Do the Harris and Klebold family deserve sympathy?

What truth could the Harris family or the Klebold family have withheld that would have protected those kids from Newtown? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They shootings aren't even remotely related.
It pisses me off so much when people bring Newtown into a discussion about Columbine. A person's heart strings aren't played enough by the death of poor beautiful Rachel Scott? Oh well then, they will surely be plucked by the mental image of a classroom of slaughtered 6 year olds.

These rants against the shooters' families are nothing but a very thinly veiled call for a pound of flesh.

The cruelest shots Eric and Dylan fired that day were the last two. When they killed themselves they eliminated the chance for retribution, they took away the one true place to lay blame, and they refused to take up the mantle of responsibility. They would not listen to the raging against them or turn their heads to look the anguish. They took all the answers to all the questions with them. They are far more merciless in death than they were in life.

Torturing their parents won't bring any of it back.

Hate Eric. Hate Dylan. But leave their parents alone.

I don't understand when/why people hate the families..
It can be true they didn't see the signs of what E/D were planning and couldn't 'stop them', but that's not to blame, why on earth would a parent think his son is plotting a mass murder with a friend?
It's hard enough losing a son in that way, knowing they grew up to become murderers and take their own life along with these of other innocent students/teachers.
They have no fault in all of this (I think E/D said that too several times, in the BT maybe) therefore they don't deserve any hostility

This is the first time I've heard Randy Brown speak out negatively against the Klebold's. He's usually standing up for them.

What does Randy Brown and the world expect to find out from the parents of Eric and Dylan? Are they hoping for that one little telltale sign that the parents missed that everyone else can pickup on? Doesn't exist.

Seems to me like Randy Brown has become bitter with old age. A lot of the comments below the article pretty much agree.

OMG...who needs enemies if you have friends like that?!

Wow! Something must have happened between the Browns and the Klebolds. I have never heard or read anything like this, thanks for sharing!

And yes I think they deserve sympathy.
Even if the parents knew some of their sons troubles (getting arrested, erics parents knew he was making bombs, etc.), I couldn´t blame them for not seing the worst in them.

They deserve both compassion and sympathy.

Of course they deserve sympathy and compassion. I cannot even begin to fathom what they have been through all the years. And I hate it when people bash them and blame them. It could happen to any family and at any school. I also don't agree that Wayne doesn't seem to care that Eric is no longer here. If he didn't care about Eric than he wouldn't have tried to get Eric the help he needed when he was alive. And as far as them not opening up about Columbine that much people have always described them as reserved and would keep to themselves which could explain why and they probably thought the best way for them to grieve is to grieve privately. Others chose to be more open like the Klebolds. There is no right or wrong way.

They deserve sympathy and it'd be nice if they spoke out about it nostop but, it's impossible to know how you'd react if you were in their shoes.

If one of Randy's children had done Columbine, I honestly don't think he'd be the crusader of justice he is now. Absolutely, the H/K families deserve all the sympathy in the world for what they've been forced to endure.

Everyone just wants someone to blame.

Of course they do! Not only did they loose their children but they're the reason that 13 other people lost theirs. I wish them all the happiness in the world, I think they've had enough sorrow to last them a lifetime.

I completely agree. It breaks my heart just thinking about it.

Randy Brown just seems bitter and angry. Which is sad but how can you blame them? They lost their children to.

I don't mind his dad that much. His mom on the other hand is a different story. Along with Cassie's mom Misty but I still feel terrible for them and all the other families.

What has she done?

I don't know much about Mr and Mrs Brown. Only that they were very biased because they had reasons to dislike Eric and praise Dylan. But, now it seems they're angry at both sets of parents, so something has obviously changed.

The interviews I've seen of her I just got annoyed. But I don't even know her so I cannot judge her.

BurnIt wrote:

Hate Eric. Hate Dylan. But leave their parents alone.

I could not agree with you more. They've been through enough, just leave them in peace.

Randy is usually really level headed. I'm surprised to hear this from him. Also, Sue now works trying to prevent suicides in teens and young adults. So she had "given back" so to speak.

The only Columbine parent I've ever really had a distaste for would be Brian Rohrbough.

I didn´t like Randy Brown. I want to say "Shut up and life goes on."

I know he got divorced but that is no reason to be mean. And I want to ask him "What LIES do you mean?" Sometimes I thought he believes he is only one who knows the truth...

em81 wrote:

I know he got divorced but that is no reason to be mean.

Himself and Judy got divorced?

Yes, but don´t asked me about the source. I forget where I read this.

I thought it was Brooks who got the divorce? Last I read, his parents were still together..

I have sympathy for all the families involved. The only ones who bear the full responsibility for what happened at Columbine are Eric and Dylan themselves, and even they can be recipients of sympathy in some form. I really do not understand what 'good' it does to turn against their families or against any other family affected by this tragedy. These people all lost someone they loved very very much. Playing the blame game doesn't solve anything, even though it is understandable that people turn to this in their search of 'why'.

Than I am wrong.

I don´t understand why all blame the families. They forget the police (there was no action against Harris after the Browns called the cops) they forget the school (They were not interested to change anything. They deny that something gone wrong.) And they forget the friends (who knew something and did not take it serious)

There are only two people who had choice. Eric and Dylan.

The issue with how Eric and Dylan kept their stuff hidden in their home could be part of a reason why E&D's families were having fingers pointed at them more than the police. It's human nature to point a finger at somebody when these things happen. With time we can say that the H&K families raised their sons the best they new how and that's all they could have done. I wish they spoke out more (including their brothers) so they could be better understood by people who, let's say, know nothing about Columbine.

Randy is bitter because he warned the police repeatedly about Eric and they failed to act. The Browns blame Eric for leading Dylan astray and they blame the cops for letting Eric get away with building bombs, threatening to kill people (particularly their son), vandalizing property, and conducting training missions all through their neighborhood for a year before capping it all off with NBK.

Look, I understand. That was their children too. But every time I hear the Klebolds speaking of Dylan...more so of Sue since she has been more open I always find that they still don't fully accept Dylan's act in the role, and still feels as if he was a follower, and led by Eric. The Brooks 100% believed that, and I understand. They grew up with Dylan. They grew up with their family. Eric was the new kid, and they rarely knew him so it's understandable...but the point is Dylan was equally responsible for the murders. Who cares if he was "led on" by Eric? What the hell kind of good kid blows kids heads off, and laughing his ass off? He was not sad about killing people. All Dylan had to do was tell on Eric, and Dylan is the hero of Littleton, and everyone loves Dylan. The End. But that didn't happen, did it? No.

Dylan is equally responsible to blame for the murders. I believe the Harris and Klebold family deserve sympathy. Teenagers can easily hide things from their family. Teenagers aren't given enough credit for how sneaky they can be (I am an example of this from my past). Maybe the Harris family did get a little careless with Eric sometimes, but reading those words from Eric in the Basement Tapes on how remorseful he was to the family, he sounds as if they were really were good parents, and Wayne was very strict on Eric, and had a no nonsense tolerant. Dylan, on the other hand...honestly to no disrespect, but reading Jeff Kass book and how he pointed out some interesting things that Sue wrote in Dylan's diversion files explaining his incident sounds like she was giving Dylan a lot of excuses for his behavior. The interesting thing about this is the person who handled Dylan and Eric said the same thing about Dylan...how Dylan still thinks he's the victim, and is not taking the program seriously.

But in the end, I have sympathy for their family. And to this day. I feel bad that the Harris have to go the rest of their lives thinking Harris was some evil mastermind psychopath bullshit when that was their son who had emotions, and feelings too. The Klebolds have it "easier" because a lot of people believed Dylan was a follower, and don't blame the Klebolds as much as the Harris family.

I strongly believe both were equally responsible, each brought his own set of ideas and plans for the killing. I thin the Klebolds are trying to portray Dylan as primarily a suicide victim and downplay his role as the murderer. That's their way of dealing with it I guess.

I have compassion for both families, they both lost a child. I don't believe any of them had the slightest idea that their kids ahve guns and are planning a shooting.

Wayne knew about the pipe bombs, but pipe bombs were hardly unique to Eric. There were contemporary polcie cases of pipebombs detonated at night that were absolutely unconnected with Eric. There were other kids making these and blowing them up for fun. Somebody in Larkin's interviews mentions it too afaik.

Not sayign taht Wayne did the right thing. But I am saying he did nto have any reasons to believe that there was anything more serious about it than what other kids were doing.

Yup. That was Devon who stated half of the school knew how to build pipe bombs.

Also, I want to add that Chris Morris tries blaming Wayne for detonating a pipe bomb with Eric In the mountains. What he failed to say is this was during the time of diversion. Wayne had no choice. He didn't want his son to go to jail, and they had to take it far away as possible. This is what Nate said, and I tend to agree with him more than a liar like Chris, who was still bitter during the interview.

AS A PARENT I can say you will never know 100% what goes on in your kids life once they start school. You do your best to try to know whats up with them but it's impossible. The only way I can see blaming the parents is if they would have raided dads guns and used those, which they did not do they bought their own.
IMO yes they do deserve sympathy, they did nothing wrong but yet got the blame shifted on them, if anything I think they should have more than the victims because they not only lost their kids too but they have the extra guilt of our kids killed these other kids.
I'm sure not a day has gone by where they think about something small they saw/ heard and thought "If I only would have...." I hope they all find peace and wish the families of all concerned the comfort they deserve.

lol wrote:

Look, I understand. That was their children too. But every time I hear the Klebolds speaking of Dylan...more so of Sue since she has been more open I always find that they still don't fully accept Dylan's act in the role, and still feels as if he was a follower, and led by Eric. The Brooks 100% believed that, and I understand. They grew up with Dylan. They grew up with their family. Eric was the new kid, and they rarely knew him so it's understandable...but the point is Dylan was equally responsible for the murders. Who cares if he was "led on" by Eric? What the hell kind of good kid blows kids heads off, and laughing his ass off? He was not sad about killing people. All Dylan had to do was tell on Eric, and Dylan is the hero of Littleton, and everyone loves Dylan. The End. But that didn't happen, did it? No.

Dylan is equally responsible to blame for the murders. I believe the Harris and Klebold family deserve sympathy. Teenagers can easily hide things from their family. Teenagers aren't given enough credit for how sneaky they can be (I am an example of this from my past). Maybe the Harris family did get a little careless with Eric sometimes, but reading those words from Eric in the Basement Tapes on how remorseful he was to the family, he sounds as if they were really were good parents, and Wayne was very strict on Eric, and had a no nonsense tolerant. Dylan, on the other hand...honestly to no disrespect, but reading Jeff Kass book and how he pointed out some interesting things that Sue wrote in Dylan's diversion files explaining his incident sounds like she was giving Dylan a lot of excuses for his behavior. The interesting thing about this is the person who handled Dylan and Eric said the same thing about Dylan...how Dylan still thinks he's the victim, and is not taking the program seriously.

But in the end, I have sympathy for their family. And to this day. I feel bad that the Harris have to go the rest of their lives thinking Harris was some evil mastermind psychopath bullshit when that was their son who had emotions, and feelings too. The Klebolds have it "easier" because a lot of people believed Dylan was a follower, and don't blame the Klebolds as much as the Harris family.

Exactly. Well said.

lol wrote:

Yup. That was Devon who stated half of the school knew how to build pipe bombs.

Also, I want to add that Chris Morris tries blaming Wayne for detonating a pipe bomb with Eric In the mountains. What he failed to say is this was during the time of diversion. Wayne had no choice. He didn't want his son to go to jail, and they had to take it far away as possible. This is what Nate said, and I tend to agree with him more than a liar like Chris, who was still bitter during the interview.

Wayne kept a notebook on Eric. He was trying to do something about the issue. I think he underestimated (maybe even willfully) how bad off Eric really was, but still Eric was on medication and receiving treatment. He had a job, made good grades, had friends and was due to be out of High School within a matter of months. If Wayne had not called 911 on the day of NBK, sad to say, but I believe the Harris's would have been less looked down on right off the bat.

The Klebold family has taken many steps to ensure their son comes off looking as good as possible. They are a rich and well-connected family. Who do you think is using big-shot lawyers to keep all the records sealed. They also made pay-outs to some of the victims, I believe they were able to shoe-horn their home owner's insurance to do so.

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Yep, the Klebolds have the luxury to make moves like that.

The Harrises just want to be left alone and frankly I don't blame them at all. They want to have a life after columbine, with Kevin and his family. Very normal, mundane stuff tbh.

Sure, Wayne ignored the pipebomb issue, or at least didn't treat it seriously enough to prevent Eric from keeping his arsenal at home. Sure, that's Wayne's fault. But trust me, he's the one who has to face the consequences of this every day.

I say leave the guy be, Eric already hurt him more than any court ever will.

Eric also said his parents were the best parents in the world and couldn't have stopped NBK.

OTOH, Dylan addresses his final remarks on the BT directly to Sue -- "Hi Mom..." which is eerily as though he is putting everything squarely on her shoulders. He wanted her to feel responsible for NBK. He apologizes for anything NBK might "instigate" in her and Tom's life. He is openly acknowledging that he sees her as someone who only looks at him as a burden.

Eric apologizes to the people he loves; Dylan just says "We did what we had to do. Goodbye."

I think that E&D were born the way they were, and though their parents may have made mistakes (as do all), they could no way be to blame for the shooting.

The suffering and self hatred both sets of parents must have gone through after NBK was surely immense enough, without the hatred and blame of others upon them. I think they deserve sympathy. They had not committed a crime, and as Gustopoet2 says, Eric did not feel hate at all towards his parents - they were not the problem. And although they made mistakes, it is only after the events have occured that we can truly see the impact, how is a parent to know that their child is plotting a massacre?