Columbine in 1982

I stumbled across this neat picture on Google today while doing some research. It shows three students chatting in the hallway of Columbine back in 1982. I've honestly never seen this before. I wonder where in Columbine this was taken at?

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Them shorts tho

Oooh and what beautifully smooth legs he has

(sorry)

On a more serious note, I wonder what Columbine was actually like in 1982. Sporty I can see. I hadn't realised how old the school actually was, does anyone have any evidence of how school life really was back in the pre-E&D times?

Perhaps the wall of jocks is waiting just behind the cameraman.

There are a couple of 80s yearbooks on ebay, they could be handy. And those legs are very smooth.

eli27 wrote:

On a more serious note, I wonder what Columbine was actually like in 1982. Sporty I can see. I hadn't realised how old the school actually was, does anyone have any evidence of how school life really was back in the pre-E&D times?

Perhaps the wall of jocks is waiting just behind the cameraman.

The school first opened in 1973. A teacher who taught there at the time of NBK told me that, by the mid-'90s, it was a "mess" and was about ready to be torn down. The school was revamped almost from the ground up during the summer of '95.

Columbine was not a sports powerhouse until the '90s. The earliest reports of bullying that I've seen date from '94. That's not to say that there weren't problems before that.

But keep in mind that the worst year, by far, was the '97/'98 school year.

LPorter101 wrote:

eli27 wrote:

On a more serious note, I wonder what Columbine was actually like in 1982. Sporty I can see. I hadn't realised how old the school actually was, does anyone have any evidence of how school life really was back in the pre-E&D times?

Perhaps the wall of jocks is waiting just behind the cameraman.

The school first opened in 1973. A teacher who taught there at the time of NBK told me that, by the mid-'90s, it was a "mess" and was about ready to be torn down. The school was revamped almost from the ground up during the summer of '95.

Columbine was not a sports powerhouse until the '90s. The earliest reports of bullying that I've seen date from '94. That's not to say that there weren't problems before that.

But keep in mind that the worst year, by far, was the '97/'98 school year.

Thank you for the info.

awhile ago (2009), an Ebay vendor was selling 100's of rare photos of inside CHS during the 70's and 80's, many of the interior shots look very different to how they do today, like LP said, they revamped the school, although the cafeteria was still very similar. Some of the photos had a young DeAngelis in them, another had someone's wedding inside the cafeteria and I noticed in most of the shots, the male students all seemed to have long hair in the same style as Dylans, I guess that was the fashion back in the 70's!

Oh and the photo you made, I actually know where that was taken, at the very end of that hall is where Dave fell, isn't it?

LPorter101 wrote:

eli27 wrote:

On a more serious note, I wonder what Columbine was actually like in 1982. Sporty I can see. I hadn't realised how old the school actually was, does anyone have any evidence of how school life really was back in the pre-E&D times?

Perhaps the wall of jocks is waiting just behind the cameraman.

The school first opened in 1973. A teacher who taught there at the time of NBK told me that, by the mid-'90s, it was a "mess" and was about ready to be torn down. The school was revamped almost from the ground up during the summer of '95.

Columbine was not a sports powerhouse until the '90s. The earliest reports of bullying that I've seen date from '94. That's not to say that there weren't problems before that.

But keep in mind that the worst year, by far, was the '97/'98 school year.

Thanks for the info on that LPorter. When I watch the "Eric Harris In Columbine" video, I couldn't help but notice how clean and new the school looked at the time. So pretty much that library was only there for 4 years until NBK, right?

CharlesWhitman wrote:

I noticed in most of the shots, the male students all seemed to have long hair in the same style as Dylans, I guess that was the fashion back in the 70's!

I was looking at my friends' dads' yearbook (who graduated in the mid 80's) and literally every guy in that yearbook had long hair similar to Dylan's, including the jocks. Amazing to think how the style has changed over the years.

Quote :

Thanks for the info on that LPorter. When I watch the "Eric Harris In Columbine" video, I couldn't help but notice how clean and new the school looked at the time. So pretty much that library was only there for 4 years until NBK, right?

Yes, I believe so.

Quote :

I was looking at my friends' dads' yearbook (who graduated in the mid 80's) and literally every guy in that yearbook had long hair similar to Dylan's, including the jocks. Amazing to think how the style has changed over the years.

Yeah, the '70s and '80s were something else.

Tommy had more hair than Carrie:

LPorter101 wrote:

eli27 wrote:

On a more serious note, I wonder what Columbine was actually like in 1982. Sporty I can see. I hadn't realised how old the school actually was, does anyone have any evidence of how school life really was back in the pre-E&D times?

Perhaps the wall of jocks is waiting just behind the cameraman.

The school first opened in 1973. A teacher who taught there at the time of NBK told me that, by the mid-'90s, it was a "mess" and was about ready to be torn down. The school was revamped almost from the ground up during the summer of '95.

Columbine was not a sports powerhouse until the '90s. The earliest reports of bullying that I've seen date from '94. That's not to say that there weren't problems before that.

But keep in mind that the worst year, by far, was the '97/'98 school year.

That's interesting that you spoke to a teacher who worked there at the time Eric and Dylan were there. Did she remember either of them at all or have them for class?

Quote :

That's interesting that you spoke to a teacher who worked there at the time Eric and Dylan were there. Did she remember either of them at all or have them for class?

She knew of Dylan, but she did not have any specific memories of Eric and Dylan.

She said that the bullying stories were vastly exaggerated. She said that the bullying was almost due entirely to "one athlete whose father hired expensive lawyers to get him out of trouble." When I said, "Rocky Hoffschneider," she didn't say "Yes," but she didn't correct me, either. (Another time, when I mentioned a specific name, she said, "No, that's not the person I'm talking about.") I went on a bit about Rocky, and she added, again without saying "Yes" or "No," "The administration did everything in its power to try to deal with this kid, but our hands were tied*." She had nothing but praise for "Mr. D."

*Someone who went to the school (but moved to another town before she graduated) during Eric and Dylan's junior year told me that Mr. D was always very warm and friendly toward Rocky and the other top jocks. He high-fived them in the hallways and acted like he was one of their best buds. But he ignored the other kids.

Also, one of the Columbine parents once said, "This school is not about the kids. This school is about a principal who is reliving his high school years knowing the cheerleaders and the football players."

(Mr. D, despite standing only 5'6" on a good day, was a star baseball player in high school. He was coaching the baseball team years before he became principal.)

This teacher did know both Rachel Scott and Daniel Mauser. She said that, before Rachel's funeral, she was freaking out, thinking that Rachel was trapped in the coffin and couldn't breathe. But she said that, when she saw Rachel's body at the funeral, and saw that she had a stern expression that she never had in life, she realized for the first time that she was truly dead and was not coming back.

She also knew Brooks Brown. She had him for a class and said that she was fond of him, but didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already read elsewhere. When I mentioned offhandedly that he had an Ayn Rand fixation, she did say, "He's not into Ayn Rand anymore. These days, he's as liberal as you can get."

(If you read No Easy Answers, you will see that he deeply admired Rand back in his high-school days and even in the years after his graduation. He even named his Web site Atlas Is Shrugging.)

She said that everyone who went to the school deeply resented the "We Are All Columbine" bumper stickers. She said that the folks who were there felt that only they knew what it was like, and they thought that others who said, "Oh, I understand what you went through" were full of shit.

She told me that she regarded "massacre tourists" as the lowest form of scum.

(I know a few folks who have gone to the school so they can stand at the spot where, say, Rachel Scott died and take a picture ... I don't think I could bring myself to do that, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be damn tempted to have a look-see if I ever found myself in the Denver area. The one thing everyone always says about the school is, "It's a lot smaller than it looks on TV!")

She also told me that the kids who go there now* don't even think about it, or talk about it. They don't care about it. (I have heard the same thing from others.)

*This was about five years ago.

Obviously, I didn't agree with her take on the bullying. She had been teaching there for many years, so obviously she knew more about the school than I did, but she also had a vested interest in trying to protect the school's reputation. (At the time, Mr. D was her boss.) She didn't want to say anything to me that could be used against her.

(If she had told me that the school was a bullying hellhole, and I had publicized that information, then it would have made big problems for her. But I do believe that she was telling the truth, as she believed it - she honestly didn't regard bullying as that big of a problem at the school.)

She abruptly cut off our correspondence in late March of that year. She said, "I'm sorry, but around this time of year, I start having panic attacks and I have to do whatever I can to keep from thinking about 4/20." I told her that I understood and wished her the best.

She didn't give me a whole lot of new information. But at least she was polite and let me ramble on in my e-mails.

LPorter101 wrote:

Quote :

That's interesting that you spoke to a teacher who worked there at the time Eric and Dylan were there. Did she remember either of them at all or have them for class?

She knew of Dylan, but she did not have any specific memories of Eric and Dylan.

She said that the bullying stories were vastly exaggerated. She said that the bullying was almost due entirely to "one athlete whose father hired expensive lawyers to get him out of trouble." When I said, "Rocky Hoffschneider," she didn't say "Yes," but she didn't correct me, either. (Another time, when I mentioned a specific name, she said, "No, that's not the person I'm talking about.") I went on a bit about Rocky, and she added, again without saying "Yes" or "No," "The administration did everything in its power to try to deal with this kid, but our hands were tied*." She had nothing but praise for "Mr. D."

*Someone who went to the school (but moved to another town before she graduated) during Eric and Dylan's junior year told me that Mr. D was always very warm and friendly toward Rocky and the other top jocks. He high-fived them in the hallways and acted like he was one of their best buds. But he ignored the other kids.

Also, one of the Columbine parents once said, "This school is not about the kids. This school is about a principal who is reliving his high school years knowing the cheerleaders and the football players."

(Mr. D, despite standing only 5'6" on a good day, was a star baseball player in high school. He was coaching the baseball team years before he became principal.)

This teacher did know both Rachel Scott and Daniel Mauser. She said that, before Rachel's funeral, she was freaking out, thinking that Rachel was trapped in the coffin and couldn't breathe. But she said that, when she saw Rachel's body at the funeral, and saw that she had a stern expression that she never had in life, she realized for the first time that she was truly dead and was not coming back.

She also knew Brooks Brown. She had him for a class and said that she was fond of him, but didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already read elsewhere. When I mentioned offhandedly that he had an Ayn Rand fixation, she did say, "He's not into Ayn Rand anymore. These days, he's as liberal as you can get."

(If you read No Easy Answers, you will see that he deeply admired Rand back in his high-school days and even in the years after his graduation. He even named his Web site Atlas Is Shrugging.)

She said that everyone who went to the school deeply resented the "We Are All Columbine" bumper stickers. She said that the folks who were there felt that only they knew what it was like, and they thought that others who said, "Oh, I understand what you went through" were full of shit.

She told me that she regarded "massacre tourists" as the lowest form of scum.

(I know a few folks who have gone to the school so they can stand at the spot where, say, Rachel Scott died and take a picture ... I don't think I could bring myself to do that, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be damn tempted to have a look-see if I ever found myself in the Denver area. The one thing everyone always says about the school is, "It's a lot smaller than it looks on TV!")

She also told me that the kids who go there now* don't even think about it, or talk about it. They don't care about it. (I have heard the same thing from others.)

*This was about five years ago.

Obviously, I didn't agree with her take on the bullying. She had been teaching there for many years, so obviously she knew more about the school than I did, but she also had a vested interest in trying to protect the school's reputation. (At the time, Mr. D was her boss.) She didn't want to say anything to me that could be used against her.

(If she had told me that the school was a bullying hellhole, and I had publicized that information, then it would have made big problems for her. But I do believe that she was telling the truth, as she believed it - she honestly didn't regard bullying as that big of a problem at the school.)

She abruptly cut off our correspondence in late March of that year. She said, "I'm sorry, but around this time of year, I start having panic attacks and I have to do whatever I can to keep from thinking about 4/20." I told her that I understood and wished her the best.

She didn't give me a whole lot of new information. But at least she was polite and let me ramble on in my e-mails.

Thats very interesting LPorter, thanks.

I'm not surprised at her take on the bullying, and can understand her bias. I suppose that if you worked at CHS at the time of E&D and NBK you would probably hate them, and on top of that - as you said - the worry of having negative information published might have an effect on your thoughts of the bullying. I don't neccessarily agree with her take on the bullying either, but I would say that I'm not sure it was quite as bad as Eric and Dylan perceived it to be.