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What connections to society or other issues do you make? What further reading might someone who read your book want to do to understand more about the issues raised?

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Research the setting of your novel. Remember to consider time, place, and location. Post information that would help a reader to visual and understand where & when the events in your story take place.

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Directions: Collect, research, and compile a Padlet with your Book Club group of multi media information to help build your understanding and knowledge of the time period in which your book club book takes place. As well as how the setting and time period impact the way in which the story is told or the events that happened.

For each piece you add, write a 2-3 sentence explanation of what this piece shows or why you included this in your padlet.

Examples of various media to include on your Padlet: Articles, videos, podcasts, interviews, images, maps, graphs, charts, diagrams, documentaries, etc.

Padlets MUST BE SHARED with your teacher.

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Research your author. What biographical information about your author may help us understand why he or she wrote this text?

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Research the historical context/time period of your novel. Post  important information that will help you understand the context for the social issue or event(s) occurring in your novel.

Things to think about:
-Major events
- Major Laws/Bills/ Decisions created/passed during this time
- Influence of Pop Culture
- Societal Norms

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The novel takes place in Parkland, Florida, at Stoneman Douglass High School. A 19 year old former student, Nikolas Cruz arrived at the highschool in an Uber. He opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at 2:21pm into multiple classrooms. 14 students and 3 staff members were killed, 17 were injured.

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The teen gunman accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle at his former high school in Parkland, Florida, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, officials said Thursday.

Authorities said the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, concealed himself in the crowd fleeing Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the massacre on Wednesday afternoon. He was arrested in nearby Coral Springs.
Related: These are the 17 victims of the Parkland school shooting
Fourteen others were wounded, five with life-threatening injuries, hospital officials said.

Cruz had recently been expelled from Douglas for disciplinary reasons and was enrolled elsewhere in the district, the schools superintendent in Broward County, Robert Runcie, said. Cruz took an Uber to the Douglas campus on Wednesday, Runcie told NBC News.
What We Know:

17 people were killed and another 14 were wounded.

Suspect identified as Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. He may appear in court Thursday.

Cruz, 19, was believed to have used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle.

Broward County Sheriff's Office set to hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

A YouTube user named "Nikolas Cruz" reportedly posted "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" on the site.

President Donald Trump has tweeted that there were "many signs the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed." He will address the nation at 11 a.m. ET.

The gunman was believed to have been armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and multiple magazines, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. It was unclear whether he had any other weapons, Israel said.

There was no indication that the gunman had an accomplice or accomplices, federal and local authorities said.

Cruz was taken into custody off campus about an hour after he "committed this horrific, detestable act," said Israel, who added investigators were reviewing social media postings that he described as "very disturbing." The suspect was treated for "labored breathing" as a precaution but was later released from the hospital, according to officials.

"You come to the conclusion this is just absolutely pure evil," said Florida Gov. Rick Scott, his hands clutched over his chest.

The FBI was alerted six months ago after a YouTube user named "Nikolas Cruz" posted a comment stating "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" on the video site, BuzzFeed reported early Thursday.

Cruz's mother died in early November and he had been staying with a local family - whose son is a junior at Douglas, the family's attorney told NBC Miami.

"He lived here without any concerns or issues for almost three months, and they are shocked and horrified by the allegations being made," the lawyer, Jim Lewis, said, adding that his clients are fully cooperating with investigators.
Related: Florida shooting leaves families distraught
The general store chain Dollar Tree confirmed that Cruz had worked at its Parkland branch.

The gunfire began outside the school and continued inside, where 12 of the victims were killed, Israel said.

All of those victims have been identified, he said, but no identities will be made public until the families have been notified.

Brandon Minoff, a senior at the school who said he had two classes with Cruz two years ago, said that while it was "surreal" to hear Cruz named as the suspect, "I wasn't surprised."

"I got paired with him for a project, and he started talking to me about his life - how he was held back twice, expelled from two private schools. He likes to do reckless stuff," Minoff said.

"He had aspirations to join the military," Minoff said. "He enjoyed hunting."

Sebastian Toala, another senior, told NBC Miami: "I never really got close to him, because I always had a feeling there was something wrong."

Parkland, in north Broward County, is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale. The shooting on the sprawling campus happened despite the presence of police officers at the school.

Runcie, the school superintendent, said at least two police cars were typically on campus "on a daily basis."

While students filed out of the school with their hands up, heavily armed SWAT team members conducted a class-by-class search to make sure there were "no other shooters" - and to retrieve any bodies, he said.

"This is a terrible day for Broward County, the state of Florida, the United States," Israel said. "There really are no words."

The first sign that something awful was happening Wednesday came around 2:30 p.m., not long before classes were supposed to have been dismissed, when authorities were called to respond to an active shooter.

For more than an hour, the school was at the mercy of a gunman on the loose.

"He was outside and inside the school," Israel said.

Just after 4 p.m., the Broward County Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that the suspect had been apprehended. Not long after, stunned survivors began sharing their accounts of what happened.

Several students told NBC News that the school had gone through a fire drill earlier in the day. They said the fire alarm sounded again just before the shots were heard.

Relieved parents like Lisette Rozenblet, whose daughter attends the school, also said she was told that a fire alarm was pulled about the time the shots began. But her daughter's teacher, sensing that it might be a trap, told the students to stay in the classroom, she said.

"Her biggest fear is a school shooting," Rozenblet said of her daughter. "She is always begging me to be home-schooled because she was scared of this."

Joel Leffler, whose son and daughter attend the school, said both of his kids were safe - but in shock.

"My son called me as it was unfolding, running. He had to jump a fence," Leffler said. "My son heard around eight gun shots as he was running out."

When he reached his daughter by phone, she was whispering, he said.

"My daughter, who was there in the freshman hall where the shooting took place - she's in shock right now, and she's being taken out by SWAT," Leffler said. "She saw multiple dead bodies."

President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that there were "many signs the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed." He was scheduled to address the nation Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.

Scott, a Republican whom the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund gave an "A+" rating, didn't directly answer reporters' questions Wednesday about how the gunman was able to obtain a semi-automatic rifle.

"There is a time to continue to have these conversations about how, through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding, to keep people safe, and we'll continue to do that," the governor said.

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'Pure evil': 17 killed in mass shooting at Florida high school

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Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

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Dave Cullen is a journalist who specializes in covering mass shootings. He personally interviews the victims and activists that were inspired from said tragedies. This shows the real human reaction from these shootings.

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Emma González called BS. David Hogg called out Adult America. The uprising had begun.

Since Columbine unleashed an epidemic, we felt powerless to stop these horrors. America remains awash in guns. Parkland changed everything. These astonishing students had learned the lessons of Newtown, and struck back lightning fast.

Parkland chronicles the birth of a movement - the first real hope to finally end the scourge of the school shooter era, which began before they were born. How they channeled their anger into a movement is a remarkable story.

This is a completely different take on the tragedy than Columbine. That book was about what drove the killers, and how the community recovered. Parkland is about neither - I refuse to even name the pathetic killer, who is now irrelevant. This book is entirely about the response - the amazing March For Our Lives kids. It's about a way out.

New York Times Bestseller

"One of the most uplifting books you will read all year."

American Library Association

New York Public Library

Editor's Pick: Best Nonfiction

"This book is about the birth of something extraordinary: the birth of a movement, but also the rebirth of hope."

My Story

Dave Cullen has been covering the blight of mass murders in America for two decades, first with Columbine , now : B irth of a Movement. Both were New York Times bestsellers. and Columbine i s the consensus definitive account of the horror that inspired two decades of killers. Parkland takes a fresh approach, focusing on the response, and refusing to name the killer. It is story of hope: the genesis of the extraordinary March for Our Lives movement. Dave was with the MFOL students from the beginning, with unparalleled access behind the scenes.

​

Columbine made two dozen Best of 2009 lists andwon several major awards, including the Edgar and Goodreads Choice Awards. It has been translated into six languages, appears on several all-time True Crime Top 10 lists, and Slate named it one of the 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the quarter century.

​

Parkland has made ten major year-end Best Lists, been nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award (Best Nonfiction of 2019), and longlisted for the ALA's Andrew Carnegie Medal For Excellence.

Dave has written for New York Times, London Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, New Republic, Newsweek, Daily Beast, Slate, Salon, The Millions, Lapham's Quarterly, etc., and has appeared on most of the major networks in the US, and across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

​

Dave is a former gay army infantry grunt. Parkland struck while he was in year 18 of a book about two gay soldiers. He will finish that soon. Dave wrote Columbine in Colorado, then moved to NYC. He is uncle to 11 cool humans and 1 adorable corgi, Bobby Sneakers.

The Mass Shooter Era

Reviews

Parkland Reviews

Starred Review

Cullen has produced masterpieces that are simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful about a saner future.
​ - Kirkus
Starred Review

The author of the groundbreaking Columbine, brings his eloquence, expertise, combination of deep research and concision, and unbiased perspective to yet another mass school shooting, revealing its deepest layers and resonance. . . .

This moving, defining, and important account
of an essential and vital youth movement dedicated to change and saving lives belongs in every public and school library.

​ - Booklist

Starred Review

In this page-turner, something hopeful has risen phoenixlike from the Valentine's Day 2018 massacre. . . . Both realistic and optimistic, this insightful and compassionate chronicle is a fitting testament to a new chapter in American responses to mass shootings.
​ - Publishers Weekly
​

10 authors to read in 2019

This winter's best nonfiction reads

​

7 Most Anticipated nonfiction of 2019

- Goodreads

​

Top 10 Politics & Pop Culture, Spring 2019

- Publishers Weekly

10 Southern books we want to read in 2019

New books to look forward to in 2019

Books We'll be talking about in 2019

​most anticipated international books

Exceptional

It's exceptional. I really look forward to it being unleashed to the world, because the Parkland students really did something. They are a political force to be reckoned with in our country.

TV

Dave has been a frequent analyst about Columbine, Parkland, school shootings, gays and soldiers on Today, NBC Nightly News, PBS Newshour, Nightline, Morning Edition, CBS This Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, CBSN, Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow, All In With Chris Hayes, Katie, Talk of the Nation, Hannity, and numerous documentaries including CNN, NatGeo, Showtime and The Nineties.

Resources

More

Stories

Inside Parkland's Secret Memes Lab ​

March 2018

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Dave Cullen, author of PARKLAND: Birth of a Movement & Columbine

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Emma González called BS. David Hogg called out Adult America. The uprising had begun. Since Columbine unleashed an epidemic, we felt powerless to stop these horrors. America remains awash in guns. Parkland changed everything. These astonishing students had learned the lessons of Newtown, and struck back lightning fast.

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https://freshfiction.com/author.php?id=21628

This author documents books on major shooting and events that happens, his most recent on the list of shootings being parkland. He had also documented Columbine, which was mentioned multiple times throughout Parkland

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Your starred reads for December are here!

Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

From one long-ago nightTo a Christmas reunion!

He must guard herbut can he guard his heart?
Kindle Unlimited

Castles are built one stone at a time

Her bachelors are charming and cunning when it comes to the ways of loveuntil the right woman captures their unsuspecting hearts

Julie Ann Walker delivers perfect pulse-pounding romantic suspense!

Dave Cullen is a journalist and author who has contributed to Slate, Salon, and the New York Times. He is considered the nation's foremost authority on the Columbine killers, and has also written extensively on Evangelical Christians, gays in the military, politics, and pop culture. A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Boulder, Cullen has won several writing awards, including a GLAAD Media Award, Society of Professional Journalism awards, and several Best of Salon citations.

Log In to see more information about Dave Cullen
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Series

Books:
Columbine, April 2009
Hardcover / e-Book

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Dave Cullen's biography, bibliography, list of books, with the current titles, summaries, covers, excerpts, author notes, and availability.

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https://allthatsinteresting.com/columbine-high-school-shooting

The Columbine massacre was mentioned multiple times throughout the story. It was a major part of the story because the author takes related events from Columbine to Parkland, and relates them both to massacres that gave many people PTSD that was mentioned in the book It also relates to the mass protests that students were now taking a stand for within the book.

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The motives for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to carry out the Columbine High School massacre had nothing to do with bullying or revenge - and the real truth is even more disturbing.

On the morning of Tuesday, April 20, 1999, Columbine High School senior Brooks Brown noted something strange. His on-again-off-again friend Eric Harris had missed morning classes. Even stranger, Harris - a straight-A student - had missed their philosophy exam.

Just before lunch period, Brown walked outside toward the designated smoking area near the school parking lot. On the way there, he encountered Harris wearing a trench coat and pulling a bulky duffel bag from his car, parked far from its designated spot.

As Brown began to confront him, Harris interrupted him: "It doesn't matter anymore. Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home."

Brown was confused, but that was nothing new in his relationship with Harris. Within the last year, Harris had done things like repeatedly vandalize the Browns' house, post death threats against him online, and brag about his experiments building pipe bombs.

Brown then shook his head and walked away from campus, weighing whether to skip next period.

When he was a block away, the noises started. At first, he thought they were fireworks. Maybe Harris was pulling a senior prank. But then, the sounds became faster. Gunfire. Unmistakable. Brown started running, knocking on doors until he found a telephone.

Within an hour, 18-year-old Harris and his 17-year-old partner Dylan Klebold - a fellow Columbine High School student and Brown's friend since first grade - were dead. In that time, they had murdered 12 students and one teacher in what was then the deadliest school shooting in American history.

In the 20 years since, an accepted explanation for the Columbine shooting has been driven into the public imagination. Harris and Klebold were said to be outcasts who were bullied and finally pushed over the edge. It's a perception that directly inspired the modern anti-bullying movement and spawned a recurring media trope appearing in films and television series like 13 Reasons Why, Degrassi, Law & Order, and others.

This myth, born from several factors, provides a comforting and simplified explanation of the Columbine shooting. But, as Brooks Brown put it in his 2002 book about the attack, there are "no easy answers."

Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold Before The Columbine Shooting

Until January of 1998, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold lived fairly normal lives.

Klebold, a Colorado native, was noted for his shyness and intellect. He and Brooks Brown both attended the Colorado CHIPS (Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students) program for gifted children starting in the third grade. Brown left within a year, citing the competitive attitude among the students and the lack of support from teachers.

Klebold, equally miserable, remained in the program until he aged out in sixth grade. He wasn't one to let others know how he was feeling, bottling up his emotions until he exploded in uncharacteristic rages.

Eric Harris, born in Wichita, Kansas, was the son of an Air Force pilot and spent much of his childhood moving from place to place. Fascinated by war stories, he regularly played soldier, pretending to be a marine with his older brother and neighborhood children in rural Michigan. In his imagination, games were full of violence, and he was always the hero.

At age 11, he discovered Doom, a pioneering action-horror first-person shooter videogame. As his father's career pulled him out of schools and away from friends - leaving Plattsburgh, New York in 1993 for Colorado - Harris increasingly retreated into the computer and the internet. By the start of his sophomore year at Columbine High School, Harris had created 11 different custom levels for Doom and its sequel Doom 2.

Harris and Klebold met in middle school but didn't become inseparable until midway through high school. While some suggest the two boys were targets of bullying, many more accounts show them as fairly popular, maintaining a sizeable group of friends.

Among others, Harris, Klebold, and Brown bonded over a shared love of philosophy and video games. Brown joined the theater department and Klebold followed, working backstage as a soundboard operator. They regularly attended football games, cheering on Harris' older brother, the starting kicker of the Columbine High School football team, the Rebels. That connection earned Harris some more popularity and he even managed to find a date for freshman homecoming.

When that girl said she did not want to continue seeing him, Harris displayed one of his early warning signs. While Brown distracted her, Harris covered himself and a nearby rock with fake blood, letting out a scream before playing dead. The girl never spoke to him again, but at the time, Harris' friends thought the fake suicide was pretty funny.

The Boys Start Running "Missions"

Bullying was fairly common at Columbine High School and teachers reportedly did little to stop it. For Halloween 1996, one routinely bullied junior named Eric Dutro had his parents buy him a black duster jacket for a Dracula costume. The costume fell through, but he decided that he liked the trench coat and the attention it got him.

Soon his friends began to wear them too, even in 80-degree heat. When one athlete commented that the group looked like a "trench coat mafia," the friends turned it into a "badge of pride" and the name stuck.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not in the Trench Coat Mafia, most of whom had graduated by 1999, but their friend Chris Morris was.

Morris had a part-time job at the local Blackjack Pizza restaurant and helped Harris get a job there the summer after sophomore year. Soon, Klebold followed suit. Harris was a relatively good employee - punctual, polite, and well put together at work - so much so that he eventually became shift manager during his senior year, using his position to win over girls with free slices. The boys and their coworkers would routinely goof around during slow hours, drinking beer and shooting bottle rockets off the roof.

It was during this time that the deadly bond between Harris and Klebold truly took shape. It was also when their behavior changed, with Harris becoming bolder and stranger while the impressionable Klebold followed suit.

One night, Brown recalled, he and another friend were up at 3 a.m. playing video games at his house. He heard a tap at the window and turned to see Harris and Klebold, dressed in black, sitting in a tree. After letting them inside, the pair explained they were running "missions" - toilet papering houses, spray painting graffiti, and setting fire to potted plants.

Sometimes these missions were in retaliation for perceived slights at school, but mostly they were for fun. As time went on, Brown noticed the missions growing crueler.

A Missed Cry For Help Before The Columbine Massacre

After Halloween 1997, Harris and Klebold bragged about shooting trick-or-treaters with a BB gun. The same year, Klebold was suspended for carving homophobic insults into a freshman boy's locker.

Meanwhile, Harris started pushing people away. Unable to drive yet, he relied on Brown for rides to and from school. Brown, an admitted slacker, was routinely late, which drove Harris crazy. Finally, after one argument that winter, Brown told Harris he would never give him a ride again.

A few days later, parked at a stop sign by Harris' bus stop, Harris shattered Brown's windshield with a block of ice. Furious, Brown told his and Harris' parents about the latter's mischief, drinking, and other bad behavior.

In that moment, the anger already building inside Eric Harris found a target.

In January, Klebold approached Brown in school, handing him a piece of paper with a web address written on it. "I think you should look at this tonight," he said, adding, "And you can't tell Eric I gave it to you."

Brown was never sure why he'd done that, but Columbine author Dave Cullen suspects it was one of several attempts to draw attention to Harris' behavior. A cry for help.

On the website, Harris" AOL profile where he wrote under the name "Reb" for "Rebel," sometimes "RebDoomer," he detailed his nocturnal exploits with "VoDka" (Klebold's screen name), describing various acts of vandalism including building pipe bombs and his desire to kill people - namely, Brooks Brown.

Brown's parents called the police. The detective they spoke to noted pipe bombs had been found in the area and thought the threats were credible enough to file a formal report. A few days later, Harris and Klebold missed school. Rumors swirled around Columbine High School that they were in serious trouble.

Relieved, the Browns felt they had taken care of the problem. What they didn't know, however, was that Harris and Klebold had been arrested for a completely different felony: breaking into a parked van and stealing electronics equipment.

Harris' father Wayne managed to get both boys into a Juvenile Diversion program. Once successfully completed, both boys were deemed rehabilitated and given clean records. Had the presiding judge seen the Browns' report, or if the resultant search warrant had been executed, Harris would have been rejected and jailed for the van theft and the police would have found his growing pipe bomb arsenal. For some reason, though, that information was not shared and the search warrant went unsigned.

By all accounts, Harris was a model program participant. Seemingly deeply repentant, he maintained straight-As and never missed a counseling session. Behind that façade, though, the embarrassment of being caught ignited a spark inside both Harris and Klebold. By spring 1998, they were already planning "Judgement Day" or "NBK," shorthand for the film Natural Born Killers.

Inside The Minds Of Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold

The journals of both Harris and Klebold provide insight into both their planning of "Judgement Day" and their psychological makeup at that time. In early 1998, Harris stopped posting online and began keeping a notebook he titled "The Book of God," mostly dedicated to his homicidal fantasies and nihilistic "philosophy." Klebold had actually been keeping his own diary, "Existences: A Virtual Book," since the previous spring. The differences between the two are striking.

Klebold writes in florid, morose prose and poetry about God, self-medicating with alcohol, cutting himself, and his persistent thoughts of suicide. Far more often than violence, he talks about love, both abstractly and personally. The journal contains two notes to a girl he was fixated on, neither of which were ever delivered, and many, many drawings of hearts.

Overall, Klebold felt that he had ruined his life and that no one understood him. Other people were "zombies," he thought, but they were also the lucky ones. As he wrote in a note on the journal's first page, "Fact: People are so unaware... well, Ignorance is bliss I guess... that would explain my depression."

Harris' journal is more single-minded. To him, people were "robots" conned into following a false social order - the same one that dared to judge him. "I have something only me and V [Klebold] have, SELF AWARENESS," he wrote a year before the attack.

Other people didn't think for themselves and would never survive a "Doom Test," Harris thought. A Final Solution, like that of the Nazis, was what would save the world: "Natural Selection" - the same message printed on his shirt during the shooting.

Often, Harris' cruelty was unfocused and not tied to any particular slight. It was compulsive. In addition to hating human beings, loving Nazis, and wanting to "Kill Mankind," in an entry from November of 1998, he describes his fantasies, stating, "I want to grab some weak little freshman and just tear them apart like a fucking wolf. show them who is god."

In a presentation to a conference of psychologists years after the shooting, Dwayne Fusilier of the FBI presented his belief that, based on his homicidal fantasies, skill at lying, and lack of remorse, "Eric Harris was a budding young psychopath." In response, one of the participants raised an objection, "I think he was a full-blown psychopath." A number of other psychologists agreed.

Preparing For "Judgement Day" At Columbine High School

For a year before the Columbine shooting, Harris dedicated himself to building dozens of explosives: pipe bombs and "crickets" made from CO2 canisters. He looked into making napalm, and at one point tried to recruit Chris Morris into what he had planned for these explosives - playing it off as a joke when the other refused.

Harris also took notes about student movements and the number of exits in the school. Meanwhile, he researched the Brady Bill and various loopholes in gun laws, before finally, on November 22, 1998, joining Klebold in convincing an 18-year-old mutual friend (and later Klebold's prom date) to buy two shotguns and a high carbine rifle for them at a gun show. Later, Klebold bought a semi-automatic pistol from another friend behind the pizza shop.

Although Harris claimed after their first gun purchase that they had crossed "the point of no return," he had not counted on a few complications. Just before New Year, the local gun shop called his house saying the high capacity magazines he'd ordered for his rifle had arrived. The problem was that his father picked up the phone, and Harris had to claim it was a wrong number.

The most persistent obstacle, however, was Klebold's mental state. Many times before the attack, Klebold wrote about plans to kill himself, including stealing one of Harris' pipe bombs and strapping it to his neck. Several other journal entries are signed "Goodbye" as if he expected them to be his last ones.

What changed between August 10, 1998 - his last suicide threat - and the attack on April 20, 1999, is unknown. At some point, Klebold committed to the NBK plan, although perhaps he only thought about it as an elaborately theatrical suicide.

One of his last entries reads: "Im stuck in humanity. maybe going 'NBK' (gawd) w. eric is the way to break free. i hate this." The penultimate formal page in Klebold's journal, written five days before the attack, ends with: "Time to die, time to be free, time to love." Nearly all the remaining pages are filled with drawings of his intended outfit and weapons.

The pair worked their final shift at Blackjack Pizza on Friday, April 16. Harris secured advances for them both to purchase last-minute supplies. Klebold attended prom with a group of 12 friends on Saturday, while Harris went on a first and last date with a girl he recently met.

That Monday, the original date for the attack, Harris postponed the plan so he could buy more bullets from a friend. He had apparently forgotten that he had just turned 18 and no longer needed a middle man.

The Columbine Shooting Doesn't Go According To Plan

The next morning, April 20, both boys got up and left their houses by 5:30 a.m. to begin final preparations.

In some ways, the killers' writings help decrypt the Columbine shooting not because of what they reveal about their emotions, but the details of what they had really wanted to do. From the outside, the massacre at Columbine High School looks like a school shooting. With their notes, though, it's clear it was a badly bungled bombing.

The duffel bag Eric Harris was carrying when he talked to Brooks Brown contained one of several propane tank time bombs. Two were placed in the cafeteria to bring down the ceiling and allow Harris and Klebold to shoot students as they fled.

Brown had also noted his friend's car was parked far from its usual place. That was because both Harris and Klebold's cars were rigged to explode as police, ambulances, and journalists arrived, killing many in the process.

A final bomb was placed in a park three miles from school, set to go off before the others. This, they hoped, would draw away police, buying time before the authorities arrived and killed them. Suicide by cop was Harris and Klebold's intended finale.

As anyone familiar with the Columbine shooting knows, none of that happened.

Because these bombs were so much bigger than the others, Harris and Klebold could not hide them at home. Instead, they were hastily constructed on the morning of the attack. Smart as both boys were, they had no idea how to wire detonators and failed to figure it out in the limited time allotted for their construction. Thankfully, not one of these bombs went off.

With this central failure in mind, the rest of the killers' actions take on new significance. Apparently, Klebold got cold feet when the cafeteria did not explode. They were supposed to stand many yards from each other for an optimal firing range, but when the shooting started, the two were standing together at Klebold's assigned position. From this, it can be inferred that Harris had to convince Klebold to go through with the attack at the last minute. Even after that, Harris did most of the shooting.

Survivors and police expressed confusion about why the shooting abruptly stopped. About half an hour into the attack, Harris and Klebold were in the school library with nearly 50 people at their mercy. Then, they left, allowing the majority to escape. The next time they shot people it was to kill themselves.

The turning point seems to be when, after killing one student in the library, Harris' shotgun recoiled into his face, breaking his nose. Security cameras show they then went to the cafeteria, trying and failing to set off the propane tanks with pipe bombs and shotgun blasts.

They then tried provoking police by firing through the windows, but the officers neither hit them nor entered the building. Finally, Klebold and Harris returned to the library to watch their car bombs fizzle, before picking a spot with a view of the Rocky Mountains and shooting themselves in the head.

The True Motives Behind The Columbine High School Massacre

Compared with Harris and Klebold's ambitions, the Columbine High School attack was a complete failure.

Originally planned for April 19 - the anniversary of the Waco Siege and the Oklahoma City Bombing - the attack, Harris hoped, would beat Timothy's McVeigh's body count in Oklahoma. He fantasized about planting bombs around Littleton and Denver, and in one journal entry wrote that if he and Klebold survived "Judgement Day," they should hijack an airplane and crash it into New York City.

Eric Harris did not see himself as a good kid pushed to violence. He wanted to be a domestic terrorist. In an apparent answer to his parents' concerns about his future, he wrote: "THIS is what I want to do with my life!"

Almost exactly a year before the Columbine shooting, Harris came the closest to explaining why he would shoot up a school. He was not attacking specific people or even Columbine High School itself. He was attacking what school represented to him: the point of indoctrination into the society he despised, suppressing individuality and "human nature."

"[School is] societies way of turning all the young people into good little robots and factory workers," he wrote on April 21, 1998, continuing, "I will sooner die than betray my own thoughts. but before I leave this worthless place, I will kill who ever I deam [sic] unfit for anything at all. especially life"

So, why don't more people know this?
https://youtu.be/QMgEI8zxLCc
The Columbine shooting was among the first national tragedies in the era of cell phones and the 24-hour news cycle. Reporters were at the school interviewing traumatized teenagers as the events unfolded. Some students, unable to get through to overloaded emergency services, began calling news stations that then broadcast their understandably unreliable eyewitness testimony across the world.

Klebold and Harris were two of 2,000 students at Columbine High School. Most interviewees did not know them, but that did not stop them from answering questions. From a few jumbled pieces, the flawed popular image began to form: Klebold was in the theater department, so he was gay and mocked for it. Both boys wore trench coats during the attack, so they were in the Trench Coat Mafia.

The police were another problem. The Jefferson County sheriff had only been in office since January and he simply did not know how to handle the situation. Instead of sending it SWAT teams, police held their perimeter until after Harris and Klebold had killed themselves.

One victim, Dave Sanders, was allowed to bleed out due to the slow police response, and multiple bodies were left where they were - two outside and uncovered overnight - for fear of "booby traps." Some parents were not even told their children were killed. They learned about it in the newspaper.

Worse still was the dirty secret that Brooks Brown and his family shared almost immediately: The police had been warned about Eric Harris. An affidavit for a search warrant had been written. Not only could the Columbine shooting have been prevented, it should have been.

As a result, resources were shifted from an investigation to a cover-up. On TV, the sheriff labeled Brooks Brown an accomplice to silence him. Victims' families fought and failed in Colorado courts to get documents released. The police file on Eric Harris went mysteriously missing. The full facts of what happened and what caused the Columbine High School massacre were not released until 2006, long after the public had moved on.

By then, the popular beliefs about what had happened on April 20, 1999 were seared into the collective consciousness. Today, most people still think Columbine could have been stopped if only someone had been a little nicer to Eric Harris - a humanizing story that covers over a truth too terrible to think about.
After this look at the Columbine High School shooting, discover the widely misunderstood story of two of the massacre's victims: Cassie Bernall and Valeen Schnurr. Then, learn about Brenda Ann Spencer, who shot up a school because she didn't like Mondays.

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The Real Story Of The Columbine Massacre The Media Didn't Cover And The Police Don't Want You To Know

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On the morning of Tuesday, April 20, 1999, Columbine High School senior Brooks Brown noted something strange. His on-again-off-again friend Eric Harris had missed morning classes. Even stranger, Harris - a straight-A student - had missed their philosophy exam. Just before lunch period, Brown walked outside toward the designated smoking area near the school parking lot.

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In 2018, president Trump appointed another Supreme Court Justice, Brent Kavanaugh. This furthered the political tension in America as Trump secured a conservative majority in the highest ruling court in the country.

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2018 Events - Pop Culture, U.S. Politics & World | HISTORY

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Milestones in the #MeToo movement, the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings and an unusual royal wedding…

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During 2018 there were many shooting breakouts across the country. Parkland had sparked a lot of shootings, a major one being the 2018 Cincinnati shooting. 3 people were killed yet it was told that they could have killed almost 100 people, the shooter had posed as a mall Santa during the time. This Relates to Parkland, because it showed just how many shootings were happening during this time, and how it could have influenced the Parkland shooter to commit this act.

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Fifth Third shooting: Key questions linger a year later

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Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said it will take a couple more months to complete an investigation but added it will not hold all the answers.

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Throughout the duration of 2018, There were over 300 mass shootings, and Americans became more likely to die from gun violence than any other leading causes of death. The Stoneman Douglass shooting had caused a rift across the country, sparking outrage on gun violence. On March 24th in Washington, D.C. a student-led protest called, ¨March For Our Lives¨ took place in support of gun control. It was one of the largest protests in American history.

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Most of us have probably spent the first 2 weeks of 2019 thinking about our goals or resolutions for the year ahead. How will we get that promotion at work? How will we tackle our fitness goals? While we start our deep dive into these questions, it's important to think about how we got here in the first place.

Although 2018 is over, it produced so many events that have shaped our country and ourselves. Before we start tackling our ambitious resolutions, let's take a look back at 10 events that changed us in 2018 so we can better prepare for the year ahead.

Action against gun control

There were over 300 mass shootings in 2018, and Americans are more likely to die from gun violence than many leading causes of death combined. After the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, people had enough. On March 24 th in Washington, D.C. the student-led March For Our Lives demonstration took place in support of tighter gun control. It was one of the largest protests in American history. No matter your stance on The Second Amendment, we can all agree that these deaths need to stop. Thanks to protests such as this, the conversations surrounding gun control are beginning to expand and hopefully change.

The Golden State killer apprehended after 32 years

I'll Be Gone In the Dark by Michelle McNamara sparked a frenzy of interest into a case that went cold in the late 80s. A crime writer, McNamara lead an exhaustive investigation into the serial killer's identity, which in turn reignited an urgency to solve the case. Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in April, and victims finally had their time to heal.

Wildfires in California

The end of the year wrecked havoc in California in more ways than one. On top of the tragic Thousand Oaks mass shooting, multiple wildfires burned in both northern and southern California, causing the most damage on record and displacing tens of thousands of people. It's been a test of resilience and compassion, and one that we shouldn't forget.

Royal Wedding

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was not to be missed! It was widely reported as being significant for its departure from tradition typically associated with the Royal Family and for its inclusion of African-American culture in the service. Reports described the wedding as a landmark for African Americans, for Black British, black and mixed-race women, and for the Royal Family itself.

Winter Olympics

One of the more exciting and fun events this year was the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There were many firsts to celebrate as a nation. U.S. Olympian Chloe Kim became the youngest woman to win a medal for halfpipe in snowboarding where she won gold, and Miari Nagasu became the first U.S. woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics. But the Winter Games weren't just about competitive milestones, it also celebrated human rights. Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy competed as the only openly gay Olympians on Team USA. Although not a big number, it's the kind of step towards change that we desperately need.

2018 midterm elections breaks history

More women are running for congress and winning, and nothing proved this more than the 2018 midterm elections. The U.S. House of Representatives elected a record number of women, and individual candidates also achieved historic firsts. To name a few, Democrats Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim women elected to Congress, Democrats Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids became the first Native American women elected to Congress, Republican Kristi Noem became the first female governor of South Dakota, and Republican Krysten Sinema became the first openly bisexual senator and first female senator from Arizona.

Child immigrants being separated from parents

Perhaps one of the more unsettling events of 2018 was the separation and detainment of immigrant children from their parents. It's hard to forget the images of the children in distress after the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. Headlines were dominated by the event and caused massive outrage across the world. Although the government has been urged to move faster to reunite families, we as a country, have a lot more to do, and hopefully 2019 brings about more necessary change.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings

All eyes were glued to the hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in September, as Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. It was gripping, and sparked outrage and SNL skits. Regardless of the outcome, Blasey Ford's courage in coming forward will only propel movements like #MeToo and be the catalysts we need for change.

#MeToo goes global

Speaking of #MeToo, 2018 was the year the movement went global. Millions around the world shared their stories and advocated for change. In fact, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Congolese physician Denis Mukwege and Yazidi assault survivor Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

Saudi Arabia lets women drive

Another significant moment in women's rights came when Saudi Arabia lifted it's ban on allowing women to drive. After years of campaigning and protesting, women were finally allowed to take the wheel. Although the Kingdom is prosecuting those that protested, it's a big win for women.

Most of us have probably spent the first 2 weeks of 2019 thinking about our goals or resolutions for the year ahead. How will we get that promotion at work? How will we tackle our fitness goals? While we start our deep dive into these questions, it's important to think about how we got here in the first place.

Although 2018 is over, it produced so many events that have shaped our country and ourselves. Before we start tackling our ambitious resolutions, let's take a look back at 10 events that changed us in 2018 so we can better prepare for the year ahead.

Action against gun control

There were over 300 mass shootings in 2018, and Americans are more likely to die from gun violence than many leading causes of death combined. After the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, people had enough. On March 24 th in Washington, D.C. the student-led March For Our Lives demonstration took place in support of tighter gun control. It was one of the largest protests in American history. No matter your stance on The Second Amendment, we can all agree that these deaths need to stop. Thanks to protests such as this, the conversations surrounding gun control are beginning to expand and hopefully change.

I'll Be Gone In the Dark by Michelle McNamara sparked a frenzy of interest into a case that went cold in the late 80s. A crime writer, McNamara lead an exhaustive investigation into the serial killer's identity, which in turn reignited an urgency to solve the case. Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in April, and victims finally had their time to heal.

Wildfires in California

The end of the year wrecked havoc in California in more ways than one. On top of the tragic Thousand Oaks mass shooting, multiple wildfires burned in both northern and southern California, causing the most damage on record and displacing tens of thousands of people. It's been a test of resilience and compassion, and one that we shouldn't forget.

Royal Wedding

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was not to be missed! It was widely reported as being significant for its departure from tradition typically associated with the Royal Family and for its inclusion of African-American culture in the service. Reports described the wedding as a landmark for African Americans, for Black British, black and mixed-race women, and for the Royal Family itself.

Winter Olympics

One of the more exciting and fun events this year was the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There were many firsts to celebrate as a nation. U.S. Olympian Chloe Kim became the youngest woman to win a medal for halfpipe in snowboarding where she won gold, and Miari Nagasu became the first U.S. woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics. But the Winter Games weren't just about competitive milestones, it also celebrated human rights. Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy competed as the only openly gay Olympians on Team USA. Although not a big number, it's the kind of step towards change that we desperately need.

More women are running for congress and winning, and nothing proved this more than the 2018 midterm elections. The U.S. House of Representatives elected a record number of women, and individual candidates also achieved historic firsts. To name a few, Democrats Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim women elected to Congress, Democrats Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids became the first Native American women elected to Congress, Republican Kristi Noem became the first female governor of South Dakota, and Republican Krysten Sinema became the first openly bisexual senator and first female senator from Arizona.

Perhaps one of the more unsettling events of 2018 was the separation and detainment of immigrant children from their parents. It's hard to forget the images of the children in distress after the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. Headlines were dominated by the event and caused massive outrage across the world. Although the government has been urged to move faster to reunite families, we as a country, have a lot more to do, and hopefully 2019 brings about more necessary change.

All eyes were glued to the hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in September, as Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. It was gripping, and sparked outrage and SNL skits. Regardless of the outcome, Blasey Ford's courage in coming forward will only propel movements like #MeToo and be the catalysts we need for change.

#MeToo goes global

Speaking of #MeToo, 2018 was the year the movement went global. Millions around the world shared their stories and advocated for change. In fact, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Congolese physician Denis Mukwege and Yazidi assault survivor Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

Saudi Arabia lets women drive

Another significant moment in women's rights came when Saudi Arabia lifted it's ban on allowing women to drive. After years of campaigning and protesting, women were finally allowed to take the wheel. Although the Kingdom is prosecuting those that protested, it's a big win for women.

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Most of us have probably spent the first 2 weeks of 2019 thinking about our goals or resolutions for the year ahead. How will we get that promotion at work? How will we tackle our fitness goals? While we start our deep dive into these questions, it's important to think about how we got here in the first place.

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New York Times bestseller author, David Cullen spent 10 years writing and researching Columbine. He was driven by two questions: ¨why did they kill, and what became of the survivors?¨

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Dave Cullen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Columbine, a haunting portrait of two killers and their victims. He has written for New York Times, Newsweek, Times of London, Washington Post, Slate, Salon, Daily Beast and Guardian.

Cullen spent ten years writing and researching Columbine. He was driven by two questions: why did they kill, and what became of the survivors? The surprise was that most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about the jocks, goths or the Trenchcoat Mafia. The killers didn't even see themselves as school shooters: their primary focus was the bombs.

Columbine won the Edgar Award, Barnes & Noble's Discover Award, the Goodreads Choice Award, and several others. It spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and made two dozen Best of 2009 lists, including the New York Times, LA Times and Publishers Weekly. Columbine was declared Top Education Book of 2009 by the American School Board Journal.

Cullen devoted himself passionately into journalism in high school and college, then became an infantry soldier, management consultant, computer systems analyst and undergraduate instructor in scattered cities across the U.S., England, Kuwait and Bahrain. He traveled to 26 countries, with a penchant for north Africa and south Asia. At 33, he devoted himself to writing full-time. He began with the University of Colorado-Boulder's writing program, where he won the Jovanovich Award for best master's thesis. He later won a GLAAD Media Award, an SPJ Award and is an Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

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Dave Cullen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Columbine, a haunting portrait of two killers and their victims. He has written for New York Times, Newsweek, Times of London, Washington Post, Slate, Salon, Daily Beast and Guardian.

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In early December of this year, a threat was made on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of a shooting three years earlier. He sent a message to a few people that when he gives a signal, they need to go to the bathroom. These people told authorities who arrested the potential shooter before school the day he was planning.

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A South Florida teenager is accused of making a school shooting threat against Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

PARKLAND, Fla. -- A South Florida teenager has been arrested after investigators learned he made a threat against Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of a mass shooting that killed 17 people on Valentine's Day in 2018.

A caller reported seeing the threat late Wednesday night, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. Officials said the 17-year-old high school junior had sent a text message to his classmates in a social media chat room just after 9 p.m. Wednesday. The threat came one day after a student allegedly killed four classmates in Michigan.

"I feel like school shooting tmrw (tomorrow). When I sneeze it's a signal go to the bathroom OK. I hope y'all aren't snitches," the text message said, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Investigators found the student at his home, and he was arrested early Thursday on one count of writing a threat to conduct a mass shooting, sheriff's officials said.

The school's principal, Michelle Kefford, notified parents about the threat Thursday morning through a robocall. Stoneman Douglas has been at the center of national debate and activism over gun violence in schools since a former student killed 17 people and wounded another 17 in 2018.

The mother of the teen told WSVN that he didn't mean it, that to him it was a joke. She said that they had lived in another country where schools are safe at the time of the massacre in Parkland. "He's a normal kid from a normal family and a safe environment. He doesn't realize the world is not so safe," she said.

"In my country, schools are very safe. Our mindset is very peaceful. He just wanted to show up among his friends," she said. "It's not an excuse for his behavior. It's just an explanation for his behavior. All threats must be investigated. I understand that."

Tony Montalto, president of Stand With Parkland, the group that represents the families whose relatives died in the 2018 shooting, said the threat "further proves the need for timely investigation and notification to parents regarding threats to schools."

"In the wake of the Michigan shootings this week and this incident..., I urge our elected leaders at all levels of government to commit to a renewed focus on the safety of students and staff," Montalto said.

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Parkland, Florida student arrested in school shooting threat

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A South Florida teenager is accused of making a school shooting threat against Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School PARKLAND, Fla. -- A South Florida teenager has been arrested after investigators learned he made a threat against Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of a mass shooting that killed 17 people on Valentine's Day in 2018.

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A connection to another issue that I can make is how easy it is to access a firearm in the United States. There should be stricter constrictions when it comes to weapons that can cost someones life. One can expand their knowledge by reading about the MFOL goal and what you can do to help.