“When I got home one Tuesday last month, my dad was watching TV. NBC was covering a possible hostage situation in the town of Littleton, Colorado. I saw kids running out of the school in panic. I turned to another channel, and every channel was covering it. As the story developed, we learned that two teens had taken over a school. Kids had been shot and a SWAT team was sent in. “That’s absolutely terrible. Terrible,” my dad said.
I thought it was very sad that two high school students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, would go into a school and try to solve their problems with violence. I tried to put it out of my mind so I could concentrate on my homework and other things, but I couldn’t. I kept thinking about how the parents of the victims might feel.
I felt surprised because I thought a large school like Columbine High would have better security. But in a way I wasn’t surprised because in the last few years we’ve seen all kinds of awful stuff on TV—someone running his car into a kids’ playground; some guy killing himself on the freeway; the North Hollywood bank shoot-out. This Columbine High thing is yet another tragedy.
The day after the shooting happened, some friends at school made a joke out of it. They said, “I’ll get the Trench Coat Mafia on you.” I replied “That’s messed up, man, you shouldn’t be saying that.” I think teens around here in Los Angeles don’t take this situation seriously because it happened so far away. You might even think our schools have more security. But it could happen here.
How could this happen?
People are asking themselves why this occurred. Are TV programs too violent? Are social groups and “cliques” in high school rejecting teens for who they really are? Are teens playing too many violent video games like Doom? Is prejudice leading to violence? Are guns too accessible? Did Eric Harris flip out because of his anti-depressant medication? Is NATO setting a bad example by bombing Kosovo instead of using peaceful means? Maybe all the violence we see around us is rubbing off on today’s teens.
All of these factors may contribute to violence, but to me, the most important one is parents’ influence and involvement. I think that parents should play an active role in teens’ lives. My dad is extremely involved in the decisions I make. When I come home every day, Dad asks, “How was your day today? Did anything interesting happen?” If I say it was a bad day, he wants to know what was bad about it. If it was a good day, he would want to know what was good about it. My father is like my shadow—he knows what’s going on in my life.
I don’t think the parents of Harris and Klebold took an active role in their lives. According to news reports, one of the fathers of the teens traveled a lot, so he wasn’t there all the time. The teenagers planned this shooting for over a year, and they even wrote about it on their web site—I think the parents should have seen something coming. Harris was taking anti-depressant medication. His parents should have sent him to receive more help for his condition. I mean if a kid is depressed, they need to talk to someone to release all those bad emotions that they experience.
Is this horrific incident going to the change the way we live? I think that some parents in America today are thinking, ”I’m going to take my children out of public school and put them in a private institution so this never happens to us.” I think people are going to wonder how safe schools are in this country. Should school security be ”beefed up?” Some of the kids today may report you for making a comment like, ”I’m going to kill that teacher for giving me an F on my Spanish test.” Or ”Coach is going to get jumped for sitting me on the bench.” Some schools are suspending students for making remarks like that.
I’ve heard that in some other countries, students don’t have to worry about things like this happening in their school. I wish it was like that here—but it isn’t.”