Today is April 20th, 2009. Ten years ago today something bad happened. This is my story of that day.
Ten years ago today I woke up and went to bowling class. Bowling class started at 6:30 AM. We formed teams at the beginning of the semester, and then bowled against different teams each week. One team was made up of some typical high school outcasts. One of those outcasts was named Dylan Klebold. Another one was named Eric Harris. As outcasts go, they seemed as harmless as any other. They were anything but.
Ten years ago today, I went to my morning classes the same as any other Tuesday. One of those classes was AP Calculus. Dylan Klebold was in that class as well. I had known him since 7th grade. He had always been a rather smart kid. In 7th grade he was not an outcast.
Ten years ago today, I went to lunch with my friends Justin Carlson and Angie Portincaso. We had fifth period off, which meant that we had a long lunch. As usual, we went to Southwest Plaza mall. We left around 11:10 AM, walking through the senior parking lot to my car. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked through the senior parking lot at around 11:14 AM and began what would become the worst U.S. school rampage in history.
Ten years ago today, Justin, Angie, and I ate lunch at Arby’s. We poked fun at each other, discussed our recent senior prom, counted the number of twists in our curly fries. While we were eating, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were shooting people. A girl named Rachel Scott decided to eat her lunch on the grass outside the cafeteria. She was already dead before we finished counting curly fries.
Ten years ago today, after lunch we went to visit our friend Mindy Edstrom, who worked at a store called Claire’s in the mall. While we were talking to her, she received a phone call. Someone told her that a shooting had occurred at Columbine. Our first reaction was one of cautious excitement. “Someone must have just shot out the windows or something,” we thought. “Some sort of prank,” we thought. “This will make for an interesting afternoon,” we thought. We thought wrong on at least 2 counts.
Ten years ago today, we started to drive back to school. We did not get very close. As we approached, we saw throngs of students walking through Clement Park, away from the school. Police cars were everywhere. They wouldn’t allow us to turn onto Pierce Street and return to school. They directed us into a neighborhood across from the school. “Maybe this is serious,” we thought.
Ten years ago today, we were directed to Leawood Elementary School, which had been set up as a safe haven for parents and students to reunite. Many parents found their children there. My parents found me. They found my sister as well. There was a mother there whose child was named Isaiah Sholes. She asked me if I knew who Isaiah was. I said that I did. She asked if I had seen him. I said that I hadn’t, but surely he would turn up. Isaiah Sholes never reunited with his mother. Isaiah had decided to hang out in the library that day. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot him in the face and killed him. He was the only black student in my graduating class.
Ten years ago today, while sifting through the chaos at Leawood Elementary, I looked up and saw Bill Clinton appear on television, talking about a tragedy unfolding at Columbine High School. “This is serious,” I thought. Outside the school, media crews were set up all over. One such crew took a picture of my mom hugging my sister after we found her. Later that week I saw that picture on the cover of Time magazine. Another member of the media was a woman who worked for a television station called Univision. She was asking if anyone spoke Spanish. I told her that I did, and she asked if she could interview me. She asked me que paso. I told her that unos estudiantes entraron en la escuela con pistoles, and so on. It is the only time in my life that I have been interviewed on television.
Ten years ago today, ten people, including Isaiah, were killed in the library. This is where the worst of the massacre occurred. Not in the gym, not in the weight room, not in the faculty lounge. In the library. For ten years, I tried to make sense of that fact. Today, I decided that some things don’t make sense.
Ten years ago today, I eventually went home with my family. We received many phone calls. We made many phone calls. We watched the news as more details emerged. Many details that were reported were completely wrong. The number of people “confirmed dead” jumped up and down nearly every hour, peaking at around 50. What does “confirmed dead” mean, one had to wonder. After several days, the tally eventually settled at 15: 12 students killed, one teacher killed, and the suicides of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Thirteen people went to school and never got to finish the day. If any one of those thirteen people had caught a cold and stayed home from school, they would still be around. If Rachel Scott had taken her lunch inside, would she still be around? If Isaiah Sholes had decided to shoot hoops instead of working on his homework, would he still be around? If the propane bombs had gone off as planned by Eric and Dylan, how many others would not still be around? These are pointless questions, of course. If my great great grandfather had caught a cold the day he met my great great grandmother, would I still be around?, and so on.
Ten years ago today, I went to bed, the morning’s bowling a lifetime away. Lying in bed, it occurred to me that I had not cried. All day, I saw people crying all around me. I hadn’t shed a tear. I thought about this. “Is something wrong with me that I haven’t cried?” I wondered. In ten years I never found an answer to that question.
Ten years ago today, I eventually fell asleep; the day’s events forever behind me, forced to do battle in my mind with every other event of my life, all details struggling to remain a part of my collective memory. Many of the details have since lost the battle, but some remain. For instance, I don’t remember what clothes I wore. But I do remember where I sat in Calculus class. I don’t remember what songs we listened to on the way to Southwest Plaza Mall. But I do remember the location of the television in Leawood Elementary on which Bill Clinton appeared to address the nation. I don’t remember how well I bowled that morning, or how well Dylan Klebold bowled. But I do remember the look on the face of Isaiah Sholes’ mother as she desperately searched for her son.
Ten years ago today, mine became just another story from April 20th 1999 at Columbine High School. Many people were given a story to tell that they never asked for on that day. This was my story.