Columbine: Understanding Why

In this entry from A&E's Investigative Reports series, host Bill Kurtis's revisiting of the Columbine High School tragedy benefits from the passage of time in correcting some misconceptions that permeated earlier reports. Viewers learn that the two teenage killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold, were not actually members of a group called the “Trenchcoat Mafia,” although such a group did exist at the school. In addition, the program points out that despite the assurances of surviving faculty and students, there was a perception among some at Columbine that “jocks” and their associates ran the school's social hierarchy and that they routinely picked on, if not outright harassed, other students. Of course, as Kurtis makes clear, Harris and Kleibold were special cases, a volatile mix of alienation, ingenuity and weapons savvy uniquely situated to act out some fairly common adolescent revenge fantasies. Perhaps the question isn't whether violence in the media (like the similar classroom assault in the movie The Basketball Diaries) fomented this incident, but whether pop cultural portrayals of violent teenage angst don't crystallize said adolescent revenge fantasies. While 50 minutes is not long enough to thoroughly investigate the Columbine tragedy (and some questions regarding motives will no doubt be forever unanswerable), this is still a more meaningful tape on the subject than most of the early programs rushed onto video shortly after the incident. Sure to be of interest to high school administrators and guidance counselors, this is also recommended for general collections. Aud: J, H, C, P. (M. Tribby)