Hypothetical

Sorry for spamming the board today but I took an adderall and I get super focused on one thing and today it's discussing Columbine. Hope this is the right board for this kind of topic.

So hypothetical: you can go back in time to the beginning of the school year at Columbine 1998. You know everything you know now but are high school age and are a "new student". You have until April 20th to befriend Eric and Dylan,then somehow prevent them from throwing their lives away and the lives of 13 other people.

Hard mode: without giving away your identity as a time traveler or killing them

Interesting! I was their age so I’d new a new senior...probably interested in theatre and more than likely would have taken similar classes as them so chances are I’d interact with them in some way.

I think by fall 1998 they were set to do this. Dylan had been suicidal since the end of his sophomore year and with the 2 of them...especially with Dylan he had friends and people who cared for him so befriending him in general wouldn't help. Maybe relating to him in terms of feeling isolated, not human and wanted love would help?

Would being romantically interested in Eric stop him?

Would calling in an anonymous tip to the police help maybe?

If worse came to worse maybe calling in a fake bomb threat?

Also if I couldn’t stop it and couldn’t skip school, where would I go that day? Knowing what I know now, now..where would I be the safest?

Screamingophelia wrote:

If worse came to worse maybe calling in a fake bomb threat?  

This would work. Though not really a "fake" bomb threat as the police would inevitably find their propane bombs in the cafeteria lol. But if the bombs were traced to Eric and Dylan it would give them the proper attention from authorities that was needed to maybe get them some real help

I think one of the biggest things you could do is stop them from getting the guns. As Eric said in his journal "Its all over now" I think that is when it really shifted from 2 kids violent fantasies to something they could actually do. Also given what we know now the bombs fail, so I doubt they'd just go NBK using just pipebombs. If it were me, I would probably get a job at BlackJack Pizza and become friends with them there.

HanShotFirst wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

If worse came to worse maybe calling in a fake bomb threat?  

This would work. Though not really a "fake" bomb threat as the police would inevitably find their propane bombs in the cafeteria lol. But if the bombs were traced to Eric and Dylan it would give them the proper attention from authorities that was needed to maybe get them some real help

Very true! It would have foiled their plans.

Also if it would save lives I’d ask Eric to prom...

You know for the greater good.

Screamingophelia wrote:

Also if it would save lives I’d ask Eric to prom...

You know for the greater good.

For the greater good of course

I feel like if both Eric and Dylan went to prom there would have been some troublemaking lol

HanShotFirst wrote:

I feel like if both Eric and Dylan went to prom there would have been some troublemaking lol

Lol agreed. I think Eric went to the after prom party but Robyn drove Dylan home

HanShotFirst wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

Also if it would save lives I’d ask Eric to prom...

You know for the greater good.

For the greater good of course

To save 15 lives... greater good. I’d be Eric’s prom date.

I think you'd have to neutralise Eric. If he was arrested or found himself in a better state of mind, then I doubt Dylan would have the balls or the organisational skills to do it by himself. If something happened to Dylan (like you persuaded him to commit suicide by himself or managed to alert Sue that he was suicidal), I think Eric may have still carried it out to honour his friend.

So do you all think that if you removed Eric from Dylan somehow it would have helped?

Do you think if Dylan was without Eric that he would have found someone else to help him? As the thread name states Hypothetically speaking Dylan could have recruited someone like Erik V to help him... or anyone else for that matter....

IMO Eric and Dylan meeting was just the perfect storm. There are tons of suicidal, angsty teens with the same interests as those two. There are some with an interest in explosives, have a very dark sense of humor, etc. I know their kind. But they don't go on killing sprees. Eric and Dylan fed off each other which was why nobody else knew that side of them. They had eachother so they were able to hide it exceptionally well, one was the other's outlet for those kind of feelings. And as their relationship grew it snowballed into mass murder. Now, would they be law abiding citizens if they never would have met? Doubt it. Eric would probably get pinned for something like domestic abuse and Dylan would probably killled himself or something. I believe Columbine is so interesting because Eric and Dylan's relationship was the key ingredient for disaster. I don't believe either of them would recruit anyone for any kind of similar crime. They only trusted each other each other.