In the wake of the fatal shootings at Columbine High School, Boulder Valley School District officials have investigated tips that area schools have similarly dangerous "Trench Coat Mafia" members.

The complaints were serious enough to prompt the investigation, and officials are planning some conversations with particular students and a review of a variety of Web sites, Deputy Superintendent Mack Clark said.

"We had no more than three or four of those calls, but we have taken each one exceedingly seriously," Clark said. "There are probably issues we want to talk to some kids about. Sometimes children make a statement and won't understand the consequences of the severity of the statement."

District officials need only look at the Jefferson County School District to see the gap between administrators' and students' knowledge of tensions between certain student groups — namely the so-called Trench Coat Mafia and the jocks.

The two student killers, members of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia, a group of computer savvy students with Nazi leanings and an obsession with violence and death, seemed to single out jocks and made racial references before turning the weapons on themselves.

According to reports, students were well aware of fights between the student groups leading up to the shooting, which claimed 15 lives. And one Columbine parent claimed to have called the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department one year ago about threats leveled by suspect Eric Harris on his Web page.

"As a principal, this is my worst nightmare," Burbank Middle School Principal Isobel Stevenson told parents this week. "The kids knew this was going on. The administrators were not aware as they could have been."

Excerpts from Harris' Web page were printed in Friday's Denver Rocky Mountain News.

"My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law, if you don't like it, you die. If I don't like you or I don't like what you want me to do, you die ... Feel no remorse, no sense of shame ... I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will after I mow down a whole ... area full of you ... I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out."

While Boulder Valley administrators say they are not scouring troubled students' private Web sites, they are reviewing all the school sites and related links to see if there is any inappropriate or violent material that should be removed.

"We're making sure kids and staff aren't looking at inappropriate things on our time," said Mike Thomson, director of legislative and community affairs.

Thomson also reviewed America Online member profiles to see if there were any connections between the Trench Coat Mafia and Boulder Valley students. He found none. Meanwhile, he said, if people are aware of threats posted by a student on the Internet, it should be brought to the attention of authorities.

Principals have also been urged to keep tabs on students who exhibit signs that could lead to violence. Those signs include: social withdrawal, feelings of isolation or rejection, poor academic performance, expression of violence in writings and drawings, uncontrolled anger, bullying, history of discipline problems, access to firearms, prejudicial attitudes and drug and alcohol use.

Students who have experienced recent trauma are also being watched. The district will also make sure there are open channels of communication between students and staff.

St. Vrain Valley schools also are going "through a state of heightened awareness," spokeswoman Nancy Herbert said.

"Overall, there's general awareness than ever before," Herbert said.

The district hasn't started reviewing student Web pages or Internet sites. As for monitoring former troublemakers, Herbert said, "We've done that on a regular basis anyway."

At the same time, the districts urge community members not to judge students too harshly.

"Let's not jump to conclusions because of the apparel kids wear," Clark said. "Just because a child wears black with a trench coat does not make this individual affiliated with those particular kids."

Staff Writer Margie McAllister contributed to this report.

April 24, 1999