Columbine_10 Years Later

Posted by Ryan Geiger on April 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment

x8shoot April 20, 1999 changed the face of youth culture as we know it. Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado became the focal point of the worst school shooting massacre in history. When all was said and done the killers’ own suicides, 12 students and a teacher were dead, and 23 students were wounded, several of them critically. It took days for the police to find and defuse all of the 30 propane and pipe bombs that had been planted. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold casually walked around deciding which of their classmates would live and which would die. Two female students were asked if they believed in God and when they answered “yes” they were shot at point blank range.

I remember I was sitting in my campus ministry youth class when I heard the news and I remember thinking, “How would I handle this, If I was a youth pastor there” and I had no answer. Nobody knew what to say or what to do because nothing like this had happened before on this magnitude. I remember spending hours watching the news trying to find out why these two guys would do this and take so many innocent lives. Later in the year some survivors came to speak to our class about the tragedy. Songs were written to remember Cassie Bernall.

April 20, 1999 was a wake up call to administrators, parents, students and the local church that nobody is exempt. It was a wake up call that there are hurting students and there are warning signs and it is so important for us in “charge” to be on the lookout for the hurting and broken.

muschertcolumbine “First, there’s more brokenness and suffering. Kids are hurting. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold didn’t just simultaneously snap one April morning. Their hurt and pain had simmered and grown over the course of a long, long time. Then, the only way out they could find was the way they chose.

Second, the stuff that kids should never have to deal with is having to be dealt with by kids at younger and younger ages. It’s called age compression. What the Columbine student body witnessed was horrible. It would have been horrible for an adult. It’s even worse for kids.

Third, nobody is immune. Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime. It doesn’t matter where you live, where you go to school, where you go to church, if you go to church. . . . nobody is immune. Youth culture’s issues, pressure, problems, challenges, and choices exist without borders.

And finally, sooner or later. All of our kids will have to deal with difficult stuff and make difficult decisions.”

It is so crucial that students have an avenue to communicate. The teenage years are cruel for any student, let alone those who are socialy awkward. The reality is there are students who need Jesus. The reality is there are students going to hell. The reality is there is a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them. Today will be a day that is filled with magazine and TV visual reminders from 10 years ago. It is crucial for us not to turn a blind eye to what has happened but learn from it so that it can be prevented from happening again.

Take a momement to pray for the families who were tragically rocked by ten years ago today.

Cassie Bernall, 17_aspiring doctor, always had her Bible at school
Steven Curnow, 14_soccer player, hoped to pilot a Navy F-16
Corey DePooter, 17_fly fisher, hoped to join Marines
Kelly Fleming, 16_wrote poems, stories and songs
Matthew Kechter, 16_ straight A football player
Daniel Mauser, 15_ planned to climb first peak with dad
Danny Rohrbough, 15_worked in his father’s electronics shop
Rachel Scott, 17_starred in school play, little brother pretended to be dead and survived
Isaiah Shoels, 18_just 5’2″, could benchpress twice his weight
John Tomlin, 16_devout Christian, aided the poor in Mexico
Lauren Towsend, 18_volleyball captain, strong candidate for valedictorian.
Kyle Valasquez
Dave Sanders, 47_popular teacher, got students to safety, last words: ‘Tell my girls I love them.’