Monday, April 20, 2009

Columbine: Ten Years Later

Yahoo News has a fascinating look at one survivor of the Columbine shootings that took place ten years ago today. It's good to hear of the good things that came out of such a horrible tragedy.

I was a youth minister in Colorado at the time, and although none of my students went to Columbine High School, a couple of my students lived nearby and went to middle school with a couple of the victims. My wife was working at a middle school a few miles away at the time, and when news reports started coming in about the shooting, they locked down all the schools in the area and I couldn't get a hold of her. It was a scary moment because there were rumors that other schools were also being attacked and I didn't know if it was true or not.

The next day our church held a service to deal with the shock in our community over the tragedy - the fact that it happened in a relatively wealthy area of Colorado made some people realize that anything can happen anytime and anywhere.

It's amazing to think of all the things in my own life that have happened in that ten-year span: I've lived in four different states, had six different ministries (yikes!), and have had a ton of experiences. But I will always remember what took place at Columbine ten years ago.

2 comments:

Rochelle said...

I didn't realize it was so close to you.
It's one of those stories that had a big impact on me and my family. Kristen and Zach were in 7th and 5th grade at the time. It took away that
safe feeling that your kids are ok at school.
I have read some of the articles written recently discounting some of the earlier reports that the 2 boys were bullied or were part of the trench coat gang. They actually did it to make themselves as infamous as Timothy McVeigh not to get back at anyone.

Margaret Feinberg said...

It was interesting being here to see the ten year anniversary. We live very close to Littleton and our worship leader was hiding in the closet of Columbine during the shootings...so much happened through and since