in Leesburg, Va. The
participants included world-renowned mental health experts, such as
Michigan State University psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg, as well as
Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the FBI's lead Columbine
investigator and a clinical psychologist.
According to Fuselier and Ochberg, experts have uncovered many important
details about the murders (Cullen. 2004). The first steps to understanding
Columbine, they say, are to forget the common stories about the jocks,
Goths, and Trenchcoat Mafia and to abandon the core idea that Columbine was
just a school shooting. These experts say that it is impossible to fully
understand why they did it until it is first understood what they were
Klebold and Harris are both described as intelligent young men who came
from solid homes with two parents and older brothers (Rosenberg, 2004). In
elementary school, Klebold and Harris participated in sports such as
baseball and soccer. Both liked computers. They met each other while
attending Ken Caryl Middle School in 1993. Although Klebold was born and
raised in the Denver area, Harris' father had been in the U.S. Air Force
and had moved the family many times before he retired and moved his family
to Littleton, Colorado in July 1993. When the two boys entered high school,
they discovered that they did not really fit into any of the cliques.* Both
found themselves frequently picked on by athletes and other students.
Still, Klebold and Harris spent their time doing normal teenager
activities. They worked together in a local pizza parlor, played computer
games in the afternoons, and talked about finding a date for the prom. As
far as appearances go, the boys looked like normal teenagers. However, in
hindsight, they were far from the average teenager.
According to journals, notes, and videos intended to be seen after their
attack, Klebold considered committing suicide in 1997 and they both...