Columbine Research Paperr!! SO SCARYYYYYYY

Columbine High School

       Before my research on the Columbine High School shooting I thought the word "columbine" was a general term for school shootings, not one specific shooting. I became drawn to this topic because I have a weird obsession to psychological killings and creepy stuff like that. When I first typed my topic in my iPhone, Google directed me to "Columbine High School". When I clicked on the high school web page I was taken aback when I saw a caption reading "Through these halls walk the finest kids in America. The students of Columbine High School." I just think this caption is kind of ironic because two terrible kids also walked these halls and they impacted America in a tragic way. The picture of the hallway also made me realize that Columbine High School  is just a typical school like mine. What makes this school different than mine? Not much other than the obvious private versus public, size, and location. However this school suffered a tragic historical event because of two mentally ill, cold-blooded students.  The shooting was a shock to everyone all over America and was the first school shooting to leave an impact on high schools today.

Littleton, CO

       Columbine High School is located in Littleton, Colorado, a small town near Denver. I found out the location by doing some hardcore creeping on the official Columbine High School website.  From reading an article in USA today I found out that the school was shaken on April 20, 1999 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, armed gunman, went on a massive rampage throughout the school. Harris and Klebold planned this massacre over a year and built over 100 bombs to rid the plan of any faults. However, on April 20th none of the bombs they brought to the school went off. If the bombs would have detonated the entire school would have been blown to pieces. However, the boys succeeded in murdering twelve classmates, a teacher, and wounding 16 others before taking their own lives.

student evacuating library

From watching A&E's documentary on Columbine I was able to understand Harris and Klebold's plan of destruction. The two boys started out by bringing bombs in duffle bags to the cafeteria and when the bombs failed they opened fire at approximately 11:19 AM. In this documentary footage of school security cameras show students rushing out of the cafeteria and hiding under desks in order to survive. The cameras show complete chaos and it was really scary watching this because you can hear the gunshots. Apparently from Wikipedia one of the teachers thought kids were just messing around with a prank until she opened a door and was shot at and injured by broken glass. A total of 52 students and several teachers took cover in the library until around 11:25 when the two killers walked in the library. In the show a survivor of the massacre talked about how he was hiding underneath desks and he could hear the two shooters taunting kids and having a good time. In the documentary, in a 911 call made by a teacher, you can hear the two boys screaming and according to Wikipedia they were saying things like "Get up! Everyone with white hats get up! This is for all the shit you've given us for the past four years!"  The two killers went around the library shooting victims underneath desks and terrorizing Columbine school. Kids were trying to evacuate from the windows without Klebold and Harris noticing. The creepiest thing about watching the surveillance cameras was that the boys were so calm about the entire massacre. Klebold was even filmed taking a drink. At around 12, Klebold and Harris walked back into the library and simultaneously committed suicide. 

Harris and Klebold on top

   Eric Harris was the mastermind behind the entire plan. Psychologists believe he was a psychopath out for blood. Harris fed his parents and authorities everything they wanted to hear and felt he was superior to everyone. Harris wrote once that he wishes he was God so that everyone would be "officially lower than me" Harris' journals were filled with absolute hatred and evil. He put on a facade, and made good grades but then in his journals he wrote about his terrible plans to kill all.   From reading another one of his journal entries, Harris seems like he hates so many people that he doesn't care if he dies because he just wants all those people to suffer like he has. "I will sooner die than betray my own thoughts, but before I leave this worthless place, I will kill whoever I deem unfit.." I found this short quote from one of his entries along with several other diary entries on a Columbine memorial site. This quote also illustrates that Harris was not out to kill a certain type of people like Jocks, or Christians, but more of he wanted to kill anyone in his path on April 20th. Plus, this quote can show his psychopathic thoughts of thinking everyone was below him. He had a lot of built-up anger towards his classmates and others because he wasn't socially accepted.

Harris' signature in yearbook

On the other hand Dylan Klebold felt hated by everyone  so he followed Harris's plans. In the documentary I watched their was a home video of Klebold driving his BMW with a friend and jamming out to music. To everyone else he and Harris seemed like ordinary teenagers. In Klebold's journal it's less hateful and more of a sad depressing memoir of his own misery. He wrote poems and drew weird hearts throughout his journal. One of his entries even gushed about how he found "true love".  And from doing some hard core researching I was able to find actual documents from the case such as files and evidence, like some of their essays and signatures in yearbooks. It's interesting because one of Harris' essays was about Nazism, while one of Klebold's essays was on his anticipation of his senior year. The contrast between the two different topics can say alot about the differences between the Eric and Dylan. Also, in one yearbook Harris wrote things in german like "kein mitleid" which means no pity, and "ich bin gott" meaning I am God. Which is absolutely beyond creepy and scary plus what he wrote in english consisted of "hey don't follow your dreams goals or any shit like that follow your f**cking animal instincts if it moves kill it, if it doesn't burn it." Why would someone write that in another person's yearbook?! Klebold's signature was hard to read and it seems like he wrote a rap, but it was nothing too alarming. 

Columbine Memorial

When I first typed in "Impact of Columbine Massacre" I was taken to so many different sources. Clearly, the impact of this tragic massacre was spread worldwide and vastly changed security in schools. An article by a writer at University of Cincinnati, said that after Columbine an Ohio bill was passed to help reinforce student and faculty safety. This bill 422 states that once a year in any type of high school (public or private) a principal must instruct a lock-down drill. This lock down drill enforces students and faculty to hide safely in the school building rather than evacuate the premises. The event also influenced schools to install security cameras, enforce faculty badges, locked doors, and PA systems to be installed. The effect that the massacre left on the school and city was monstrous. Littleton was shocked at what two of their own natives could do to the town. I found it interesting when I was on the Columbine High website that the school has a teacher in-service day on the 20th. There is also a memorial in Littleton to honor the victims who died.
From all of this intense research I have become completely terrified. I went into this thinking it would be incredibly sad but interesting in a weird way. No, I am terrified!!! I hope this never happens at any school I attend. And I'm sorry if the pictures didn't work I was to scared of them to save them to my computer.

Dorothea Lange's picture

I picked this picture because I think it captures the struggles and hardships from the Great Depression as a whole. It pictures a lady living in an irrigation ditch and appears to be trying to clean or cook something. There are no walls just straw and the background looks incredibly run-down. I think the goal of the photograph is to illustrate how women struggled while men were away and the severity of poverty that struck people all over. I think this image shows what an average poor family had to live like, and what the women were supposed to do to help during the depression.

American Music in WWI

Sheet Music

    As Mrs. Lawson came to my desk for me to pick my topic out of a makeshift "hat", a feeling of anxiety swept through me because picking a lame or complicated topic results in an unbelievable amount of stress. Once I reached my hand into that bowl I first chose one slip of paper and it just did not feel right, so I dropped it back in without reading the mysterious words. Then I picked once more and rest assured it was the right choice. The topic I randomly chose was American Music in the WWI time period. Phew, no boring topics like Military strategies or something I'm completely uninterested in. Personally, I love music so I was excited about learning about how music was in the past. So I held onto my topic and began to think about research.
     Once I began researching I clearly saw the effect that the war had on music during the time period of 1914-1918. I believe that the war played a major role in sparking the growth of music.  I found that the war helped spread the new era of Jazz. The war also changed how people used music, music became a means of escape during the hard times of war. Also, music granted the ability to help people relate to the lyrics and cope with the war; like the infamous song written at this time "Over There".

Hellfighters during WWI

James Reese

    The Jazz era began during WWI and spread fast because black soldiers took it to Europe. When America sent troops to France in WWI, one of the infantries started a Jazz band. The band was called the Hellfighters and consisted of musically-gifted black Americans. It took me more in depth research to realize that the band itself was called the Hellfighters, but the troop that started the band was the 369th infantry. Anyway, the leader of the Hellfighters, Lieutenant James Reese, was also deeply involved into Jazz back home. The Hellfighters introduced Europe to Jazz and the fox-trot. Lieutenant Reese believed that music and dances would, in his words "bring together all classes of men who stand for something in the community." Eventually, the Hellfighters became extremely popular overseas, and everyone wanted to hear the new Jazz music. Previously before researching I did not know much on jazz music besides Scott Joplin from Sanders Clayton's research last semester.  I have struggled finding this information because Jazz music itself is such a broad topic. However, once I found this book on American Music, I narrowed my topic down to the Hellfighters. Besides the fact that this book was huge and overwhelming, it had everything I needed to know about the Jazz age in America. A lot of the book included information past the time frame that I needed, but I still was able to get good research from using this source.

Cheesy title for sheet music
in WWI

    WWI stimulated the need and want for music. During this hard time, people used music to escape from the fear and tragic stories that haunted every American in the early 20th century. Popular songs consisted of lyrics written to help people feel like they are not alone. Most of them related to the war in some kind of manner. I found that most of these songs had extremely cheesy, long titles like "I Tried to Raise My Boy To Be a Hero",   "Don't Take My Darling Boy Away" and "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soliders". Some of these songs also urged Americans back home to unite, and aid and pray for the soldiers overseas.  The website that I used to find this information was interesting because it had some mp3s of these songs, and descriptions of what was going on in history when these songs were being recorded. I was also wondering if these songs can be purchased on iTunes.

"Over There" Sheet Music

When I first typed in American Music in WWI "Over There" the first thing to pop up. The song was written by George M. Cohan during WWI. It became one of the most popular songs in America. As my source for this paragraph of research I read the original lyrics of the song. My depiction of what this song means is an average boy "Johnnie" who enlists in the war to fight for the liberty of America. Johnnie makes his parents proud by fighting and becoming a man.  Then the chorus talks about American troops being sent to take on the war in Europe. I think this song sums up a lot of people's lives during this time, which is why it became such a hit. People wanted cheerful songs that would reassure families that their loved one would be safe. This song has popped up in many different shows and movies, including  famous movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy" by Turner Classic Films in 1942. It was hard for me to find where else "Over There" has appeared in. But on the illegal Wikipedia there is a short list of shows and movies with the song. Today "Over there" is an anthem to remember the lost soldiers and WWI itself.
  At first I had a rocky start with understanding all of this information, but quickly got everything together and was able to produce this masterpiece blog. I think the hardest part was finding a AVL source. Personally, those do not help me much at all because they are so complicated. Other than that, I feel like this research was successful and I have gained a lot of new information from this project!!

World War 1 Archives review

I looked at a letter Robert Graves wrote to Siegfried Sassoon. Graves was commenting on the casualties and his rumored death. I thought this was interesting because I didn't realize people back home never knew if their loved one was truly dead or it was just a rumor. Graves talks about how after the Battle of Sommes a rumor was started about his death because he was in such poor condition. It's hard to read his handwriting completely because it is so fine but it is very interesting to be able to access this source.

Finished Post Cards

Today I had to print out the pictures and Write the postcards. I already had all of the dates and what happened at each stop: Hampton Roads, San Francisco, Trinidad, Rio, Melbourne, and Manila Bay. I used actual post cards as a resource to know what people were thinking about the fleet. The pictures were also found on that website. The ideas that Roosevelt had were conjoined from several different sources; I posted about the other one in my last blog. This project was pretty easy, and I enjoyed researching.

Research for Fleet proj

So far I have researched the dates and such of the fleet. On December 16, 1907 the fleet to circumnavigate the world began.  The Americans decided to fulfill the fleet to demonstrate the "Big Stick Diplomacy" The Big Stick Diplomacy involves Theodore Roosevelt's idea of "speak softly and carry a big stick."Roosevelt wanted to take control of nations through naval power so that America could become a stronger nation. The name of the Great White Fleet came from all the ships painted white. Was the GWF painted white to help bananas?

Reviews of 5 paragraphs/research paper/essay

I reviewed Noelle, Sanders, and Grace's research posts and they all turned out to be really good! I learned a lot about Coney Island, Ragtime music and advertisements. I think we all did really well on this project, and all learned a good amount of information from this time. Now, it's time for me to go study for the test thursday...