Yes I wrote the article for FHM... ask away...

Yes I wrote the article for FHM... ask away... Piers

A quick Google search for FHM brings up For Him Magazine, and searching "Columbine" on the website brings up no search results. I think you're gonna have to be more specific, or maybe you have a link to the article?

Ok: This is the raw copy of what I wrote....

Columbine

“This is where it all began. This is where I sat listening to the gunfire and the screams and thought: “Oh Jesus, somebody is shooting up my school!”
We are sitting in a bicycle underpass which runs under Pierce Street, a road which three blocks away, leads to the most famous school in the world. Opposite me, reliving a truly horrific day, is 23 year old Brooks Brown, the best friend of the two students who committed The Columbine Massacre. And massacre it was. By the time eighteen year old Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold blew their brains out in the library they left behind them a trail of dead and dying that in the final tally, was to add up to one teacher and twelve students dead and twenty three more seriously injured. It was an act of brutal slaughter so chilling in its planning and execution it was to send shock waves around the world.
“I was one of the survivors that day,” says Brooks lighting a cigarette, his hands visibly shaking, “but it wasn’t long before my life would be totally destroyed.”
April 20th 1999 had started much like any other school day for Brooks Brown. In his final year at High School with less than a month until graduation his mind was on getting good grades and getting the hell out of a school where bullying was rife and teachers turned a blind eye. “It was beautiful clear sunny day,” he smiles gazing at the ceiling of the underpass, “and I was having a cigarette in the parking lot when Eric pulled up in his grey Honda Civic and I walked over to him and asked him why he’d just missed our philosophy lesson. He laughed at me and told me it didn’t matter any more. Then he fetched a gym bag out of his back seat and looked me straight in the eyes. “Brooks” he said, “I like you now. Get out of here, go home.”
Confused, Brooks wandered out of the school to finish his cigarette on Pierce Street and then heard a loud crack in the distance. “At first I thought it was a nail gun from a nearby construction site and then I heard something much louder and I knew instantly something horrible was happening.” Gripped by fear and panic Brooks ran for his life with the sounds of gunfire, explosions and screaming filling the air behind him.
“This is where I came to try and get my head together and as I sat right where I am now, it just hit me... Eric! Oh man! No. No NO! Jesus Eric what the hell are you doing?”
Brooks stands up, grinds his cigarette out underfoot and points at a row of houses 200yards away across a field. “See that house on the left, I ran there, borrowed a phone and told my dad that I thought Eric was shooting up Columbine – at that stage I still had no idea that my best friend Dylan was helping him do it.” Brooks goes on to explain how, against a growing crescendo of wailing sirens he waited anxiously for his father “And then I suddenly thought “My brother –he’s still in the school!” His dad turned up in record time and they sped home. “I’ve gotta say,” he says, breaking into a broad grin, “that was the coolest feeling ever when my brother ran outside to greet us. I threw my arms around him and cried. Right,” says Brooks composing himself, “let’s get the hell out of here.”
Being something of a local celebrity and not a universally popular one at that, Brooks is very keen not to be spotted anywhere near his old school. As we pull away in his battered old Merc, he lets out a big sigh of relief: “Wow! I haven’t been back there since it happened and I never want to go back again!” Little does he know that the very next day FHM will persuade him to drive up to the front doors of Columbine High School itself.
Columbine is a small, scenic district in the area of Littleton, a wealthy suburb of Denver in Colorado, a state pretty much slap bang in the middle of the U.S.A. A mile above sea level, next to the purple, snow topped Rockies that stretch as far as the eye can see, it’s difficult to imagine a more comfortable bed in which to dream the American dream. Strange then that this should be home to one of America’s most vivid nightmares. “Columbine is a god fearing, bible thumping type of community,” explains Brooks as we pass yet another church on the way to his house, “I’m an atheist, I don’t like churches or anything to do with them. Having said that I might well take you to a cemetery this afternoon...”
Let’s wind back the clock to a time when that cemetery was less full than it is now. It’s 11.16 on the cloudless morning of April 20th 1999 – a day that has been carefully chosen many months in advance for its significance: Hitler’s birthday. Despite the heat, two of Columbine’s brighter students are wearing trenchcoats. They are standing side by side at the top of the steps outside their school, waiting. Eric Harris or “Reb” (short for Rebel) is wearing a T-shirt that says “Natural Selection”. Beneath his coat he is clutching a pump action 12 bore and a 9mm carbine rifle along with knives and homemade bombs. Dylan Klebold or “Vodka” as he is known is wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Wrath” on his chest. His coat hides a TEC 9 semi automatic machine pistol and a sawn off double-barrelled shotgun. The reason they are waiting is that they have just planted two propane bombs in the packed cafeteria, timed to explode at 11.17. The plan or “NBK” as they have christened it (Natural Born Killers) was hatched a year ago – a year during which they have worked hard together in nearby Blackjack Pizza in order to save up to buy the necessary guns, ammunition and bomb making materials. The plan is that the bombs go off killing probably 300 students and as the survivors stumble out Reb and Vodka cut them down in swathes with relentless gunfire. Chance, divine intervention – call it what you will but for some miracle both bombs fail to detonate. Instead, over the next forty minutes, the two best friends embark on a bestial tour of vengeance.
The question asked that day by the survivors, the grieving families, the police and paramedics picking through the carnage and the rest of the world was: “How did it come to this?” How did two intelligent boys born into caring, loving families, stealthily morph into hate-filled, merciless killers? Most have been happy to write them off as two aberrant adolescents raised on a diet of bloodthirsty video games, aggressive lyrics and movies glorifying violence. A few, like Brooks Brown and later Michael Moore, dared to suggest a less comfortable explanation - that the problem comes not from without but from within. That Eric and Dylan became what they were because two of the very foundations upon which the American way of life is built - the Schools system and the Police Force – are rotten to the core.
How does America manage to create people who can so easily dehumanize their victims and subject them to such brutality? It is a question that, for one atrocity or another, seems to be asked every year. On the one hand, we have the moral majority of godfearing, American citizens who steadfastly refuse to accept any responsibility for what is going on under their noses. And on the other hand we have the odd lone voice saying “Something is seriously wrong with American society and we need to make changes.” It is a brave stand to make and one which was nearly to cost Brooks his life.
“I really don’t do publicity at all any more,” says Brooks as he fetches Anto and I some cream soda from his fridge, “but I like FHM and I’m keen to get my message across to a different audience.” In the years since the massacre, Brooks has written a book “No Easy Answers – The Truth Behind Death At Columbine”, worked with Michael Moore on the oscar winning film Bowling For Columbine and spread his message on virtually every news and chat show in the states. I ask him what that message is.
“Eric and Dylan did what they did because of hopelessness. They didn’t fit in at school and they were relentlessly bullied to the point of despair by the school jocks - the kids on the football team. Most of the teachers were coaches themselves so they turned a blind eye it. In the end Eric and Dylan withdrew into their own world, fed each others delusions and emerged as monsters. My message is intended for any kid, anywhere in the world being bullied at school. The message is: “You are not alone, there are others like you, do not lose hope.”
For Brooks the notion of not losing hope was to be tested to breaking point in the days and months after the massacre. “At first I wandered round in a daze,” he says, “when I wasn’t numb I was curled up in a ball sobbing.” Then, when his grief, anger and confusion compounded by a lack of sleep and appetite was becoming almost too much to bear, things got worse.
“The first I knew something was wrong was at Rachel Scott’s funeral,” says Brooks shaking his head, “There were dirty looks and whispers and some so called friends made it clear they didn’t want me there.” Brooks grabs his car keys, “Come on,” he beckons, “I want to show you something.”
Ten minutes later we pull into a shopping mall and buy the biggest bunch of flowers they have. Then we take a left into the Olinger Memorial Cemetery, a vast rolling green field dotted with flowers and headstones.
“I really miss her,” says Brooks as we lay the flowers at Rachel Scott’s grave. Eric and Dylan’s first victim, she and Brooks had met through the school’s debating club where, despite her being a devout Christian, they had formed an unlikely friendship. Behind Rachel’s grave is an arc of thirteen black marble crosses each bearing the photograph of one of the victims: The Columbine Memorial. Brooks walks us round. “Rachel was a good friend. Dave Sanders was my teacher for three classes. Kelly Fleming I knew because my best friend dated her little sister…” For every cross there is a connection. “So I knew ’em a lot,” he laughs nervously and then takes a few deep breaths. The silence is broken only by the eerie tinkling of windchimes placed by mourners in the thirteen memorial trees behind us. It is a place of impossible sadness.
As we leave and head across town to Brooks’s parents house for dinner he explains what happened at a memorial service held shortly after Rachel’s funeral. “I went to sit with my friends on the stage and that was the first time I heard “Brooks is a murderer”. I couldn’t take it so in full view of everyone I got up and left.”
A week after that, with a reserve school set up so that students could finish their year, Brooks’ parents received a call from the Columbine School counsellor: “We believe it would be in Brooks’s best interest not to return to the school,” said the answerphone message.
If the school didn’t want to know him, the media certainly did. “I was doing three or four interviews a day,” Brooks explains, “from Fox News to the Today Show, I wanted people to understand that Columbine High was a nightmare place for bullying and that the massacre could have been prevented.” How?
“Well, a year before the killing I filed a police report detailing how Eric was threatening to kill me on his website, building pipe bombs and vandalizing the neighbourhood.” It is an interesting twist to the story that for a while until Brooks made up with him, Eric wanted Brooks dead (hence his words “I like you now” to Brooks minutes before he started shooting). “Not only did the police not follow my report up,” Brooks continues, “for fully two years after the killings they denied I ever made it.”
With the police being heavily criticised for their cack-handed response to the massacre, and Brooks pointing out to the world that they should have stopped it from ever happening, things turned dirty.
In an interview aired on NBC Sheriff Stone said: “I’m convinced there are more people involved. Brooks Brown could be a possible suspect. Why did Harris warn Mr Brown to leave the school? Is this a smokescreen?” It looked like a concerted attempt to discredit Brooks and it worked. “This was my lowest point,” he says as we pull into his parents’ driveway, “I became depressed as hell – they were trying to push me to the point of suicide. Afterwards I was walking through a parking lot when a girl leaned out of her car and screamed “You fucking murderer,” at me.” This was to turn out to be the first of many such incidents which led to Brooks taking an independent lie detector test. He passed but the police weren’t satisfied. Two months later they visited his parents telling them that, having got hold of one of Brooks’s old notebooks, they thought he might be about to kill them.
“The police had read a poem I had clearly dedicated to Robert Craig,” explains Brooks, “he was a Columbine student I knew who, a few months before the massacre, shot dead his dad before killing himself. It was a pretty dark poem but the police took it to mean I was plotting against my parents. My dad basically told them to get lost. Here we are.”
As we pull up in his parents driveway Brooks’ mum and dad come out to greet us and it’s pretty obvious how close they are as a family. They have needed to be. Its not long before Randy, Brooks’ dad, ushers us into what used to be Brooks’s bedroom now jokingly called “The Columbine War Room.” Packed from floor to ceiling with files, newspapers, video tapes, reports, scribbled notes, maps and diagrams, it is an awesome testament to how Randy and Judy Brown have fought tooth and nail to clear their son’s name.
“No journalists have ever been in here,” says Brooks’ father as we survey the room, mouths agape. “For the last five years I’ve sat in here ’til sometimes four in the morning drinking Red Bull and analysing everything.”
On the wall is a police map he obtained of the school which plots the location of every bullet and shell fired by Eric, Dylan and the police. The detail is extraordinary, right down to a fragment of tooth from the mouth of murdered teacher Dave Sanders and the contorted body outlines of the dead.
Around the dinner table, Brooks’s parents give us a frightening account of the negligence, corruption, crass insensitivity, buck passing, bullying and deceit displayed by the school and police force before and after the massacre. Through dogged persistence and stubborn refusal to lie down, they have the lifted the lid on a frightening can of worms (subsequently borne out by numerous independent studies) that goes right to the heart of American society. “Its shaken my belief in everything that we know,” shrugs Randy Brown, with a sad smile, “I used to believe our police and schools did a good job but I was an idiot because that’s just bullshit. Our society is seriously screwed up.”
As if further evidence were needed, he then puts on a video Eric and Dylan made some months before the massacre. It shows them, faces contorted with anger, cursing the bullies who had tormented them and the teachers who allowed it to happen. “More rage, more rage! Keep building it on!” spits Eric, eyes burning through the television screen, “You’ve been giving us shit for years. I’m going to kill you all!”
The next morning, with Brooks needing to do some editing work on a documentary he is making, Anto and I head to the Green Mountain Guns store where Eric and Dylan bought their ammunition (their guns were bought through contacts who were over 18). Outside, a sign advertises a sale of 9mm bullets – the very calibre they used to such devastating effect. Numerous rifles and shotguns line the walls and I am allowed to pick up whatever I like to pose for photos. If I’d bought any ammunition with me I could easily have had a loaded gun in my hand – something the mother of one of Columbine’s injured students had six months after the massacre when she walked into a pawn shop, asked to see a pistol, slipped a bullet in the chamber and blew her brains out.
For lunch we head to Blackjack Pizza, a few blocks from Columbine school where Eric and Dylan worked to finance NBK. We get talking to chef Dan Lab, who by chance was in the cafeteria when Eric and Dylan began shooting. “Me and a friend found a room in the kitchens,” he recalls “we barricaded ourselves in with 50lb sacks of flour until the SWAT team rescued us two hours later.” He still relies on flour for his survival today.
From there it’s a short drive up Pierce Street until a menacing, low rise, sandstone building looms into view. Columbine High School has few windows and looks like a prison without a fence (later Brooks’ girlfriend tells us that it was in fact designed by an architect who used to build prisons). Before leaving the UK, I had phoned Columbine High school hoping to secure an interview with Principal De Angelis (who remains in charge of the school) and permission for us to take photos. I was told that not only would he not speak to me but I would not be allowed to set foot anywhere on the school grounds.
Looking as much like High School students as we can, Anto and I park up nearby and saunter nonchalantly onto the school’s outer playing fields.
Wandering unchecked past students jogging round a running track, we simply keep walking and a minute later, having passed the new Columbine Memorial Library, I am standing at the top of the stairs at the West Entrance thinking: “This is where it all began.”
Later that afternoon, long after most students have gone home, Brooks agrees to drive right up to the front entrance of Columbine for “a very quick photo”. He is visibly nervous as he pulls up outside the school sign which incredibly has a picture of a man with a gun, an American revolutionary soldier, next to the words “Rebel Pride”. The irony is not lost on Brooks who, as Columbine recedes in his rear view mirror, is in philosophical mood. “Eric and Dylan created this tragedy,” he says, eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead, “but it was Columbine that created Eric and Dylan.”


Thirty Six Minutes of Murder (Timeline of Massacre)

11.10am
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrive in separate cars and pull into the car park at Columbine High school. Eric speaks to Brooks Brown telling him to “Go home”.
11.14
The boys carry two 20lb propane bombs in duffel bags (built according to internet instructions found in The Anarchist’s Cookbook and with timers set for 11.17am) into the crowded cafeteria and leave them under tables. They head back to their cars to wait for the explosion.
11.19
Two pipe bombs the boys had planted in an open field several blocks away explode. They are timed to distract police officers away from the school.
11.20
Realising that their propane bombs have malfunctioned Harris and Klebold fire their first shots from the top of the stairs at the west entrance at students outside the cafeteria. 17 year old Rachel Scott is killed and Richard Castaldo paralysed. As they walk they throw small bombs all around them. Three students are gunned down as they leave the cafeteria. Swivelling, Harris and Klebold spray a group of five students eating lunch on the grass hitting two before returning to finishing off the injured outside the cafeteria.
11.23
Students in the packed cafeteria start looking out of the window whilst teacher Dave Sanders shouts to get down on the floor.
11.25
Harris and Klebold enter the school shooting and laughing as they walk down the north hallway. Teacher Dave Sanders is shot as he tries to flee. Bombs and bullets are sprayed everywhere.
11.29
They enter the library killing Kyle Velasquez who is sitting at a computer desk rather than hiding under a table. One of them yells “Yahoo” as they shoot out the windows at policemen and escaping students. Klebold shoots three under a table. Harris bangs on top of a table and says “peek-a-boo” before killing Cassie Bernall underneath. The kick from his shotgun blast breaks his nose. Nine more students are killed under their desks.
11.37
They leave the library and search classrooms eyeballing students but not firing.
11.44
Harris and Klebold return to the cafeteria where they fire and throw bombs at their unexploded propane bomb. It fails to explode.
12.00
They head back to the library and fire at policemen and paramedics through the windows
12.06
Harris and Klebold withdraw to the south side of the library and shoot themselves in the head.

Piersh wrote:

  As if further evidence were needed, he then puts on a video Eric and Dylan made some months before the massacre. It shows them, faces contorted with anger, cursing the bullies who had tormented them and the teachers who allowed it to happen. “More rage, more rage! Keep building it on!” spits Eric, eyes burning through the television screen, “You’ve been giving us shit for years. I’m going to kill you all!”

How long was this video? and did he show you more than this that you didn't write about?

It was a long time ago but yes I was shown lots of footage and I could not report it all in the article as word count was limited. At the time this footage was not my main focus, but looking back it was crucial in understanding their motivation for the killings... they told us why they were going to do it before they did it. Clearly they were leaving a video legacy of the truth... a series of video recorded statements of where they were mentally and why they were there - in the weeks leading up to actually enacting what they had been planning for many months... Eric and Dylan knew they would not be alive to explain why after the event, so they did so beforehand in various videos... this was their valedictory! A video valedictory...

I hate to be this person but if you are claiming to be someone who viewed the Basement Tapes and interviewed Brooks Brown, and if you are supposedly offering novel information that can't be verified in any way, I think it's reasonable to ask for some sort of proof of identity. There is enough misinformation out there as it is.

(And just to be a dick, I can't imagine why any professional writer would have developed the habit of going the dot-dot-dot route after every other sentence.)

sscc wrote:

I hate to be this person but if you are claiming to be someone who viewed the Basement Tapes and interviewed Brooks Brown, and if you are supposedly offering novel information that can't be verified in any way, I think it's reasonable to ask for some sort of proof of identity. There is enough misinformation out there as it is.

This. You don't even have to share the identifying information publicly, all you would have to do is share it privately with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or someone else, and then they can come into the thread and say you're legit.

Fair point about the ...s but I was quite drunk and I find it helps me think...
Anyway
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Sorry am 53 and not good at this forum behaviour. Emailed Brooks last night and he and his dad Randy replied today - just wanted to say hi and tell Randy I was enjoying his new book, his writing and his honesty. Good to get in touch with them as its been a couple of years.

Piersh wrote:

Sorry am 53 and not good at this forum behaviour. Emailed Brooks last night and he and his dad Randy replied today - just wanted to say hi and tell Randy I was enjoying his new book, his writing and his honesty. Good to get in touch with them as its been a couple of years.

Sorry, it appears we have a troll on the forum today.

Can you clarify? Are you implying that I am a troll? I am simply a journalist who worked for FHM in the UK and journeyed to Denver to write an article about Columbine. Brooks and his family were very helpful and happy to give their side of the story. Read it - trolls aren't paid writers and can't write anything like that. Google me and see if I resemble the bloke in the photos. Then let's decide who the troll is.

Piersh wrote:

Can you clarify? Are you implying that I am a troll? I am simply a journalist who worked for FHM in the UK and journeyed to Denver to write an article about Columbine. Brooks and his family were very helpful and happy to give their side of the story. Read it - trolls aren't paid writers and can't write anything like that. Google me and see if I resemble the bloke in the photos. Then let's decide who the troll is.

Cyrinus is referring to the user Columbine Jocks, not you.

I'll try to have a productive question for you Piers!

First of all, thank you for taking your time to visit this forum!

Always was intrigued by your article.

Q: In your estimation, what is the greatest lesson to learn from the Columbine tragedy? Have we learned anything since then?

Thank you!

Ok Reznor - i see I think. Thanks for enlightening me - as I say i am not familiar with how forums work.
Deadpirate - thanks for your question: 'What is the greatest lesson to learn from the Columbine tragedy?' The lesson I believe is that it is very convenient and easy to blame the individuals and things like violent compter games and aggressive lyrics etc, etc. It is much more difficult to acknowledge more deeply entrenched cultural issues like schools that value athleticism over intellectualism, group mentality over individualism and conformity over curiousity. Consequently those that don't obviously fit in become horribly vulnerable to unchecked bullying from pupils and like minded staff. A central tenet of the huge responsibility of decent schooling is to nurture and protect all types of pupils under their aegis. To not do so risks desperation and dangerous alienation of those who face daily abuse with no recourse. Columbine was clearly severely dysfunctional in this respect as probably many other US schools were and still are. The difference between Columbine and the others was that a perfect storm came together with Eric and Dylan and reaped a terrible harvest. The problem is that because the true causes have been hastily covered up by both school, police and other authorities unwilling to acknowledge any blame, all the ingredients remain there waiting quietly in the very same shadows to trigger yet another 'perfect storm'.

Piersh wrote:

Can you clarify? Are you implying that I am a troll? I am simply a journalist who worked for FHM in the UK and journeyed to Denver to write an article about Columbine. Brooks and his family were very helpful and happy to give their side of the story. Read it - trolls aren't paid writers and can't write anything like that. Google me and see if I resemble the bloke in the photos. Then let's decide who the troll is.

Sorry for being too vague. No, I meant the user who kept posting your image over and over was a troll trying to derail the thread. We get them here at the forum from time to time. Not so sure why this particular forum attracts so many trolls.

Oh ok - I thought it was me pressing the wrong button. Thank god i am not yet that inept. Great relief - i hope it proves what was needed!

Hi Piersh. So you watched parts of "The Basement Tapes" where the boys are sat in Erics bedroom talking to the camera? Randy has copies of these?

I watched excerpts from various vhs tapes that Randy had in his 'War Room'. I honestly cannot recall if he referred to them as 'The Basement Tapes' at the time - the moniker seems to have garnered great importance in subsequent years but at the time had no particular significance - to me anyway. When was that term first coined? Was it after I went to Columbine? I have no idea and am happy to be enlightened...
I do remember though that, before my trip, I contacted De Angelis to ask for an interview and was told emphatically no and also not to go anywhere near the school. I immediately smelt a rat! Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull for my photographer Anto and I. We, as English late 30 year olds, dressed as well as we could as American college kids, and walked around the baseball fields until we dared each other and eventually meandered right up to the top of the stairs where the shooting started. We did not hang around for long but felt we had stuck two fingers up to what, throughout the course of our investigations, had emerged from the fog, as a vile,corrupt and deeply dysfunctional institution.

DeAngelis is the worst.

What a sad excuse for a human being.

Swine, through and through.

Yes dried blood on his hands.

What's the story behind the story?
It seems like the article was written in 2006-2007? Who decided to write it and why? Your decision or FHM's decision? Why Browns are in the center of it? Did they contact you or you them?

Actually Mr. D is a great guy. He is honestly the reason I graduated high school, and he helped so much when my mom was sick and died while I was in high school.

Just because he wasnt going to talk to get another journalist, instead being busy focusing on the school and the community, and not wanted adults trolling around the campus while teenagers are trying to learn I went to Columbine and the tourists were the worst less by the time I was there but a ton for my brother who graduated in '02, doesnt mean Mr. D is some suspicious rat. That's ridiculous.

I guess what i am asking is, the video you watched, where you quote them as saying "More rage, more rage etc, keep building it on etc". Was it Eric and Dylan just sat in a bedroom talking to the camera, basically expressing their anger and whys of what they were about to do?

Thanks for taking your time to do this by the way. If you could answer the question above, I would be really grateful.

Ligeya wrote:

What's the story behind the story?
It seems like the article was written in 2006-2007?

The article was featured in the September 2004 issue

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] do you remember about how long the "more rage" video clip was?

Ligeya: The article was not my idea but came to me from FHM's editor and resulted from the release of Brooks Brown's book: 'No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death At Columbine'. He suggested I contact Brooks and see if he was up for me and a photographer to visit, retell the story and try and get to the truth by rummaging around, talking to people and basically doing what an investigative gonzo journalist should do. At the time I was FHM's chief writer and Editor At Large (or became so shortly after - not sure) and every month did dream job articles like Columbine, BTK killer, Chernobyl, Madrid Train Bombings, Tookie Williams etc. That said Columbine was probaly my favourite due to the access and insight that Brooks and his family gave me and the way things just came together over the five or so days we were there. You arrive with six blank pages to fill, big costs on travel and accomodation, and hope to god you return with something original, entertaining, informative and readable...

Ligeya and Adzybear: I cannot honestly say - as part of my research I watched what Randy showed me and what was available on the internet and I cannot distinguish betewen the two. I remember a video outside in what looked like an industrial estate - I think there was also footage involving a car being driven around by one of them fast and aggressively. Dylan was wearing a baseball cap backwards and a black leather trenchcoat, walking towards the camera gesticulating, snarling and screaming his message direct to the camera until his contorted face filled the lens. Then it cut out - maybe ten seconds max. But ... I have just googled 'more rage' and that show's exactly what I remember. I was not aware of basement tapes or other tapes I was just aware of various pieces of footage that I needed to watch to write the article. I can ask Randy if you like - been in touch with him and Brooks the last couple of days and we are all still friendly?

milennialrebelette: its not all about how he didn't want to talk to us and warned us to stay away. It's about about creating a jock school for jocks taught by older jocks. Imagine having long hair, challenging opinions, expressive clothing and being a fan of The Cure in that environment?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] That's not on Mr. D. That was on the students at the time. Mr. D went to as many plays and debate competitions as he did sports games. Your statement reads because he wouldnt talk to you, it was suspicious. But even then if your only source on Mr. D is the Browns you have like .5% of the information you need about him to make your own educated assumptions about him.

Ok so Mr D won't speak to the international press and warns them agressively to stay away and you think that is perfectly acceptable behaviour? The Browns were by no means my only souce of info - i visited Blackjack Pizza, the gunshop where the ammunition was bought and spoke to various other individuals involved and affected by the tragedy. The picture was clear - Mr D presided over a school that singularly failed to protect its 'outsiders' and consequently created a toxic environment wherein desperate individuals were gifted an arena within which it would eventually flourish.
It is clearly a scandalous abrogation of your duty to protect each and every one your pupils followed by an equally scandalous abrogation of your duty to try to explain, learn and improve from the lessons that so horribly slapped you, many of your students, their parents and their friends and families so cruelly in the face.
To subsequently wash your hands and completely deny ANY responsibility for what happened at the school that you were so clearly in charge of is so laughably preposterous it would be funny if it were not so horribly tragic! What fault, error, oversight, misgiving or basic blunder will you ever acknowledge? None of the above? Fine - we rest our case.

You came up to him what, 6 years later, and he didnt want you in the campus when students were there. Totally understandable. Even when I was there the tourists were bad, my brother said in 2000-2002 they actually interrupted classes and had buses of people outside taking pictures.

It seems like the only ones in the direct Columbine community you spoke with, I mean students and parents, not businesses in the area like GMG up in Lakewood which is a different city, was the Browns. If you're looking for objective journalism having them as the crux of your story shows, because it speaks like something one if the Browns wrote. That's not a compliment coming from the Columbinr community, I'm sorry.

The Browns didn't talk beef about Mr. D until post Columbine because it was a scoop for them to get attention. Brooks saw Mr. D sitting in the audience at plays and at his debate meets and he knows it.

Mr. D has never "washed his hands" of what happened. Quite the opposite, after the shootings he went above and beyond with every member of the Columbine community who wouldn't outright object him for a news scoop like the Browns.

My family lived down the street from the Browns for 30+ years. My mom was friends with Kathy Harris after she loved there, Judy was well known among moms in the area for being a bitch and inviting herself to things she wasnt invited to. My sister was a junior, class of 2000, and one of Rachel Scott's best friends since elementary school at Dutch Creek. She was also a varsity pom and by junior year a "stuck up preppy bitch" (her words) Brooks terrorized her and her friends since elementary school being a pretentious asshole, calling them preppy sluts for doing dance lessons, brain dead trash for liking New Kids on the Block in early junior high. My brother was a freshman class of 2002 and a computer geek. He was friends with Danny Mauser from Confirmation class at Cabrini, where my sister was a youth group leader with Val Schnurr. He wrestled freshman year then quit because he didnt like the jock mentality. I graduated from Columbine in 2010 I was in 3rd grade at Normandy in '99. I did cross country then quit and used to hang out with varsity cheer girls and jock guys, especially post high school ones, then when my moms chronic illness took a turn for the worst I had to work fulltime at Red Robin across from Clement Park on Bowles and Wads, plus do Confirmation/Youth Group at Cabrini all while taking care of my mom and catching up on credits from coming back from the super poor low rated school on Hawai'i where I my dad and his family are from and I lived before transferring to Columbine.

Mr. D went out of his way to let me stay at Columbine and graduate on time instead of skipping a year or transferring to McLain JeffCos alternative school. When my mom was sick him and his wife came by our house with food and prayers. They were at her funeral shortly after my graduation too.

Pre shooting he might have been naive but if you actually know him you know he's the type of man who sees the absolute best in everyone one. My sister says the worst bullying was one specific class, 1998, with Rocky at the lead, and he never bullied in front of administration but still Mr. D did try to keep him in line. He tried to know everyones names, senior through freshmen. He supported debate, Science Bowl, cheerleading and football. And even then he beat himself up horribly over the shooting because he feels an immense sense of responsibility for the students, teachers and parents at Columbine.

Eric mocked Mr. D my sister heard it constantly when they were underclassmen He didnt want him to come up and give him a high five, he ignored any attention he got. Kids in big schools will always be assholes, but at Comumbine once Rocky's class was gone, it wasnt some high school hell with the admin sitting there let it go on.

If that's the core of your story, you've been manipulated by the Browns and dont have the TRUE story from the rest of the direct Columbine community.

Piersh wrote:

 
From there it’s a short drive up Pierce Street until a menacing, low rise, sandstone building looms into view. Columbine High School has few windows and looks like a prison without a fence (later Brooks’ girlfriend tells us that it was in fact designed by an architect who used to build prisons).es in the head.

I know that somehow this was written for the shock value, but so I'm not the only one who has always thought that Columbine School has something uncomfortable, so big, massive and strange...but maybe I'm influenced by what happened in there. For sure this school has a bizarre structure (no offense for who has loved to study and just be in it), and if really was build from a prisons architect...oh, well.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] it's a pretty normal school for the Denver Front Range area suburbs built in that time. Theres some JeffCo, Littleton, Cherry Creek and Aurora schools from the 70s to 80s with more recent updates from the 90s til today I went to Colimbine myself and Notmandy Elementary but before and in between I was back in Hawai'i with my dad where no schools look like that, they all are older mostly with multiple buildings that have outside hallways and areas, nothing like any of the schools in Colorado, whether downtown DPS like GW or East, the new or old suburbs on the Front Range or the mountain schools. Colorado schools despite varying geography all seem to have a similar look with a few exceptions in my experience.

Hi milennialrebelette. I hope you are doing well. I am from the UK so our school life was a bit different, although has some similar traits. Was bullying an issue at Columbine in the years that you attended? And was the shooting ever really talked about/well known amongst students during your time there?

Thanks, Adam UK

Also, this Piersh or whatever. Full of shit. I feel embarrassed I even even asked questions

Hi [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] my family was involved with the shooting when it happened. I was in 3rd grade at Normandy while my sister was a junior and my brother was a freshman at Columbine (classes of 2000 and 2002 respectively.) My mom's house was across the greenbelt from the Harrises first rental house in Littleton then even closer, caddy corner to the one they bought. My mom was friends with Kathy Harris and Rcahel Scott had been one of my sister's best friends since elementary school, my sister was even mentioned by name in some of the published journals and has multiple journals she and Rachel shared over the years. She had been invited to eat lunch with her and Richard that day but had plans to pick up prom pictures and was one of the last people to see Rachel. My sister was also a varsity poms captain and hung out with the jocks, she was popular. My brother was in Confirmation at our Catholic church Cabrini with Danny Mauser, my sister and Val Schnurr were LifeTeen youth group leaders together. Danny and Kelly Flemming's funerals were at our Church and I was there. Rachel used to be one of my babysitters.

Anyway by the time I was in high school no one talked about the shooting Instead Columbine's community has become very tight knit with a lot more school pride than other schools nearby. There was regular high school bullying it wasn't awful definitely not anything close to what happened in the 90s. My sister said the worst bullying with finished after Rocky and his crew graduated in 98. Mr. D is even more, or was until he retired a few years ago, even more involved with students of all groups. The teachers and counselors are tight knit.

It's still suburban Littleton which has problems on it's own for being a conservative evangelical place so...

milennialrebelette wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] it's a pretty normal school for the Denver Front Range area suburbs built in that time. Theres some JeffCo, Littleton, Cherry Creek and Aurora schools from the 70s to 80s with more recent updates from the 90s til today  I went to Colimbine myself and Notmandy Elementary but before and in between I was back in Hawai'i with my dad where no schools look like that, they all are older mostly with multiple buildings that have outside hallways and areas, nothing like any of the schools in Colorado, whether downtown DPS like GW or East, the new or old suburbs on the Front Range or the mountain schools. Colorado schools despite varying geography all seem to have a similar look with a few exceptions in my experience.

I see. For me its structure is strange, here we don't have schools built like that, off course, and from what you say, it's a typical schools structure in Colorado. Plus, what happened there, as I said, contribute to this sinister sensation about it, for me...it's inevitable. I'm glad to read that you got on well at Columbine, it's just a school like any others.

Adzy: What a charming reponse when I have tried to respond honestly to your question. Have a think about what you are doing and whether it is right and fair. Wil Adzy in ten years think: 'That was good work on my behalf!' 'I remain very happy with my response to this day!' 'What a lovely, reasonable bloke I am and incidentally, I continue to be one of the good humans right up to the current day.' Think on child boy and think hard, very hard...

What a crock of shit. I'm from England and Piers is well known over here, so why you think you can honestly get away with fooling people that you're him I've no idea.
Your posts are littered with spelling mistakes, something a former editor of a national newspaper would make sure to check before posting, the style and manner in which you write is nothing like Piers, and if Piers had much spare time he'd most likely spend it with family or celebrity friends, not spouting off on a little known about Columbine forum. But hey if you want to pretend, carry on.
Coming up next week our next celebrity guest writer on here is Brad Pitt!

Er...Agent 47. Checkout the photo I posted of me earlier in this thread. I am Piers Hernu not Piers Morgan. I edited a nationaI lads magazine called Front not a a national newspaper called The Daily Mirror. I may have made spelling mistakes but i've been writing here late at night after a few beers. I have plenty of spare time and very few celebrity friends and I've been to Columbine!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I'm not sure what argument is going on between you and some of the other posters. However I would just say if you only interviewed the Browns then you only got a tiny fraction of the Columbine story with more lies than truths. So I wouldn't brag about your Columbine knowledge if you didn't speak to anyone else other than Judy, Randy and Brooks. Seems like a waste to come all the way here and only see them. :shrugs:

milennialrebelette: I have already countered your accusations. I didn't only interview the Browns, Columbine wasn't open when I visited so De Angelis wasn't busy, I haven't bragged about my Columbine knowledge. I immersed myself in the story with an open mind - yours is clearly closed and somewhat spiteful. The very best of luck to you!

Piersh quoted Basement Tape dialogue in the FHM article, yet can't remember if this was said from 2 teenagers talking at the camera or not. Everyone has seen the shouting into the camera footage (HMFH)

If you cannot remember what you saw, what was said etc....it's a bit late now then, isn't it?

milennialrebelette, thank you for your reply. It must have been pretty surreal being there? Or was this whole shit show something you found interesting after you left school?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I've never been anything but open minded and accepting of everyones experiences and stories. I do have beef with the Browns but from the way my sister was harassed by Brooks their entire childhood and adolescence, the horrific racist rumors Judy spread about my because my dad is non white and the horrible way she treated me and my mother as she was six and dying and I was a teenager trying to work full time, graduate high school and care for my dying mother, it's very legitimate and I have no qualms admitting my feelings against them for the sake of being open. Before the shooting the Browns were not well liked all due to their own behavior in the community and after the shooting it only got worse. They have no one but themselves to blame for this.

I still get the idea you feel Mr. D owed you an interview and you claimed since the school was closed he wasn't busy. He works year round non stop for the community and if you had interviewed anyone outside the Browns you would know that.

You were in Littleton. Current or past students, parents, teachers, employers, the district itself, religious leaders in the community, you had a wealth of potential information at your disposal but instead you talked to one family who has been proven to spread lies and rumours and assumed Mr. D should drop everything to give you a personal interview and when he didn't you left with a chip on your shoulder without bothering to talk to anyone else in the community.

You were bragging, your last post said "I've been to Columbine!" as though that legitimizes you.

I'm just saying for someone so open minded, you interviewed only the most close minded family that plays up their involvement to the point of lies. You clearly picked up their bias against Mr. D and because he was too busy for you, you left, without bothering to interview anyone else while you had a chance.

I'd stop saying you know aabout Columbine and just straight out say your article was about the Brown family, and they are what you know about, not the greater Columbine community.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"Mr. D went out of his way to let me stay at Columbine and graduate on time instead of skipping a year or transferring to McLain JeffCos alternative school. When my mom was sick him and his wife came by our house with food and prayers. They were at her funeral shortly after my graduation too."

That is nice of Mr.DeAngelis.

However, two things can be true at once.

For example, while DeAngelis may have been nice to you, he also fostered the corrosive culture at CHS that, in part, motivated the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

When you advocate for state football titles, while ignoring the severe rash of bullying, that is a captain asleep at the wheel.

One good deed doesn't absolve DeAngelis from his sins.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] It's far more than one dead. My senior year my mom was sick and dying and he and his family brought good, took my mom to appointments, came to her funeral... While I was at high school after the shooting bullying wasnt tolerated. Student Senate qas huge on A Day Without Hate. CHS was a zero tolerance zone. Of course there was still minor "bullying" mostly just cliques and some gossip, stuff that will always be occurring when you get large groups of teenagers together with varying interests, backgrounds, etc

My sister who was varsity pom captain and graduated in 2000 says the bullying that was talked about before the shooting, really did dissipate after Rocky and his cronies left in '98. Mr. D didnt turn a blind eye to it, it wa one of the coaches who facilitated the worst of it. People went out of their way in front of his face to me nice and it almost all happened behind his back.

His biggest family pre shooting was being naive and always seeing the best in everyone. Some groups weren't visible so he didnt see what was going on there. It's not that he ignored it he was just not aware of it. He tried, he went to sports games yes, but also plays and other big non sports events. He assumed if people weren't coming to him with problems they weren't happening or weren't severe and students and teachers were taking care of them.

Post shooting he made a point to know every single student, which is saying a lot with just under 2k kids. He was more assertive when it came to knowing what was going on, made a point to push it a little to know what was going on behind his back and with kids on the periphery.

He is far from perfect, he's human. But his mistakes pre Columbine were not actively malicious, just on the naive side assuming the best out of situations when he should have looked a little deeper.


After the shooting he was incredibly hard on himself for not seeing through this and he has made a huge point to make up for that error though, and in the 15 years between the shooting and his retirement, sticking to his promise to see the kindergartners in 1999 through graduation, he really stepped it up, took a deep look at himself and made it a point to proa actively create a better school environment.

Like I said Columbine post shooting was far from perfect, it's still in a conservative, religious, suburb. I was there during the recession so the wealth that was another driving factor of the bullying was not nearly as bad as it was in the 90s.

The point is if you subscribe to the "Bullying caused the whole thing, Mr. D watched jocks reign supreme and bully poor "inmocent" defenseless outsiders knowingly" you're following a lone that's as outdated and disproved as "Metal, Manson and violent video games caused it" or "Taking God and prayer out of schools caused it".

It's far more complicated and nuanced, with many factors, some about the school environment but just as many and more about the problems Eric and Dylan had on their own, not the fault of anyone else.
We wouldn't have a huge forum like this with endless discussion if it were that simple of an answer.

I just want to share the experience not just of myself but a huge number of Columbine students over the 34 years Mr. D was there. We are people who have experienced this first hand and I want to extend that to the researchers here who know there's not a simple answer.

♡

Piersh wrote:

Ligeya and Adzybear: I cannot honestly say - as part of my research I watched what Randy showed me and what was available on the internet and I cannot distinguish betewen the two. I remember a video  outside in what looked like an industrial estate - I think there was also footage involving a car being driven around by one of them fast and aggressively. Dylan was wearing a baseball cap backwards and a black leather trenchcoat, walking towards the camera gesticulating, snarling and screaming his message direct to the camera until his contorted face filled the lens. Then it cut out - maybe ten seconds max. But ... I have just googled 'more rage' and that show's exactly what I remember. I was not aware of basement tapes or other tapes I was just aware of various pieces of footage that I needed to watch to write the article. I can ask Randy if you like - been in touch with him and Brooks the last couple of days and we are all still friendly?

That sounds like Eric's video "highway patrol" and "hitmen for hire".....

milennialrebelette wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] It's far more than one dead. My senior year my mom was sick and dying and he and his family brought good, took my mom to appointments, came to her funeral... While I was at high school after the shooting bullying wasnt tolerated. Student Senate qas huge on A Day Without Hate. CHS was a zero tolerance zone. Of course there was still minor "bullying" mostly just cliques and some gossip, stuff that will always be occurring when you get large groups of teenagers together with varying interests, backgrounds, etc

My sister who was varsity pom captain  and graduated in 2000 says the bullying that was talked about before the shooting, really did dissipate after Rocky  and his cronies left in '98. Mr. D didnt turn a blind eye to it, it wa one of the coaches who facilitated the worst of it. People went out of their way in front of his face to me nice and it almost all happened behind his back.

His biggest family pre shooting was being naive and always seeing the best in everyone. Some groups weren't visible so he didnt see what was going on there. It's not that he ignored it he was just not aware of it. He tried, he went to sports games yes, but also plays and other big non sports events. He assumed if people weren't coming to him with problems they weren't happening or weren't severe and students and teachers were taking care of them.

Post shooting he made a point to know every single student, which is saying a lot with just under 2k kids. He was more assertive when it came to knowing what was going on, made a point to push it a little to know what was going on behind his back and with kids on the periphery.

He is far from perfect, he's human. But his mistakes pre Columbine were not actively malicious, just on the naive side assuming the best out of situations when he should have looked a little deeper.


After the shooting he was incredibly hard on himself for not seeing through this and he has made a huge point to make up for that error though, and in the 15 years between the shooting and his retirement, sticking to his promise to see the kindergartners in 1999 through graduation, he really stepped it up, took a deep look at himself and made it a point to proa actively create a better school environment.

Like I said Columbine  post shooting was far from perfect, it's still in a conservative, religious, suburb. I was there during the recession so the wealth that was another driving factor of the bullying was not nearly as bad as it was in the 90s.

The point is if you subscribe to the "Bullying caused the whole thing, Mr. D watched jocks reign supreme and bully poor "inmocent" defenseless outsiders knowingly" you're following a lone that's as outdated and disproved as "Metal, Manson and violent video games caused it" or "Taking God and prayer out of schools caused it".

It's far more complicated and nuanced, with many factors, some about the school environment but just as many and more about the problems Eric and Dylan had on their own, not the fault of anyone else.
We wouldn't have a huge forum like this with endless discussion if it were that simple of an answer.

I just want to share the experience not just of myself but a huge number of Columbine students over the 34 years Mr. D was there. We are people who have experienced this first hand and I want to extend that to the researchers here who know there's not a simple answer.

♡

I remember when I met Mr. D briefly after a screening of "We Are Columbine" and I asked about the culture after the shooting, how people felt when they came back and if some felt like they were still not connected and he said yes and that made him sad, he went out of his way to go and speak to people at the skate park etc.. I also asked about media coverage and how the panel felt media played a role in tragedies after Columbine.

I really appreciate you talking here on the forum, I haven't seem Yumeko here for a while, but she is a graduate and a library survivor and she's shared a lot AND has a compelling youtube series about the shooting and aftermath.

When I went to Columbine for a craft fair, I felt like it was a warm community, when I went to the memorial for the anniversary I got a lot of hugs, and my friend who graduated in 1999 and is a survivor said the area has changed a lot since she was in school.

It is really interesting the perspectives and I am sure someone who went to Columbine has a very different experience.

I have also met Sue twice in my life and she's a very open person, but some people look at her like a careless and cold mother...

No matter what, I always listen to the people that were there (be it during the shooting and in the community before and after). Even if perspectives are different. I lived in Littleton for 2 years, and met a lot of people, and I still don't know a ton... I didn't live through it. I wasn't there for reporters jumping out of bushes (they did that to my friend and they were angry when she refused to give an interview) etc...

i think when it comes to bullying in general and in this situation, bullying will affect people differently and what someones definition of bullying may vary...

Some people look at bullying as only physical and others feel like being ostracized is a form of bullying... some people can laugh off a mean joke and others take it to heart, and almost make out a checklist of all the bad things that are happening to them.. another reason to be angry, proof that they are as low as they feel (that was me for a long time)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] That's because you're the best :-) And you're right, living through it was a totally different experience than anything else. All the people hurt, not physically, so many fell off the cart so to speak, like my sister, a lot of stuff that wasnt covered by the crazy journalists everywhere. I have so many strong memories from then from the open casket funerals for Rachel, Kelly and Daniel Mauser, to my room looking right at the Harrises house with all the lights and cops and reporters for nights on end, to the mucky cold snow at Clement Park the next couple of days clinging onto my mom or my sister, to reporters everywherebbnin the neighborhood and the park once they talked to my sister and found out how close she was with Rachel and our neighborhood connection to the Harrises they hounded her and our house for a short bit, to my sister crawling up in bed with me sometimes because she could never sleep... there's so much.

The people that I know and care about and have seen how our lives have changed after the shooting makes me protective. For people who weren't there I want to share my truth or what a lot of people beyond me think and feel that wasnt in the newspapers because certain people monopolized the spotlight and pushed their own often not factual points, which are what researchers come across today.

I just want to share with people other perspectives of our community, the day of the shooting and our lives before and after.

♡

It's so surprising for me to hear the criticism of Columbine as a place that only rewarded athleticism, sport, and where only jockes were championed, and individualism, originality, freedom of thought were not rewarded. I don't know how it was in America in the nineties, but if you look at the world around - Yes, people care about sport MUCH more than they care about literature, or science, or art. It's not something that is unique or unusual about Columbine. Famous athletes are getting away with unbelievable shit - rape or violence or financial crimes or domestic violence, because people care about sport (for some reasons). And i am not talking about America, it's all over the world.
It doesn't seem like Columbine was a very healthy place to be in for troubled teens. And maybe school principal could've done something to make it better. It does seem like he is a kind man, a caring man, but it doesn't neccessary mean he was good at his job. But still, to blame him for what happened? Really? It's impossible to blame one person for a very unstable environment with 2000 students and dozens of teachers. How about some personal responsibility? Of teachers who ignored bullying in front of them. Of students who bullied others.
For example, Dan Lab who is mentioned in this article - isn't he the guy who hit Eric in the face?