Remembering Columbine 16 Years Later

I was a little girl at the time, but I still remember this tragedy.

It seemed like the school shooting that started them all. Or at least, it was the first one in my memory. The killing of 12 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, was so shocking that everyone was gripped by the news. It remained the deadliest school shooting in our country until Virginia Tech in 2007.

Columbine High School was closed yesterday on the anniversary, just like it has been for every April 20 since 1999. “Out of respect and remembrance for the 13 loved ones who were lost in 1999, as well as the countless individuals impacted by this terrible incident, we will continue to honor the tradition of not holding classes on April 20 for the foreseeable future,” principal K.C. Somers wrote in a letter to students and staff earlier this month.

Some gathered at the high school in the morning for a moment of silence and reading of the names of the people who were killed that day. Hundreds from the community visited the moving memorial in a nearby park. They prayed, remembered, and left flowers.

Let’s take a minute to pray for the families that will never have their loved ones back after that day, and that we wouldn’t see any more tragedies like this in our schools.

Let’s also remember the inspiration of teenagers like Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott whose stories were told later, and live with courage like they did.

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Photo Credit: RLEVANS via Flickr