Columbine: 13 Years Later

Before September 11th, before smart phones, before Facebook, before Twitter, before the Great Recession, before any of the things that consume our everyday thoughts; 13 years ago today, we were consumed with Columbine.

It was shortly after 11 a.m. on April 20, 1999, when the eyes of the world were drawn to Columbine High School, only about 100 miles away from Laramie. It was then that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold perpetrated the deadliest attack ever on an American high school, killing 12 students, 1 teacher, and injuring 24 more, before killing themselves.

It will forever be an iconic event of American history, forever shaping conversations about such topics as school safety, bullying, gun control, and violent video games.

Even today, 13 years later, reading, recalling and for some, reliving the events of that day remains a fully sobering task, even for some of the staff here at Townsquare Media in Laramie.

David Settle, Operations Manager, Sports Director:

I remember sitting at home and watching the coverage all day. At that time, I was only working part-time at KOWB and I didn't have to come in to work until 7 that night, so I watched it all and I was just shocked. I sat there in stunned amazement- and it was one of those things that really hit home for me being from Colorado because, you had heard of school violence, but as a Colorado native, I had never thought something like that would happen around Denver. I took in as much as I could before I had to go to work, and I just sat there and was just... wow."

Kari Eakins, On-Air Talent, Host of Laramie Live:

I was sitting with a group of friends, waiting for my social studies class to begin during my freshman year of high school and one of my classmates came in and said something like, "There's been a shooting in Colorado!" It was a social studies class so my teacher turned on the TV and it was the breaking news."

I think the biggest thing at the time was the people in my high school who had cousins in the Denver area, so the immediate thoughts were, "Do we know anybody that goes there?" And the school let the kids use the phones to call their families"

Adam Porter, Digital Managing Editor:

It was when I lived in Texas and I saw it on the news. It wasn’t as big of a deal because I was farther away, but I guess my initial thought was that I also went to a huge high school with like 4,000 kids and I thought, if it could happen so easily there, how easy can it happen where I am?"

Saxbee Taylor, Program Director:

It was horrifying. I had two little kids at that time, and I remember asking myself, “What kind of world is this going to be by the time they grow up?" And I started asking all kinds of questions about why anyone would do this, and how something like this could happen..."

When I went to school it wasn’t really a serious thing, I mean, we had bomb threats all the time, but nothing ever came of it, it was always kids  joking around, blowing off steam or trying to get out of class. After Columbine, you had to believe it. You had to take everything seriously. It [Columbine] seemed to be the beginning of the perpetuation of that kind of environment, where things you never thought would be coming true- were actually happening."