That's the American way now, sweep things under a rug while the disease goes unabated. Weapons that the authors of the 2nd amendment could not have dreamed of, EVER.
Stop the gun "ownership" cancer in America.
20
The NRA should participate in this conversation. Data, reams and scads of data, make clear that more guns mean more dead friends, neighbors, family, all loved ones. Repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, for starters.
2
Tearing down a high school because it was the site of a mass shooting in order to prevent other mass shootings is like leveling the Colosseum in Rome to prevent the persecution of Christians. It falls somewhere between being a gesture and a joke.
11
As long as the name is the same, none if the "tourist" will know the difference. They will keep coming. Replace it with tombstones.
3
What a morbidly obsessed society !
America has become quintessentially the land of mass shootings, due its anachronistic interpretation of a constitutional amendment.
So many innocent lives are lost every year , while politicians who could stop this mass killings, look the other way or cash in from their hypocritical condescension to the national rifle association.
What to do with Columbine school ?
Make it a National monument to remember human insanity , don’t demolish it , it should stand to teach future generations that we need love , understanding and respect for each other .
Many German concentration camps are now an example and a reminder for humankind not to repeat the horrors of the past .
They became lighthouses to help the stranded minds to regain an equilibrium to walk forward .
5
Within a matter of time we'll have to tear down the entire country.
9
NRA High School To Gun Violence Could Be Torn Down to Deter Copycats of Mass Shootings.
That could be a start.
1
I think keeping the name and mascot, “Rebels” is important, weren’t the murderers the ultimate rebels. We want law abiding citizens but glorify the name rebel or outlaw,
Hundreds of people visit Columbine High annually to walk the halls and see the shooters’ lockers? Some come from Japan and Brazil? That far away?
How bizarre.
How sick, actually.
Demolish it. Build a beautiful peace park on the site. Dedicate it as a memorial to all the maimed and murdered from so many mass shootings here and abroad it’s almost impossible to count.
Oh, and that certain kind of mass-murder voyeur will probably stop making strange pilgrimages. Consider it icing on the cake, an additional blessing.
4
You mean it is still standing???
How was it not torn down and name changed?
Crazy making kids still go that school.
3
Everything in this article strikes me as odd.
There are organized bus tours of Littleton Colorado that bring tourists to Columbine High? Who runs these tour groups, and what other sites in Littleton do they visit?
The school is a model of high security and yet they have hundreds of trespassers per year? Can the NYT verify that there are incident reports or arrest records to support such a claim.
Additionally the former administrator who is in support of razing the building because of their fears want to leave the library where so may people died standing?
Maybe it's just that thin air in Colorado, but methinks this is about $70 mil. for the locals and nothing to do with "copycats".
4
it should have gone two decades ago. But really, that is a symbol, the real problem is gun, violence, NRA and the right wing
1
Look, Columbine is being visited by disturbed people who see it as some sort of shrine to gun violence and anarchy. If they are that disturbed, then what possibly would be the point of rebuilding a school on the same property and calling it Columbine? How could any of us be assured that it will stop these goons from making pilgrimages there? I could just imagine, five years from now, school officials saying, "gee, I guess our strategy didn't work." What then?
3
If tour buses pass my children's school with "tourist" acting like voyeurs and interrupting the student's psychological peace, I would move. Other sites that consider tragedy and not public schools filled with children. This is what keeping the school would mean: gun violence is more important than the security and mental health of our children.
Tear the school down. Rebuilding it on another site. Give it another name that celebrates values the community share.
Also, I do not understand why the community has allowed the tour buses to do this.
1
The kids shouldn't have been made to return to the school after this and it's a constant reminder to the poor parents who have to drive by it. I would say tear it down and for the next 20 or 30 years grow wildflowers or something nice on the property for people to visit, place a remembrance in city hall, and rebuild the school in another location.
2
To tear it down is to rewrite history. And that is wrong. One should never shy away from the reality and truth of a past.
I am reminded of stories regarding the demolition or moving of statues of Confederate generals in southern cities in the south. Some well-meaning folks want to raze these historical artifacts, and wipe away all traces of that horrific chapter of American history. Other people want to preserve the glorified but frequently incomplete idolization of these figures.
As we move forward in history, and have the opportunity to see things with a more 360 degree view, it becomes obvious that neither approach to presenting these events to today’s visitors is good or appropriate.
Instead-the best solution is to preserve memory, and present it honestly and accurately.
I would suggest a sign. A large sign.
“Here, at this sight, was one of the greatest incidents of gun violence inflicted on unarmed civilians in the United States. We remember those we lost each and every day.
This is solemn ground. It is hallowed. If you are here for any other reason than to pay respect to our innocent fallen: leave now, in shame.
This is a place of remembrance. For we will never forget that the senseless loss of life which occurred here began our pursuit for safety for every student, across this nation.
Our fight continues. And we will never quit in our mission, not until every school, in every town and city of America, is the safest place of learning and community to be found.”
3
It would seem to me that each community must make its own decisions about what to do with buildings that are the sites of mass shootings. Some may choose to tear the building down and rebuild. Some may decide to move to a new location. Some may decide to turn whole or part of the building into a memorial.
But, the communities should not bear these financial costs. They've already borne a much steeper and much dearer cost.
These communities should sue the gun makers for the financial costs of razing or rebuilding or creating a memorial.
These communities should also sue the NRA for these costs.
And, finally, these communities should sue the whole of Republican Party for these costs due to the immoral way they have stonewalled even reasonable changes to gun laws as these incidents have proliferated. Sue the RNC and sue each Republican state party.
2
So difficult for the families who lost loved ones, the survivors, and the community. They are in the best position to make this decision.
That said, a question: will building a new/different building stop the lurid interest people and tour buses? Again, only the community is in a position to know if the change will help the healing or not, but don’t discount the fact that the people who are causing the problem might not be easily deterred.
I would also get face to face with whatever tour companies with buses engage in this behavior, and pressure them to stop. Via social media and print media exposure, if necessary.
3
While this school is considered “ground zero” for our current modern run of school shootings, it seems a shame to destroy it due to the unwanted interest from the gawker community. I support the ideas of renaming and reworking the exterior look and access. And while we are at it, let’s stop giving names and faces to the people who perpetrate mass murders. No fame for them. This way anyone with a misguided bent on doing such a thing would have no actual person to idolize and personify. It just seems like taking away the focus from the murderer(s) specifically and putting it on the issue of violence would be far more productive in the long run than glamorizing the disturbed individuals and the random places their bent ideals came to fruition.
1
I don't think rebuilding on the same site with the same name is going to have the desired effect. You can't preserve a memorial while demolishing a memory at the same time. It doesn't work. Pick one or the other.
Newtown opted to destroy their building as part of the healing process. Columbine memorialized the building instead. They are now suffering some unintended but predictable consequences as a result.
Think of it this way. When the US finally killed Osama bin Laden, we buried him at sea. Why? We didn't want a physical location to become a beacon for other enemies.
Imagine what would happen if bin Laden's burial site were known. People make global pilgrimages to visit Jim Morrison's grave. What do you think a bunch of jihadists are going to do with a burial site? Columbine, as the first iconic mass shooting, is suffering a similar problem.
That said, there is a counter argument that makes some sense. If you consider shooters terrorists rather than just mentally ill, tearing down buildings in response to their violence let's the terrorists win. For the price of a few bullets, a single person can force a town to spend $70 million on a new municipal building. A building people are going to point at and say "they had to build that because terrorists ruined the last one." Think Freedom Tower. You can't unbreak a plate.
2
To deter tourists with sick minds, I don't think so. They will always exist and seek out whatever feeds their sickness. To provide a new school for students with a new location, one which carries no resemblance to what's past, one whose appeal to the ghoulish is minimal, one which speaks to a fresh start, that's an idea worth considering.
I both disagree and agree. Remember the Confederate Statues placed all over the southern states? Remember all the Hoopla over the Confederate War Flag being flown just about everywhere in the southern states?
I think Columbine School should be torn down and the land sold for medical office buildings. New property should be purchased that is no where near where the current school stands. A new school should be built there and it most definitely should be renamed. I think the students that will be attending that school should be the ones to select the name. They should also be the ones to decide on whether or not to keep the colors and the mascot or choose new ones.
People who are currently using Columbine as a tourist attraction are sick. It needs to go because it will not stop as long as it remains. Obviously.
2
As a parent of a Columbine student and long time resident of the Columbine community. I believe the school should be torn down. My child has had multiple times where some threat has been called in and the school goes into total lock down. This effects everyone not just us (kids, parents, teachers) but the entire surrounding areas around the school.
Threats are made all the time.
Beyond the “normal” threats other schools face.
Unless you are dropping your child off at school and watching them go into a building, I really don’t want to hear about “waste of money”
The building is old parts of the building are sinking.
Parts of the building have sewer issues.
Other schools in the district have been rebuild for structural issues.
We are an awesome community that loves what great things our school offers kids. Its the people not the building that makes us great. A new building will not change the people inside.
Once a rebel always a rebel. We are Columbine.
3
Why is it that Americans think pulling down buildings or monuments that are associated with horrific things will change the ideology that caused the horror? That somehow the bad thing never happened? Invisibility doesn't solve the problem, it only makes it easier to ignore until it rears it's ugly head again.
Even if the school is moved and renamed the old property will be identified as the "former location of.." - there's a monument there after all! - and while perhaps not as attractive as the standing building, will still be cruised by tour groups. That solves the annoying issues that the school currently endures but it isn't going to stop obsessive behavior by already disturbed individuals.
But that brings up another question for me. Why the heck do tour companies feel the need to include the site on their tour and why do average people want to see it? "We're now passing the top ranked Denver Botanical Garden, where you can wander the 24 landscaped acres and enjoy many native Rocky Mountain plant species. Next up on our tour - Columbine High School. Site of the first US mass murder of school children. We'll be stopping briefly for selfies before security asks us to leave".
If I were a member of the community I'd be picketing the tour companies! And if corporations are 'persons' when it comes to political donations, why not get a restraining order against the tour companies? I'm sure they're incorporated.
2
I have a radical IDEA, RENAME the school and save the millions of dollars and the waste materials that would be created. Supt. Jason Glass should be looking for a new job after this suggestion.
Mr. Jason Glass, think what good could be done with the $50,000,000 it would cost to tear down these buildings and build a whole new school. Think also of the ecological waste that would be created. Please.
1
Change the thinking. The structures will serve as reminders of why.
2
It’s sad that they think that further isolating a school that is already an isolated pressure cooker will make things better. Why doesn’t the City of New York have mass shootings? Aside from the fact that black kids don’t do that, it’s because NYC schools are planted smack in the middle of neighborhoods. If a kid is feeling stressed, he can hit the door and walk to his Auntie’s apartment, a local park, or Mr. George’s Bodega down the block. We may not like it, but cutting school does provide a release valve that does not exist in megaschools that are planted in the middle of exurban cornfields. (And yes, I know there are houses around Columbine now. I’m talking about Columbine then.)
1
Why should Colorado taxpayers pay to have an entirety new school built? Does someone else have this money, this 300 million or so?
I understand copycats. I understand people who are curious.
But either change the name of the school only or at least charge those who would come to the school an ‘entrance fee.’ Give them a nice handout, take a tour, and collect a fee.
Let the fee pay for Resource Officers (the new term for retired Police), or whatever.
But we are NOT building an entirely new school!
2
The fact that an operating high school has become a tourist attraction is morbid testament to the shallowness of much of humanity. Trespassers should get real jail terms and pay huge fines.
4
Tearing it down is the final achievement of the killers. Let the building stand tall! Pass an ordinance prohibiting gawkers, buses and other commercial entities.
4
People are just sick. I didn't realize it was this bad. It's hard to even believe people would go there as a tourist attraction.
I don't feel like I should have an opinion, as someone who was not personally affected by the traumas there. It seems a shame to tear it down, and I agree with everyone who says basically "This is not a solution" - no of course it's not, but let's let the people who actually deal with this day in and day out, year after year, figure out what they should do. As the article makes clear, people who went to Columbine High who weren't even born when the shootings happened are still affected by this every day.
6
I would like to see Columbine's name changed, and the building turned into a Vo-Tech center, with space for public meetings and community involvement, and maker spaces. If they turn it into a productive community resource, with a different name and outward appearance so many people could be helped.
If they tear it down, plant trees, and create meditative spaces with a labyrinth and turn it into a peace park. So many landscape architects would enjoy designing such a beautiful place.
4
@JMwonderful idea! It is too dangerous for students to remain in the school as is!
1
A name change would be helpful. Or, if there are already tourists coming, why not turn it into a museum like the Killing Fields: a high school turned torture facility by the Khmer Rouge called S-21 in Cambodia. The now-called Tuol Sleng Genocide museum has devastating photos of what happened there. You can walk through the torture rooms, and see all the skulls and bones outside. Will anything ever get our attention?
6
@Laurie-rebuilding and still calling it Columbine would still be a lure. Redesign and rename. Sorry to hear about of the ongoing harassment of this school. It must be a learning center and it cannot be under its current setup. Best wishes to everyone.
Let’s see: limit access to guns or tear down a school? In fact why rebuild it all? That will just mean more taxes to build stupid things like schools. Let’s just have more guns. Then everyone will be safer as Republicans have been telling us for years. Right up there w trickledown economics
26
Incredible turn of events. Very difficult situation.
Good story, except for 1 jarring error: the library where 10 died was torn down about 19 years ago.
The families of the 13 were adamant about that from the start, and raised I believe $3 million to have it razed and to build the new HOPE library as a new addition to the school. Google it.
The proposal is to keep THAT as the cornerstone of the new school, so the 1999 building would be entirely gone.
9
The gunmen at Columbine wanted to see their school demolished. Their rudimentary propane tank bombs never detonated correctly but they did place them where they thought the school's main supporting structures were.
If Columbine is torn down, it'd only be handing them a huge posthumous victory and making their stature in the eyes of angry people who idolize them as some kind of martyrs that much greater.
Imagine, two angry teens controlling the narrative and destiny of this school so many years after their deaths where so much good has also happened: survival, growth, education, friendships. If it's an attraction know, think about what it would be when it's an empty field totally illustrative of the fact that the gunmen got what they really wanted in the end.
The very idea of tearing it down is just a symptom of our media-saturated, fearful, anxious days.
12
Tear it down. Let nature take over the site. Build a new school with a new name in a different location. That school, name, and site have a very powerful symbolic value to the crazies. And will continue to do so until it’s erased.
10
Turn it into a museum about gun violence in the USA.
9
Horrible, disheartening memories are not erased by tearing down the places in which they took place.
If this were true, wrecking crews would have a field day in America as well as in other parts of the world.
Aushwitz still stands to this very day.
It has not turned into a tourist attraction, but a place to remember as well as educate.
Columbine HS is a living school with students and teachers. An institution of learning. It should never be razed.
Columbine will forever be embedded in our collective memory where young, innocent students were ruthlessly murdered.
To modify the collective memory and direct it to the future I suggest the following.
A well, planned, properly financed teaching/learning center should be created near to the HS.
Firstly in memorial to students who are no longer with us. Secondly as a living, thinking, acting center focusing on adolescents and their lives, as well as a quality seminar to teach and discuss situations that lead up to a similar Columbine experience.
Most importantly a financial structure should be set in place to allow HS students to visit and learn from the Columbine similar experiences. Students from all over the nation can be selected to visit and learn.
It is so easy to tear down, yet a much greater challenge to educate for the future.
3
@Ronald
How about honoring people for their lives and just not their method of death. Many people who die of accident or diseases legacy becomes that. Sad,
If the ostensible reason for tearing it down is to "deter copycats," then the idea is patently silly: "Columbine" - the incident, the "idea" - has taken on a life of its own that has nothing to do with a building. Tear it down, and others will still use "Columbine" as a "rallying cry" for their copycat efforts.
12
Yes, tear it down. Build a new, state of the art School, with Security the number one priority. And, make the NRA pay for it.
Seriously.
15
A completely STUPID idea. Whoever heard of razing a public school in FEAR that it would attract loonie-toonies? This is not a solution but a paranoid reaction by people who claim to be trained in law enforcement and the suppression of crime. With only stained proposals such as this to offer it's no wonder public education and working class communities are in chaos in this country.
9
Many commentators appear not to have fully read the article. The demolition proposal was not based on mere fear of violence but on frequent, credible threats and attempts of violence stopped only by extensive security systems. The entire school district shut down on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting because of a credible threat of violence by an individual inspired by that massacre. Tour buses full of people with sick fascinations with the shooters or the massacre drive by the school. The safety of current students should not be further jeopardized given the extremity of these threats and stressors.
15
@Dusty Chaps
It's not "fear" that it would attract loonies, it's FACT. Read the article. Fine to call people "paranoid" when YOU'RE not there dealing with the threats.
1
In most countries health care, including mental health, is considered a right and gun ownership is a privilege. We have it exactly backwards in the US where gun ownership is considered a right and health care, including mental health is considered a privilege. Until we reverse this there will be more and more mass murders using guns.
86
As you can see, I live in Colorado and lived near Columbine at the time of the massacre. I firmly believe the school should be (should have been) torn down and a suitable memorial built in its place. The presence of this school is a constant reminder of this tragedy and I wonder how stressful it is to the graduates who must get challenging remarks when they mention their high school. I hope Columbine is razed and becomes a memory, not a visible reminder.
7
I lived in Dallas, TX from 1977 through most of 1980.
During that time my mother came to visit and I took her downtown for a Sunday brunch at one of the fancier hotels. After brunch and walking back to the car, I caught something out of the corner of my eye and told her we're going to take a minor detour.
A block later I asked if she knew where she was. No response. Then said: "This is Dealey Plaza". No response. Pointed across the overpass and told her the large tree is near what was described as 'the grassy knoll'. No response. Then pointed to the brick building across the street and said: "That used to be the Texas School Book Depository".
Bingo. She knew exactly where she was.
At that time there was only a small bench next to a bronze plaque describing the events of November 22, 1963. Very low key and I'll assume not much has changed since.
This might be apples to oranges with Columbine, but I believe those places should be preserved and memorialized as a way of passing on to future generations that bad things can happen 'here' and did happen 'here'.
You're not immune, you're not insulated. This isn't someone else's problem. Learn from past violence work to avoid repeat it.
8
Why does our culture constantly celebrate rape and murder and other crimes? Any little kid can watch this stuff non stop on TV. After school, middle of the afternoon, even. Instead of watching Hanna Barbera cartoons as my bro used to do.
3
Just change the name of the school!
5
@Mary Ann Peglar . Exactly, name it in memorial to those who lost their lives.
A tourist stop? Gawking at a school where a mass murder of children occurred? Sick. What’s the purpose?
8
If we demolish every high school that suffers a mass shooting, by 2045 most high schools in America will be less than thirty years old. Does the NRA have their hands in the construction business, too?
7
Ban silencers. Ban bump stocks. Implement common sense gun law. Focus on developing kids' social relationships and creating healthy community.
There. That should help!
1
@M, bump stocks were banned by federal law last year.
1
@M
What do suppressors have to do with gun violence?
They already required a background check and a permit which takes about a year to get.
2
There are 20,000 gun laws in America. How many more do you think we need? Why do you think criminals will obey your new gun laws any better than they obey the old gun laws?
2
Ugh, the tour busses. They’re a scourge on the planet and a permanent fixture of life here in LA. Glimpsing the abodes of celebrities seen worldwide in television and movies makes some minimal sense to people like me with interests far removed from that of the faceless hoards. But I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around tourbusses plaguing Columbine High School.
What kind of sick mind pays to actually get on a bus to gawk at where children were gunned down while innocently attending a place that had until then been a near sacred safe-space, off-limits to even the average criminal mind? What kind of degenerate Trumpian scam artist offers such tours? Why is this even being allowed by the community?
I feel so badly for the people of the school and community and can’t even begin to offer an opinion on how they should proceed but tourbusses are beyond decency, reason, and sanity as they only increase exposure and glorification of the tragedy, for profit! I understand they are only one of many points of intrusion affecting the campus but this one really is an easy no-brainer: tourbusses should be banned.
The school may still need to take more drastic action but no one needs a tour of the scene, the community doesn’t need the economic infusion of blood money, and the amoral profiteers ferrying violence-obsessed gawkers should be run out of town.
10
@left coast finch
"What kind of sick mind pays to actually get on a bus to gawk at where children were gunned down"
Especially knowing that right then, while they're gawking, there are actual real-life children in that building, going to school and trying to live normal lives.
It reminds me of the Son of Sam laws, which make it impossible (or at least harder) for someone to profit from their crime … we should make some strong legal deterrents for anyone to run a business that involves gawking at survivors of real-life tragedies, at least while some of the survivors are still living.
The article doesn't make clear, but I imagine there are still at least a few teachers there who were there the day of the shootings. They, too, deserve a normal life. Tour buses outside, gawking - it's really unconscionable.
Someone ought to name the company(ies) that are doing this, and shame them.
@left coast finch Are there not tour buses that bring people to concentration camp memorials from WWII? Would you consider these tours to be a collection of blood money? Are these people violence-obsessed gawkers as well or are they people trying to wrap their heads, hearts, and spirits around history, around the horrid events that humans have created to remove others from existence? Are they trying to learn and to bring their families to these places in hopes that in seeing the evidence of destruction we will grow compassion toward one another?
1
The thinking behind the proposed destruction of Columbine suggests the building itself is the cause of the copycat phenomenon associated with mass shootings, school shootings in particular. Ironically, it seems more probable that the renewed attention brought about by the demolition will only reinforce the copycat effect. It is a real dilemma. Here in South Florida, the media attention focused on the Parkland shooting has seemingly become the foundation of a cottage industry. (Actually, a McMansion industry is closer to the truth) Numerous "survivors", family members & residents of Parkland & Coral Springs have carved out new careers (in politics & as lobbyists) based on those 17 murders. It is apparently their objective to keep those crimes on the front page of the local papers & prominent in local news broadcasts. The probability that they are actually increasing the likelihood of copycat shootings is an in convenient conflict of interest, never worthy of open discussion. It seems like the gun control agenda takes priority, regardless of the additional shootings that may result. It has been 16 months since that tragedy and now the Parkland lobby has orchestrated the unprecedented prosecution of the school resource officer. This, despite the fact that the prosecution is premised on an obvious distortion of both the Florida statutes and the facts of the case. The Parkland lobby has succeeded in securing another 2 years of media attention. The whole thing makes me queasy.
4
@mike4vfr I read your comment and was struck by the apparent cynicism ref to the "McMansion industry" carving out new careers of certain individuals. Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Parkland, et all, cannot be hidden from any copycat. That type of sick individual will always find information about what has transpired in the past. I don't think keeping the issue either active or inactive locally will have any significant impact on potential development of copycat behavior. I believe the activism displayed by those impacted by the event is a positive psychological response, moving away from a passive, helplessness mindset to one of a sense of control. It is also a strong exercise of their right of free speech. I was impressed by the students' reaction at the time, and still am. Their lives were changed on that day, and I expect the event will continue to be a major influence on the remainder of their lives. The same holds true for the parents that may have become activists. Their involvement is a healthy, psychological response. Their is little doubt in my mind that the underlying motivation for their activism is to prevent others from experiencing similar devastation. While we may not agree, as a nation, as to what the solution may be--we must continue to seek a solution. For that reason, I think media coverage is important. However, the media coverage should not focus on the perpetrators--providing some of them the "fame" they may desire, but rather on the victims.
1
Ugh, the tour busses. They’re a scourge on the planet and a permanent fixture of life here in LA. Glimpsing the abodes of celebrities seen worldwide in television and movies makes some minimal sense to people like me with interests far removed from that of the faceless hoards. But I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around tourbusses plaguing Columbine High School.
What kind of sick mind pays to actually get on a bus to gawk at where children were gunned down while innocently attending a place that had until then been a near sacred safe-space, off-limits to even the average criminal mind? What kind of degenerate Trumpian scam artist offers such tours? Why is this even being allowed by the community?
I feel so badly for the people of the school and community and can’t even begin to offer an opinion on how they should proceed but tourbusses are beyond decency, reason, and sanity as they only increase exposure and glorification of the tragedy, for profit! I understand they are only one of many points of intrusion affecting the campus but this one really is an easy no-brainer: tourbusses should be banned.
The school may still need to take more drastic action but no one needs a tour of the scene, the community doesn’t need the economic infusion of blood money, and the amoral profiteers ferrying violence-obsessed gawkers should be run out of town.
1
It’s very sad, but I agree it should be torn down. It sounds like it’s become a magnet for the mentally unstable.
1
@Jim
Great. Write them a $70M check. Every little bit helps.
3
It is a sad state of affairs and statement on the ENTIRE population of this nation.
Guns are more important then education.
So much for the pen being stronger then sword.
11
Unbelievable that so many flock to such a place. Thanks for ruining my day and faith in humanity, NYT. And please renew my subscription.
4
I’m perplexed by comments to this story.
Of course passing meaningful gun legislation would be better. How exactly should the school superintendent do this?
They get DAILY visitors to the school (a disgusting pilgrimage?) who want to see the shooters’ lockers and walk the halls. These sickos pose a direct threat to the safety of the students. You’ll recall that only two months ago class had to be cancelled for one of these visitors.
Kids deserve to learn in a place that feels safe to them. Full stop. Everything else should be secondary (“sets a bad standard”, “we need gun legislation instead”).
Also: tour busses?! Really?!
4
Rename the school after Dave Sanders. At some point we will get wise to the idea that these types of killers gives plenty of advance notice and quit ignoring them.
1
I don't think most people commenting fully read the article. It said the number and nature of attempts on the school are extreme and occur almost everyday, elaborate security systems are constantly being tested. Tour buses drive by the school. The school superintendent said if people knew the threats they would be scared and should be. This is not a conducive environment for learning.
4
I live in the U.K. there is a local concert arena where an Isis attack took place. The venue is inside a railway hub. The place has a strange atmosphere. There are police with machine guns.
I don’t understand why people commit such acts. However I do find the world very very intensely alienating. As I’ve reached my late 30s I find the mechanised nature of life so freaking dispiriting. I feel that humans are not living in the way that is natural to us. I think for some people those feelings tip them into violence.
3
What an absurd idea.
4
Is this in the same country that rebuilt the World Trade Center after 9/11?
2
Knock down the school if you want, but a name is a name. Change the name of the town.
2
Tangential to the article I guess, but who on earth would jump on a tour bus to see the place? Enough people to make the tours worthwhile financially, apparently.
Which is nuts.
4
So now school shootings are actually economic development efforts. Once Columbine finishes its work on the prototype tear-it-down-so-it-won't-happen-again project, we can move on to destroying and rebuilding all of the schools in the U.S. where the religious worship of guns has helped to kill students.
Great! Within about a hundred years, nearly every school in America will be nice and new and shiny.
5
Deter copycats? There’s been countless school shootings since then.
Let’s try looking at a REAL way to deter copycats.
9
Lots of others will have to go too, I guess. . . Lots.
This seems silly. These copycats thrive online and from
recognition in the news, not the brick and mortar building.
JMO
3
I live a few houses away from the house where Sharon Tate and others were murdered by Manson’s followers. The house was torn down and a new mega-mansion in its place, which is heavily gated and has a new numerical address. Week after week, I and my neighbors encounter interested murder-tourists, most as passengers on the “Dearly Departed Tour” buses that block our road. They steal our address plates. We haven’t looked forward to the opening of the new Quentin Tarantino movie, which was filmed on our block. So, even replacing the building with a different one will not dampen interest. A different road name would help, though, with road apps.
19
Tear down the 2nd Amendment and its 1791 logic.
13
How much money does one have to waste? There are at least 1/2 million sites on this planet that are the scene of a mass shooting - in war and out of it.
3
What shocks me is the tour buses and how many “people” are wanting to “visit” - i.e. trespass. What deranged tour bus operator thought a visit to this school was a good idea? The derangement of so many people is very unsettling.
Sadly, what has become a perverse temple of fascination for these deeply disturbed people should probably be torn down and replaced with a symbol that only reflects goodness and love. That would be something to visit. Perhaps it would honor the victims and the community’s ongoing recovery from that terrible day in 1999.
3
Tearing it down won't solve the issue. The media is obsessed with death. By stoking the flames and keeping the event alive ,the memories of that horrible event will live on. Our culture idolizes killing. We are obsessed with it. People make $ off of the pain and suffering of others. Until we change the mindset of how we treat these events. This will continue. Tear down the cultural mentality. Stop putting killers on a pedestal. Focus on healing the victims and their families.
2
So now school shooters will have the happy prospect of destroying the entire school when they strike? No. These places also inspire resistance to the destruction wrought there.
3
Keep it; remember it.
Better to see it than to erase it; an icon that represents political ideologue's senselessness in regard to objective, responsible firearms regulation.
1
Yet people argue that statues of important historical figures should be removed from public view because they represent slave owners or members of the confederacy.
1
One example: the school where I did my graduate work had about a 150 year history; many thousands of alumni, some of whom accomplished much. Very recently, it was erased from history by a larger school buying it — for the real estate, presumably, and which then took a very large donation from an unrelated rich person to rename the remnants for him. Right now, you can’t even find traces of this erased institution anywhere on the web.
If we had known that there were enough morbid tourists and deranged copycats around to present an actual threat to Columbine, the obvious thing is simply to change the name. Make sure that map programs reflect this, and much of the problem would amazingly vanish.
Tour buses? I’m pretty sure that they could be legally banned on public safety and nuisance grounds without a problem. Can’t be making the operators that wealthy that they’d feel obliged to contest a ban.
Crazy wannabe copycats? Victims of gory video games? Ordinary crazies with unlimited access to weapons? Completely different set of issues, but all of them want to see the school named Columbine. Change the name for starters.
2
Now we’re blaming the building?
I think the fairies at the bottom of my garden are responsible for gun violence. I mean come on, if it’s not the guns, it must be something.
6
Guns dont kill people, people kill people.
Columbine was a product of privileged white kids feeling like outcasts because of high school social life and a lack of adult involvement in their lives.
This particular shooting was teen angst turned up to 11, and they had the resources to release their pain. One of the shooters had materials for making bombs just sitting in his bedroom. His parents were completely blind to what he was going through and had become.
If you’re looking to point the finger, point it at people like their families, school administrators, and people like yourself that look for any reason other than the environment to which those kids were exposed.
3
The name is the iconic symbol of what happened. The physical building does not really matter to someone planning another, similar, atrocity.
4
If you had a choice would you want your children or grandchildren to attend Columbine High School or Marjorie Stoneman Douglass? I would not even if the school has great teachers and students. The massacre is always present on some level and high school is hard enough for students on many levels. Every day going into a school where so many lives were lost would trigger feelings of helplessness. I am not sure of the best way forward but I do know mass shootings are a national health emergency and the US government condones violence against children through our lack of commonsense gun control and mental health awareness.
4
Mental health is THE problem. People that want to kill will find a way, whether its guns, bombs, cars, or planes. Gun control will not work.
1
@Kathy: I live here, and while my children attended a different high school in the area, I would have had no problem at all sending them to Columbine. It was a terrible event, but please know that the kids attending Columbine today are doing fine. They were all born after the massacre, and to them Columbine is just their high school. It's those outside the community who are causing the problem. Also, it's worth pointing out that the high school was extensively remodeled. The library where most of the violence took place no longer exists.
2
The problem is trespassers/voyeurs and tour buses affecting school security and operations.
Spending $70m for a new school seems like an an excessive solution.
Looking at the map, I'd be tempted to:
a. Change the entire traffic pattern around the school. Move the parking lots west behind the school with a new road with gates.
b. Plant fast growing trees/thorny bushes to the north, east, south to limit the view of the school
c. Establish a fence/barrier system to the west
d. Make trespassing and running tour buses extremely painful with fines, fees, frequent road stops, inspections, etc. Two weeks wearing an orange jumpsuit picking up trash can make the morbid curiosity seekers consider new hobbies.
I have no idea what the costs would be, but even $5M is lots better than $70M.
46
@CW, seriously, can’t the bus/whatever permits be revoked by the state.
5
While easy to make fun of the headline, I think it should be seen more in this light.
First, Columbine was over 20 years ago. At some point the administrators of that building are making decisions about renovation and long-term structural maintenance. I would argue that simply letting the building (and the name) go make perfect sense at that point.
Second, some buildings are significantly damaged during events like these. When that happens, the cost of repair should be weight against the cost of starting fresh.
Yes, it's easy to poke fun at the idea that we tear down the site of any tragedy, as a desperate way to avoid the mentally disturbed. But Columbine happened a long time ago now. I don't know why anyone would argue for its preservation.
1
Education is painfully underfunded as it is in this country. Building a new school simply on the grounds that a shooting happened 20 years ago is a shallow argument at best. Your assertion of fixing damage being costly is ignorant to your own statement that this was 20 years ago. Any physical damage has been repaired.
Looking deeper at the “why keep it?” argument; what about inner city schools that are much older than Columbine? Most urban schools have been dealing with violence far longer and consistently than these predominantly white, suburban buildings. Why are those schools not being replaced?
That said, these are buildings. We should be focusing on what happens within them instead of where it happens because we all know a potential mass murderer doesn’t care about the building, just the damage they can do inside.
2
@Anonymous: The damage to Columbine High School was addressed twenty years ago immediately after the massacre. The library where most of the violence took place was completely demolished and replaced. This has nothing to do with weighing the cost of repair with starting fresh. It's simply the perceived security issues because people outside the community don't know when to leave well enough alone.
1
With due deference to the memories of Columbine victims, I don’t think tearing down the school will NOT constitute a deterrent to gun violence in schools or anywhere else for that matter. Solving gun violence can not be accomplished just by getting rid of the school buildings - for example, in Parkland or Newtown for that matter. Therefore, I regret to posit that this proposal to bring down the Columbine school building is a non sequitur at best.
Unfortunately, we are not concentrating on the root cause of random gun violence in our country - the highest in the world. This problem emanates from the most cynical exploitation of the 2nd Amendment clause of our constitution by the greedy gun industry by a creating a collusion between the NRA and the unethical politicians of our country.
The 2nd Amendment very clearly mentions the the “right to bear arms in the CONTEXT of a well regulated militia necessary for security of the free state”. Furthermore, the 2nd Amendment was ratified in 1791. Its 2019 now and the CONTEXT of a militia necessary to maintain the security of the free state no longer exists. Therefore, there is no justification whatsoever to bolster this national obsession about owning guns under the guise of constitutional rights. This is just a self serving and vested interest driven maneuver by the gun industry.
It’s money over the loss of innocent lives and the greedy politicians are totally accountable for perpetuating this tragic state of affairs.
1
Perhaps tear down the homes of the perps? A more dir3ect message?
4
This proposal is idolistic idiocy. As if tearing down the scene of an abomination, like tearing down an idol, could get rid of the abomination it represents. This is magical thinking, right up there with trickle-down economics. The only way to cut down on Columbine-style abominations is to get guns out of the hands of the would-be abomimators. Since our nation idolizes guns (just look at their omnipresence in media entertainment), this will be a tall order for us, especially with such big money in the hands of the priests of the gun cut at places like the NRA.
8
Here is the amount of both impact and common sense this demolition will/would make......ZERO.
12
How's about banning guns, not destroying every potential "trigger" for future gun fanatics?
8
How about just renaming the school.
14
@Tom Kocis Of course, when it's the Laura Ingalls Wilder School of Peace, no one will be able to trace it.
2
@Tom Kocis, it would probably work, if they renamed the town (city?) & the school.
3
Tearing it down is one of the silliest ideas I have read in a long time. Tearing it down would be a massive waste of time, energy and money and ultimately accomplish nothing. The school is an object, nothing more. With respect to mass shootings, Columbine is a symbol, a mental construct. Those deranged individuals who are bent on killing may even view tearing down Columbine as another reason to go on a killing spree. Not only do they kill some people, they may even be able to get society to tear down the building. Renaming the school would be an option since it is has virtually no cost, but tearing it down is a fools errand.
9
Why not just rename it?
6
Turn it into a community center dedicated to gun safety and peace.
5
I’m all for it! Tear it down, rebuild it twice as big, with ten times the facilities- ultramodern, the best of everything, the best teachers, the works.
Then charge the whole thing to the NRA.
18
@Robert M. Koretsky:
best idea ever!
@Robert M. Koretsky. Why should the NRA pay? And of course you know your idea Is as ridiculous as banning guns.
1
It should be turned into a park that honors the victims and another school can be built nearby. It doesn't honor the victims memories to attract mentally ill people into the school of current students.
1
@T Montoya
so far, to my knowledge, there have been exactly two situations that relate directly to "copy catting" Columbine.
The Florida young woman who posted a lot of hate on social media but ended up killing herself; and the two who attacked the school THEY went to, in the same city as Columbine (shaky link, if any).
So, because of this, 20 years after "Columbine" people want to tear down the school and use millions to build another?
I felt like it should of been torn down after the massacre - but more than that gun control, gun control, gun control - especially automatic weapons!
1
@CL Towle
Automatic weapons are already tightly controlled.
@CW
"Automatic weapons are already tightly controlled."
Really
That seems extreme. Perhaps we could revisit the gun control debate instead? Or have we collectively just given up on fighting back against the NRA?
10
Well, we're on to new discussions about shootings and killings. Maybe we should consider gun safety first.
6
My uncle was one of the very first federal officers on the scene. He refuses to talk about that day, except to say “I do not understand how how they did not tear that school to the ground.”
11
Getting rid of schools to get rid of school shootings is probably easier than getting rid of guns.
18
How about tearing down the police dept building because so many valid complaints and warnings about the killers were ignored, or the pizza shop who's employee sold them the TEC 9 knowing they were too young to purchase it, or the gun show where they bought shotguns from unlicensed sellers?
Bulldoze the entire town, won't change a thing.
13
There is hardly provocation for violence merely because of a building; if anything, a new one would be more suggestive psychologically. But that is all irrelevant as the motivation for making such suggestions is psychological itself, in making symbolic emotional appeals to reinforce gun control policy; that is, the act of tearing down a purported site of violence, symbolically reinforces a mental model of eradication and generates voyeuristic solidarity. This is secondary in some respects to more central motivations which include removing sources of forensic investigation, or evidence, and at a much more simplistic level, serving as a pretextual basis for building new public school facilities, greatly expanded, modernized and equipped, for public employee gratification and self-interest. Regards.
1
Tearing down the school sets a bad precedent and doesn’t address the root cause. Why should the community spend all that money on a new building, when the money could be better spent elsewhere on community services?
That being said, I understand the school’s predicament - they want to keep the school safe/secure, which is hard because it has become a sight-to-see for twisted and potentially dangerous people.
What is the solution? Addressing the root cause? That seems highly unlikely given the current political climate. Lose-lose situation.
3
If children's lives are still threatened by their status as students of Columbine, the school should be renamed at the very least, if not demolished. There is a memorial in Clement Park, just beside the school, for the many who wish to pay respects and remember.
Keeping a building up on the principle of strength and unity seems naive and unnecessarily stubborn, particularly if doing so threatens current students' bodies or even their lives. Change gun laws *and* the building, as well as its location-or at least its name.
Signed, A Columbine Graduate
10
Perhaps if we begin naming guns and bullets after the people who lost their lives in some of these senseless shootings, then maybe people would feel a little more compassion for the families of the people who lost their lives and for the students who bravely attend school worried about homework and whether this is the day they will die, or for the HR rep who contemplates censoring the employee in front of them. We don’t need prayers, we need laws and protection. We need political leaders who are not tied to the NRA.
11
We are such a weak country. We can’t stop guns from being in schools so lets tear the school down. Now lets tear down churches and mosques.
61
Getting rid of the NYC subway system can really deter those pesky rodents!
12
Keep the original Columbine HS and make it a museum/teaching opportunity about the excesses of gun violence, just as Auschwitz is still in place for visitors to learn about an actual site of the Holocaust. Make the NRA pay for it. Sadly, we might have to do the same for Sandy Hook, for Stoneman-Douglas, and for countless other schools that have been affected by mass-shootings.
Then build a new school with a new name. Too much baggage for the students who attend and the community itself.
5
@Sabrina:
Sandy Hook elementary school was demolished and rebuilt in a different location.
@RLiss Thanks for updating me. Did not know this.
They’re gonna have to tear down a lot of schools, office parks, fast food restaurants, government buildings, churches, etc.
50
My first thought after the last scare was, “change the name.”
5
Tearing down a school and building a new one could lead to a new kind of copycat.
13
Tearing it down would be insane. Then you'll really get copycats, disaffected students, for example, if they think they can not only kill people, but destroy the school.
20
Wouldn’t this inspire a potential shooter even more?
10
I did my graduate work at Kent State University in Ohio after the shootings in 1970. Worked and walked past the site almost daily. There is now a permanent exhibit and memorial and next May 4th will be the 50th anniversary. While shootings by national guardsmen against students demonstrating against the Vietnam war, is different from the mass shootings starting with Columbine and continuing though last weeks shootings in Virginia Beach, the fact is that the lives are lost and survivors are changed forever. I understand the feelings of Josh Lapp, tearing down Columbine, "It's not changing anything". The history will still be there... The fact that it is now being discussed now 20 years later shows more to how our nation and society has changed in the intervening years.
7
Remember the site?
Exhibit?
There’s a gym sitting on it now, the most useless facility possible at an institution of higher education was deliberately dropped there to make the memory “go away”.
Two events other than the War, the Bloody Spring and Summer of ‘68 changed this then-Junior High student’s mind about national politics - the murders at Kent and Jackson state universities, and Dick Gregory’s inspiring speech at Kent, on the first anniversary of that tragedy.
I’ve already made my plans for May 4, 2020, to visit what should be as much a shrine to governments gone wrong as the museums and monuments dedicated to the memory of the Nazi Holocaust that took the lives of half my father’s family.
But the murderers at Kent and Jackson were government-twisted adults, not the twisted school shooters, who would only add “record kills and buildings torn down in MY name” to their mindset.
We’ve got to convince these “I’m gonna be famous” would-be murderers that they will be forgotten except by the families of those they kill.
And, if there’s an afterlife where those who murder for fame are punished, the curses of those families will condemn them to eternal torture.
@Eatoin Shrdlu There is a permanent exhibit called the May 4 Visitors Center on the campus. The first student honored was Sandy Scheuer last summer and others will follow for Bill, Jeff and Allison leading up to the 50th anniversary next Spring. https://internal.kent.edu/magazine/flashforward-Sandy
Quiz:
How to reduce gun violence in schools:
a) tear down the schools shooters hate.
b) take away the tools shooters use.
Extra credit for the politically slippery politician:
Understand that 'b' is clearly needed, but opt for 'a'
because destroying places of learning is far more
politically expedient than getting any kind of handle
on dangerous weapons.
36
@C. Whiting that question is on the SAT.
The NRA has permeated every one in Washington. It appears no one can touch them. With their reach, guns and gun control are even farther away.
5
@C. Whiting: Way to over-simplify the issue. This is a community-driven decision, one influenced by the mass shutdown of Front Range school districts just a couple of months ago when the FBI warned of a possible imminent attack after a young woman from Florida made threats related to the Columbine massacre. (She was later found dead of suicide.) Jefferson County School District has been dealing with this for years, and it's accelerating. Regardless, the community will ultimately decide whether or not it wants to fund the project. Most importantly, though, this proposal and Coloradans working to institute new gun control legislation are not mutually exclusive. Believe it or not, we can do both.
5
@Allison
If you did the latter effectively, there'd be no need whatsoever for the former.
3
Um, ok, you could tear down and rebuild a school building where a mass shooting took place.
Or you could pass laws that make it hard for young people and people with serious mental/emotional issues and other track-able red-flag issues to obtain the guns used in mass shootings. And pass laws banning weapons that allow for high-capacity magazines that let one person shoot so very many bullets... ? And what about tracking ammo sales a bit, maybe that could serve as a flag, if someone is buying tons of ammo? Gun buyback programs? Mandatory gun safes/lock boxes to keep guns from kids? Beefed up law enforcement staffing to help enforce existing gun laws?
I’m just thinking about actions that might actually address the mass shooting problem, rather than re-doing the architecture of a building where the problem once occurred. I’m not sure how an architect and a building contractor can really get to the root of the mass shooting problem.
But you do your thing. I’m sure a new school would be nice too.
52
Great response. Couldn’t say it any better.
1
@Margaret
What we have all seen is the disaffected study their target's defenses and devise countermeasures.
Mass casualty attacks have used planes, trucks, cars, fire, knives, etc. Folks with guns have used pistols, shotguns, and rifles.
Legal purchases of guns require a background check today. Folks can steal guns or use strawman purchases to illegally bypass the checks. Or there is a large underground illegal market.
The entire school ecosystem is vulnerable, not just the buildings.
The Secret Service school guide recommends an ongoing Threat analysis..... www.secretservice.gov/data/protection/ntac/USSS_NTAC_Enhancing_School_Safety_Guide_7.11.18.pdf
Attackers are basically competing for infamy..... and we give them the publicity and headlines they seek. If I were king, I'd ban their images and names from the news.
2
@Margaret
I think we should value all life and try to reduce all preventable deaths. The relatively rare school shootings are dramatic and make headlines. The much larger loss of life is so common, it is ignored.
"Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.” CDC
Or 147,000 die every year from trauma. 30,000 of those could be saved by basic first aid. Natl Acad of Sciences study.
Um, ok, you could tear down and rebuild a school building where a mass shooting took place.
Or you could pass laws that make it hard for young people and people with serious mental/emotional issues and other track-able red-flag issues to obtain the guns used in mass shootings. And pass laws banning weapons that allow for high-capacity magazines that let one person shoot so very many bullets... ? And what about tracking ammo sales a bit, maybe that could serve as a flag, if someone is buying tons of ammo? Gun buyback programs? Mandatory gun safes/lock boxes to keep guns from kids? Beefed up law enforcement staffing to help enforce existing gun laws?
I’m just thinking about actions that might actually address the mass shooting problem, rather than re-doing the architecture of a building where the problem once occurred. I’m not sure how an architect and a building contractor can really get to the root of the mass shooting problem.
But you do your thing. I’m sure a new school would be nice too.
1
The best way to deter copycats is for the media to refrain from bringing up the topic on its anniversaries. That is what makes it sound attractive to the deranged, a chance at fame, never-ending. The latest person to make a pilgrimage hadn't even been born when the Columbine massacre happened. How do you think she heard about it and had it capture her imagination? Acts like this and the their perpetrators should be forgotten. Absolutely forgotten.There is no upside to remembering and rehashing it. Lucky for us, there will always be a new massacre waiting around the next corner as we can't seem to get the weapons off the street.
13
It might also help to trxone the roads around the school as private and restrict access to town residents.
3
I completely understand.
Maybe we should tear down the nation that allows this to keep happening?
118
@Brad Or the association and congress that allow it?
9
I think the point here is that it’s attracting people who want to experience the physical space where people were killed to feed their sick imaginations. There’s plenty of people who get off on this type of thing. The presence of these people diminishes the pain and loss and they turn the site into a ghoulish attraction. I can’t help thinking that’s what many are doing standing outside of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. There’s people outside of it everyday.
32
@WTR: But they didn't tear down the Pulse nightclub. In fact, they didn't even rename it.
2
Honestly, school shootings in America at this point have become something so much larger than Columbine that the folks of Littleton would do well to conserve their money and continue its mission to educate the young. Rest assured that it is not happening because Columbine is still standing.
There was once a time when Columbine seemed singularly shocking and unreal. But the leviathan powers that have long since hijacked our society and continue to gleefully fuel such horrific massacres are conditioning Americans to accept it as a way of life.
28
No question. Tear it down. How can young people manage within that building? Too horrific.
5
@Suzy: The students who attend Columbine were all born well after the massacre. They're fine. The problem is with outsiders who have a weird fascination with this kind of stuff and need to exercise some common sense. Columbine is not an appropriate site for a pilgrimage, and the presence of these lookie-loos is creating security issues. That's why the Jeffco superintendent is seeking community feedback about demolishing Columbine and starting fresh.
Resilience: Had a serious carbon monoxide incident at my college. 40 in dorm were hospitalized. Admin recommended that students leave windows open. Biggest complaint of students in following days was for lack of hot water, not that they were nearly killed by negligent contractors.
A name change is the least difficult thing to do. Go for it.
34
How about we tear down the companies that manufactured the guns used in Columbine?
107
Tour busses? Does this mean that there actually are bus tours of massacre sites? Like tours of celebrities in Hollywood but of places where people have been murdered? I’m feeling sick just thinking about this.
42
And why does this superintendent still have a job? How *dumb* do you have to be to not get that this is not about the facility?
11
@Eric Jones At this point clearly the facility is creating a problem.
5
It' s not likely just one person making that decision.
5
Wait-- they'd go to all the trouble of tearing down the school and rebuilding it, but not renaming it? How on earth does that make any sense when simply renaming it (but not demolishing it) would have been a prudent action to have taken in the first place?
36
Did we tear down the Pentagon after 9/11?
Is Ford's Theater in DC still with us?
Or the Texas School Book Depository?
Is there still a Navy presence at Pearl Harbor?
Each of these was the site of a horrific event. A place which would be iconic to others who wished to commit similar acts against us.
We don't get rid of something just because its a Mecca for those who may hate us or do harm. Instead, we remain defiant to them and safeguard or prevent in other ways.
If you want to stop the "escalating violence" then stop the escalating violence.
Razing buildings isn't going to change a thing except throw away tax money putting it in the pockets of a demolition crew and new construction crew.
76
@VJR
The Pentagon, the Texas School Depository, and the Navy at Pearl Harbor don't have anyone in their employ under the age of 18 years old. Columbine has more than 1, 700 students for whom school-related adults are responsible from 8:00 am to at least 4:00 pm. None of us commenting here have that level of responsibility for those particular students in Colorado. I am very reluctant to dismiss the concerns of those supervisors.
5
@Maura3
I am not being dismissive of the concerns of Columbine administrators.
But razing a school just to build a new one in the same place and with the same name does nothing to deter anyone from a copycat act.
You want to protect our kids?
Then protect our kids.
* Make the schools safer.
* Make better gun control laws.
* Have armed security guards.
* Use metal detectors.
Do whatever you have to do.
Thoughts and prayers and school razings do nothing.
4
How did we come to this:
Tearing down a school is a more practical solution to reduce gun violence than actually enacting common sense gun legislation.
175
@ray From a political and policy perspective -- America, and the American public has lost its mind, and makes the case for my email tag line: Common sense: Not common enough!
21
@Denker Dunsmuir
its not the american public that's lost its mind, its the Republican party that is supported by the traitorous NRA.
A majority of people want gun reform and the Republican party goes against their wishes
10
The memory of the event will survive even the demolition of the building. One can easily find the school on Google Maps and see it with their Street View. Changing the name as others have suggested would be the easier thing to do. I have not heard calls to tear down the Pentagon for what happened there.
11
Ditching the second amendment and getting rid of guns might remove the inspiration for gun violence, too. That's better than tearing down a school.
81
@Tony Long....don't even ditch the 2nd Amendment. Let's follow it, not distort it.
The media must stop avoiding this distortion, and publicize and dissect it.
The Amendment says says guns are for a 'well--regulated --militia'. That's 3 words that mean the opposite of what we've got---unregulated guns for everyone everywhere.
We're told we keep our 'freedom' even if we dodge bullets. But the amendment says militia ---that means appointed police or army to defend the nation and protect our peace and safety. The high profit gun makers and their for-profit politicians dominate our laws. Is that 'freedom'?
If our media discussed this crucial topic, as much as it spotlights the daily insults Trump dumps, then our democracy might work. Our gun laws ignore the regulations supported by the public, gun owners and many NRA members.
The freedom of our children to not live their lives in fear is blocked, as the profits and the bodies pile up.
22
I think they should have changed the name of the school years ago, it would have been a good start.
I also don't think they should demolish the school, sets a bad precedent.
29