TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Susan Klebold

  • Columbine depositions to remain sealed

    Court upholds decision to keep Columbine depositions sealed:

    The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a decision that depositions given by the parents of the Columbine shooters remain sealed in the National Archives for 20 years.

    Previously U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock ordered the depositions sealed after families of the victims among others had requested that the depositions be made public. The depositions were given by Wayne and Kathy Harris, the parents of Eric Harris, and Thomas and Susan Klebold, the parents of Dylan Klebold. They’re from a civil lawsuit that the family of Columbine victim Daniel Rohrbough filed against the killers’ parents.

    In the new ruling attorneys argued that since the records were made by a court that they qualify under the Federal Records Act. The court disagreed stating the depositions should have been returned to the people who made them. If that had happened I’m sure they’d be nothing but ash by now.

    Judge Babcock originally ruled that way stating that if the depositions were to be made public that would inspire a whole new generation of school shooters. I disagree. In case you haven’t noticed school shooters and would be shooters don’t need some depositions to find inspiration. You would need to erase the memories of Columbine and every school shooting since from everyone on the planet before they would no longer find inspiration. The private journals of both cowardly scumbag killers have been released and that didn’t cause an outbreak of shootings.

    Conversely, I think it would benefit greatly if the depositions were made public. We could learn from the Harrises and Klebolds mistakes in their parenting techniques on how to tell if our children are on a dangerous path like those of the killers.

    Now there will just have to be a 20-year wait for that knowledge. I still say if any school shooting deaths happen between now and then that the blood will be on the hands of Judge Babcock.

  • The other killer’s parents want records destroyed

    The other killer’s parents want records destroyed

    2nd Columbine gunman’s family not opposed to sealing records:

    Here’s another shocker. The parents of the other Columbine gunman Dylan Klebold, Thomas, and Susan Klebold, want their depositions destroyed but don’t oppose them being sent to the National Archives for 25 years.

    Thomas and Susan Klebold’s position on the proposal, outlined in a federal court filing, is similar to the wishes of the parents of gunman Eric Harris. The Klebolds said if the judge chooses to send the documents under seal to the National Archives and Records Administration, they would like some information – such as names, addresses – blacked out.

    Hmmm. I wonder whose name and address they want blacked out. Maybe if they didn’t allow their kid to plot one of the most horrific mass murders in American history, then this wouldn’t be an issue.

    The more I write about this story, the more it makes no sense to me whatsoever. Who is Judge Babcock covering up for? JeffCo. Sheriffs or the killers’ parents? He shouldn’t be covering up for either. The decent thing to do would be to give the victims’ families the answers they’ve been seeking. Unsealing the depositions would accomplish that.

  • No Apologies

    No Apologies

    A few weeks ago, a columnist named David Brooks for the New York Times wrote this column which is basically just him agreeing with this column by Dave Cullen.

    Mr. Brooks then started receiving E-mails from Tom Klebold, Dylan Klebold’s father, which led to this piece in Saturday’s New York Times.

    In it, the Klebolds refuse to apologize for what happened. Susan Klebold even goes as far to say, “I haven’t done anything for which I need forgiveness.” They also describe the day of the shootings as “a natural disaster” and the Klebold’s discuss the day as a suicide and not as a day when 13 random people were killed. Two quotes from the NY Times article jumped out at me…

    They believe that what they call the “toxic culture” of the school — the worship of jocks and the tolerance of bullying — is the primary force that set Dylan off. But they confess that in the main, they have no explanation.

    Yet, they didn’t kill any jocks, and I have yet to hear of the names of any jocks who allegedly bullied them. And then there was this…

    “I’m a quantitative person,” said Tom, a former geophysicist. “We’re not qualified to sort this out.” They long for some authoritative study that will provide an answer. “People need to understand,” Tom said, “this could have happened to them.”

    So it sounds like to me that they’re willing to let other people raise their child. People like Eric Harris. The impression I get is that the Klebolds are very self-absorbed. They must be to have missed obvious warning signs, which they regrettably admit…

    “He was hopeless. We didn’t realize it until after the end,” Tom said. Susan added: “I think he suffered horribly before he died. For not seeing that, I will never forgive myself.”

    Suffered horribly? At least he knew that he was going to die that day. 13 other people weren’t afforded such a luxury.

    As expected, parents of the true victims are not happy…

    “I’m horrified,” Dawn Anna, whose daughter Lauren Townsend was killed at Columbine, told The Associated Press. “I wanted an apology. I wanted a contribution to help us understand why it happened, so that it would never happen again. I didn’t hear it.”

    Brian Rohrbough, father of victim Daniel Rohrbough, said he was outraged that the Klebolds likened the day of the shootings to a natural disaster in the interview with Brooks.

    The best quote to sum this all up also comes from Brian Rohrbough who said…

    “This was murder,” he said. “In my opinion, what went on in their home led to Columbine.”

    Now if only the Klebold’s would pull their heads out of the sand and realize that.