would follow the shootings. “I know I could get shot by a cop after only killing a single person, but hey … I chose to kill that one person so get over it! It’s MY fault! Not my parents, not my brothers, not my friends, not my favorite bands, not computer games, not the media, it is MINE!”

    Harris was right. It was his fault. But plenty of others failed along the way.

  • My thoughts on the records.

    My thoughts on the records.

    Here are my quick thoughts on the journals and other documents that were released today.

    Wayne Harris definitely had the “not my kid” syndrome. Eric Harris broke Brooks Brown’s windshield, and yet, Wayne Harris claims that his family is being victimized and that Brooks Brown is a manipulative con man.

    Eric Harris was definitely a racist and a homophobe, even though on his website he claimed he hated racism. Which would also make him a liar. I would almost say a pathological one.

    Harris wrote reports about Charles Manson and The Third Reich that were almost favorable towards their subjects. Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but if I were a teacher, that definitely would have set off some red flags.

    With all the references to killing and drawing of weapons and the like Harris made in his school work for at least a year, you would think that some adult in his life, be it teacher or parent, would have noticed his unhealthy obsession.

    They got their guns in November 1998. That’s 6 months before the massacre. That should have given the parents ample opportunity to discover the guns. If my kids had records for theft and the like, they would have been under the proverbial microscope.

    These documents should put the final nail in the coffin of the bullying myth. Harris talked about how he was excluded, not bullied. He was jealous of the popular kids. Like I’ve said before, the impression I got is that he wanted to be a prep or jock or whatever and was jealous that they didn’t accept him. They didn’t just snap. This was planned at least a year in advance. It was all about hate and egomania on the part of Harris and his Svengali-like hold over Klebold.

    The most preventable tragedy in history.

  • Dave Cullen on the records

    Dave Cullen on the records

    Author and journalist Dave Cullen, the writer of the definitive article about Columbine The Depressive and the Psychopath, offers his opinion on the Eric Harris journal.

  • 5/24/06: From the Mail Sack

    5/24/06: From the Mail Sack

    It’s been a while since we read the mail from the mutants so let’s get started, shall we?

    This one is from my entry on the Columbine Rampart Range Tapes

    jacob Says:

    fuck all u white haters out there im not that racist but when it comes to niggers tryen to get at us that pisses me off u niggers have enough problems so fuck off…. by the way that was are ancestors thatdid that shit to you so dont pull that shit on inasent ppl by the way ur not african americans its africans in america

    o and marcus and dante get a fucken life.. you stuped ass niggers probaly have an ique of 50 u fucken idoit and come in to my school and pull that shit ill fucken but ur thick skulled head in u bitch ass niggers

    If they have an ique of 50, it’s about 50 points higher than yours, Klanboy. And I love how he says he’s not a racist except “when it comes to nig**ers”. I hate to break it to you, Spunky, but that is the textbook definition of racism.

    Then we have this comment about the Columbine RPG designer being outed

    Lay-Z-Boy Says:

    This may be off topic or whatever but i dont give a fuck. Anyways i just wanted to say that Eric and Dylan what they have taught me is that i can do anything i want. They may have been bad guys to you but to me they were in a way heros they opend my eyes and took my mind to another level beyond all this do what society tells you sheep bullcrap. And what the hell all your post are really stupid all you see is a couple kids that killed some people. I think that you gotta open your eyes and take a look at the world around you and not always see things just for what they are. It’s something youll never understand. To me your the fucking mutant and your the one that should be non existent. Mutants? You are a fucking asshole,it’s people like you bringing everyone who has differnt veiws down.
    Your just a fucking number your useless i dont evan see you as the same species. You got alot of evolving to do buddy,suck my balls.

    REB and VODKA thanks for showing me that i can do anything whether it be good or bad.

    I remember when I was young and idealistic, and I thought society’s rules didn’t apply to me. Then I grew up and got a job. With that whole “I’m the rebel, and you’re all sheep” bit, I see only one option of employment in your future…

    (more…)
  • Never forget the monsters

    Never forget the monsters

    Letter: Use of names in Columbine column could mislead others into repeating actions:

    This is a letter to the paper of Kansas State University. I don’t know the original article the author is referring to, but it seems like it had something to do with the Columbine anniversary last week. Anyway, this is a person after my own heart…

    Editor,

    I was appalled at Thursday’s column on the shooting at Columbine High School. The apparent lack of respect displayed by the article was very upsetting for me.

    The author states that these individuals were not monsters; only their acts were monstrous. The minute these young men brought guns into a school and started shooting, they became monsters.

    Another misstep by the author was the inclusion of their names. The names have been enshrined on Websites by other misguided youths, and have given them people to rally behind. The acts of those two individuals should never be forgotten, but their names should drift into obscurity.

    I attended a school that was a middle-class, white suburban school just like Columbine, located on the opposite side of Denver.

    My school was hit very hard by the reality of what happened, and how it easily could have been us. I did see the memorial that was set up shortly after the shooting and have never been anywhere so quiet, and yet the expressions of the people said so much.

    On April 20, 1999, our schools felt less safe, and a community was trying to find answers as to why kids were killing other kids. A discussion of the reasons why two kids turned into monsters should be held. The discussion should never not include the great pain a community felt and the terror the students and faculty felt.

    Chris Rude

    Graduate Student

    Animal Sciences and Industry

    I do disagree on one point. The names of Harris and Klebold, scumbags that they are, should be remembered. If you forget the names of history’s monsters, it will only be a matter of time before their crimes against humanity are forgotten too.

  • Evidence Item No. 201

    Evidence Item No. 201

    Hiding in Plain Sight:

    This is a great article about the still yet to be released evidence that was seized from the Harris household after the Columbine shooting. It has the usual information about The Basement Tapes, and Harris’ writings, and an alleged police cover-up regarding their prior contact with Harris. But this article enlightened me to something I had previously not known about what was in that evidence, Evidence item no. 201…

    But the most intriguing, hush-hush item from the Harris home is probably evidence item No. 201, a green steno book found in a desk drawer. The book doesn’t belong to Eric or God but to Wayne Harris, who used it to write down various matters concerning his son’s mental health, errant behavior and interactions with neighbors and authorities. As a result of the confidential settlements reached in lawsuits brought against the Harrises and Klebolds by some victims’ families, virtually everyone who’s ever seen the steno book can’t comment on its contents.

    We do know one thing about item No. 201: It documents more contacts between the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Harrises over their son’s behavior years before the shooting than the sheriff’s office has ever acknowledged. In 2004, investigators working for the state attorney general’s office used the steno book to track a complaint against Eric that dated back to 1997, a case for which the department paperwork had disappeared. The deputy on the case, Tim Walsh, was the same officer who arrested Harris and Klebold for breaking into a van in 1998; interviewed by investigators after the shootings in 1999, Walsh made no mention of the 1997 case.

    Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said he will make a decision about releasing the materials after the anniversary of Columbine.