Positive feelings emerge from shooting tragedy

Many say the Columbine killings have changed perspectives

By Pam Regensberg
Camera Staff Writer

LITTLETON — Moments after teenage gunmen mowed down their Columbine High School classmates and a popular teacher, students and residents throughout the state began looking beyond the evil to find a glimmer of hope.

Many agree that optimism is rare these days, but they say they have begun to see a positive change emerge from this tragedy, which took 15 lives and affected countless others.

The barriers that once divided student groups and the city appear to be falling, many say. Trivial things have been replaced by what really matters: family, friends and community.

"Even people you hated in school, you were happy to see them alive," said 14-year-old Laura Green, a Columbine High School freshman who, along with classmates, barricaded herself in the school's choir room during Tuesday's killing spree. "It already has changed me, totally, for the good."

Bethany Urban, 14, who was in the science lab at Columbine, said the mass murder has helped her put life in perspective.

"We're a lot closer, me and my family," Urban said, adding that it has been especially touching to see the outpouring of support and encouragement from strangers.

Crude shrines on the northeast corner of Clement Park, adjacent to the high school, show a city, state, nation and world pulling together.

Well-wishers from as far away as Australia paid tribute to the dead and injured with cards, flowers and blue ribbons.

On Saturday, a steady stream of sympathizers solemnly walked past the now soggy and muddied memorials. Some wept. Others embraced their loved ones. All were quiet.

"There's a rule in my house: hugs and kisses every morning," said Noah Renova, a 36-year-old Brighton father of two girls. "Now, it's twice a day and at night."

Renova said the suffering in Littleton moved his family so much that he has vowed to cherish every waking moment he has with his daughters, 12-year-old Brandy Ash and 6-month-old Adrianna.

"There's more 'I love you,' " Renova said while cradling his infant daughter.

A 17-year-old self-described "stoner," Josh Nielsen of Columbine said the slayings ended a long-standing rivalry between his friends and the jocks.

"It had been a big jock-stoner brawl," Nielsen said, wearing a tattered black-leather jacket.

The battling, however, ended with the deaths of their classmates and teacher, William "Dave" Sanders.

At a Thursday night vigil, anathlete "just came up to me at the church and said 'We're cool,' " Nielsen said. "It had hit me really hard. I just broke down.

"Everybody is sorry for the differences they had."

Such improved feelings toward others were not universal, however. A caller to a Denver radio station last week after the massacre said he saw three Subway restaurant patrons harassing a young man who was wearing a black trench coat, similar to the garments worn by the killers.

On the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins, the school violence in the Denver suburb left some college students longing for family.

"For the first time I'm calling my parents trying to get a hold of them," said CSU junior Brett Nolan, 20, who attended Pomona High School in Arvada. "I've called everyday."

Nolan said the calling home isn't going to stop anytime soon.

Kathy Malley, 50, of Littleton didn't know about the rampage at Columbine until friends and family members from six different states called to make sure her teen-age son was OK.

Though Malley's 14-year-old son, Skyler, did not attend Columbine High, she is still reluctant to let him out of her sight. But she admits that she is comforted by the cohesive relationships that have grown out of the massacre.

"It's encouraging to see how the community has come together," the stay-at-home mother said.