A Community Failure

News accounts have offered ever more startling clues about the carnage that had been planned for Columbine High School. Some of those might turn out to be embellished or untrue. But standing above these reports is one question: What is more shocking--the mountain of confirmed warning signs that killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold left or the fact that every adult who knew of those clues either ignored or rationalized them or could not make themselves heard?

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” has been misappropriated and misinterpreted, but in its true meaning it is merely an affirmation of the fact that no child is raised in isolation from the larger community. In Littleton, Colo., that would mean there was a failure when neighbors and schoolmates knew something wasn’t right--might celebrating bowling strikes with “Heil Hitler!” have raised a flag?--but looked the other way. School administrators had never even heard of the gang that Klebold and Harris joined. And what about the juvenile court officer who was so clueless about the duo after their earlier brush with the law that he showered them with praise?

But most important, start at home. Start with what was found on open display when the homes of the boys were searched: hate literature; a diary with copious writing on how to carry out the plot at the school; bomb parts and the sawed-off barrel of a shotgun. Throw in a threatening, violence-laced Web site and an addiction to violent video games and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Many questions have been raised about tightening gun controls, and certainly we support laws that would ban weapons whose only purpose is to kill many people quickly. But the murders of 13 victims at Columbine High and the deaths of Klebold and Harris raise thornier questions about parenting and values.

Certainly it’s easy to see now with 20/20 hindsight: What went on in at least two seemingly placid homes in Littleton reflects a sickness of mind and spirit amid ostensible material comfort. Add to that a fatal inability to understand what was really happening. Recriminations matter far less than taking the lessons of Littleton to heart. It’s past time for America’s parents to look into the mirror and then look deeply into the eyes of our children.