Columbine families stress need to share information
LITTLETON, Colo. -- As they marked the eighth anniversary of the Columbine school shooting and mourned the recent victims at Virginia Tech, many Littleton families were also questioning a judge's decision to seal information about the killers.
Columbine High School was closed yesterday, as it has been every April 20 since the 1999 attack in which two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.
Governor Bill Ritter asked state residents to join a bell-ringing and moment of silence for the Virginia Tech victims yesterday.
In the years since Columbine, Colorado has become a better place, Ritter said during a solemn ceremony outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, moments before the cathedral bells tolled.
"It's a place of healing, it's a place of unity, a place of hope because we got there together," the governor said.
Some relatives of the Columbine victims have been critical of federal Judge Lewis Babcock's decision earlier this month to seal for 20 years the testimony of Harris's and Klebold's parents about the boys' home lives. They feel the information could help prevent future school rampages.
"I don't think you can stop every crazy person. But some of the things Babcock locked up show what these crazy kids did," said Don Fleming, whose 16-year-old daughter, Kelly, was killed in the attack. "It's no use to anybody if it is locked up."
"If society knew, it could possibly prevent future shootings," Fleming said.
Other relatives of the Columbine victims expressed similar reactions. "How much more blood must be spilled?" said Brian Rohrbough, who lost his 15-year-old son, Danny.
Speaking to reporters in Golden, Rohrbough called on the Jefferson County sheriff, the Columbine principal, and Babcock to release all information on the killings immediately.
Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday before taking his own life, called Harris and Klebold "martyrs" in a videotape he mailed to NBC.
Michael Shoels, father of Columbine victim Isaiah Shoels, was at Virginia Tech yesterday to urge officials there to avoid secrecy and keep families informed during the investigation.
"I don't want them to get caught up in what we got caught up in Colorado," he said. "They need to let these parents know that they are going to do whatever they can to get to the bottom of this."
That may not only prevent some lawsuits, but it will help other schools learn and change, he said. "The child that killed their children, he's dead also. There's no prosecution here. So why not open up and let it be a lesson to everyone?" 