The Lesson of Columbine

Crowded onto the bleachers at Aliso Niguel High School’s auditorium Tuesday, 800 teenagers listened intently to Evan’s story.

The stocky football player and wrestler told them of lying on the floor of the Columbine High School library, bloodied from shots to his back and neck during a murderous rampage a little over a year ago in Littleton, Colo.

One of the two gunmen approached, aimed a gun at his head and asked, “Why do you think you deserve to live?”

“I said, ‘I’ve never done anything to you guys.’ And that’s the only reason I’m here today, because I was nice to everybody,” said Evan.

He and three fellow juniors gave only their first names, they explained, because a few of them have received threatening letters since beginning to speak about their experience at schools across the nation. Tuesday was their first stop on a four-day tour of Orange County schools.

All four called for tolerance of others, noting that gunmen Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris suffered teasing from popular athletes at the high school before they killed 12 students and one teacher, and then took their own lives.

“These kids were teased a lot. . . . They were teased by jocks,” said Elisha, after describing her encounter with one of the gunmen in the hallway outside the library. A bullet flew past her shoulder, just missing her, and struck a friend, she said.

“The one thing we need to do is accept each other for what we are,” Elisha added.

“Those jocks paved the way for these kids to build up this hate,” Evan said. “Watch what you say to other people.” Your words can lead to violence in the future, he said.

Wearing identical white Columbine T-shirts, Evan, Elisha, Richard and Courtney took turns addressing the hushed crowd, first recounting what they saw, heard and felt that day before suggesting how similar tragedies might be prevented. All four stressed the duty of parents and teachers to be aware of what teenagers are up to.

“They were making bombs in their basement. Supposedly, their parents didn’t know,” said Courtney. “Do they not go in their own basement?”

Courtney said she was seated in biology class about to take a test when the shooting began. Another teacher ran into the room and told students to get under their desks.

Most of the students stuffed themselves into an adjacent greenhouse room, lying atop one another in the cramped space for several hours before a SWAT team arrived.

Richard was lifting weights in the gym and didn’t know about the carnage. He filed out of the gym in response to what he thought was a fire drill.

The Aliso Niguel students sat transfixed through the hourlong assembly, then gave the speakers hearty applause and cheers.

“I just think it’s really important that we hear . . . the message of kindness,” said Landon Derentz, an Aliso Niguel senior. “Columbine looks like a nice campus in pictures, and this is a nice campus, too. It just shows that it could happen here. We need to support what [the speakers] are about.”

The four Columbine students also will visit Edison High, Whittier Christian, Laguna Beach High, Fullerton High, Costa Mesa High and Valencia High this week.