Summary Of Review Of Columbine By Dave Cullen

Review of Columbine by Dave Cullen (New York: Hachette Book Group, 2009, x + 417p)

In his book, Columbine, Dave Cullen sets the story right by putting to rest the gray areas of what happened at Columbine High School. Cullen covered this story as a journalist during the middle of the day of the attack. The episodes recounted are a mix of his many reports made within those nine years of research. He interviewed hundreds of people, examined police evidence, and watched a numerous amount of videos and audio recordings from other journalists. Cullen's main goal besides setting the story right, was to give the people a voice. He wanted to bring these people to life as individuals with feelings. Cullen wanted readers to know the true feelings

The media was filled with the story of Cassie Bernall who was asked if she believed in God and was shot seconds after she answered, "Yes." The story of Cassie Bernall's death became so engrossing that there was talk of making her a martyr. Then conflicting stories came out and, coupled with the 911 calls, proved that Cassie was shot without saying a word to her murderer, Dylan. Cassie's mother, Misty, had agreed to write a book prior to the discovery that Cassie's death hadn't happened as originally believed. In fact, Dylan had slapped the table, yelled, "peekaboo," and shot Cassie without giving her time to say anything. Misty wrote the book anyway but focused on Cassie's life prior to the day of the murder. One of the other victims was Patrick Ireland. He'd been shot in the head and didn't understand what was happening to him. He managed to make it to a window and hoisted his uncooperative body over the edge. He was caught by police and faced months of therapy before he was able to walk and talk again. He graduated as valedictorian the following year. When the school reopened the following August, Patrick led the student body inside for the first time since the tragedy. Patrick Ireland's case was settled for just more than a hundred

Eric and Dylan had fired shots from outside, moved inside, killed the remainder of their victims over a course of only a few minutes, then entered a "quiet time" in which they roamed around, apparently aimlessly. There were plenty of students available but Dylan and Eric passed them by without shooting any of them. Cullen explained that Eric had probably already become bored with killing and Dylan was simply ready to die. Things hadn't gone as they'd expected. They thought the bombs would start a fire but the smoke had set off sprinklers and the school was flooded. They'd also thought police would kill them but they were faced with a decision - how to kill themselves. They went into the library and shot themselves, Eric by firing into his mouth and Dylan by firing into his temple. Four months after the shootings, the school was scheduled to reopen. Students and the community expected a huge contingency of journalists but by then, they'd become angry at the constant coverage. Many of the newspapers had begun referring to the shootings as "Columbine" which angered the students - Columbine was the name of their school, not this horrible event. The students and parents took control of the situation. They decided to block the majority but agreed to allow a few journalists access. a permanent monument was erected. Parents were allowed to write a special tribute to their slain children. Brian