Should Columbine be torn down?

Recently, the Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools in Colorado suggested that Columbine High School be torn down due to the continuing morbid fascination with the school’s infamous history.

Now, before we get into the heart of this story please allow me to just say that I am not part of the Columbine community. I haven’t even been to Colorado in my life. I’m just some loudmouth on the internet who was sort of dragged into writing about Columbine after a case of mistaken internet identity twenty years ago.

Anyway, Superintendent Jason Glass has suggested tearing down the school and rebuilding it nearby. His plan calls for replacing the current location of the school with fields and controlled entry points. However, the name, colors and the mascot of the school would remain the same. This proposal even has the support of former Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis. As you may know. Mr. DeAngelis was the principal at the time of the Columbine shootings and only retired a few years ago. He’s also been the target of harassment by Columbiners, other school shooters, and would be shooters.

I’m actually torn on this issue because my heart says that leaving the school standing shows that Columbine will not be defined by the shooting and let the columbiners be damned. On the other hand, I recognize the issue of the need for tighter security that a new building would provide since legislators refuse to take any real measures to prevent threats of violence against our schools. So in essence, I could support either measure.

The only problem I have with the new proposal is that I don’t think it will stop the fascination that the troglodytes of the world have with Columbine. As I’ve mentioned in the past, and as the Sol Pais incident has shown us, many of the Columbiners see making a trip to Littleton as a pilgrimage like it’s some kind of Mecca of murder. Changing the location of the school won’t change that, in my opinion. Even if the name and colors were to be changed the cretins would still refer to the new school as Columbine.

Tearing down schools where shootings have happened is not something new. The Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania was torn down after the attack there. More prominently, Sandy Hook Elementary School was also torn down after the tragedy there. However, neither of these schools had the lasting impact on the wrong people like Columbine has. The shooters at Nickel Mines and Sandy Hook are portrayed as violent lunatics while the Columbine crowd looks at those shooters as outcast heroes by believing the mistruths and rumors about Columbine that have long been disproven.

Ultimately, I’ll support whatever the real Columbine community decides. Sadly though, I don’t think either option will fix the morbid fascination problem.