Topic-Specific Resources, Groups C & D - Guns in Society Project (Spring 2019) - Schoeplein - LibGuides at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Project Group C: Mass Shootings – Columbine Case Study

Research Questions

What happened on the day of the mass shooting? Create a timeline.
Who did the shooting (not just their name, but what’s their story)?
If known, what motivated the shooter(s)?
How did the shooter(s) families respond to the shooting?
What was the school’s emergency response the day of the shooting? What did they do well? What were they criticized for not doing well?
What was the school’s response in the days after the shooting? How did they care for the student body and “move forward?”
What are some of the long-lasting effects of this particular shooting (both on the community and nationally)? Of all the school shootings, why is this one significant? If it was a “turning point” explain how with evidence.

Helpful links:

UIUC Lib Guide about school shootings
Columbine Shooting from History.com
Fast Facts from CNN
Stories about/related to Columbine from NPR

Columbine by Dave Cullen
ISBN: 9780446546935
Publication Date: 2009-04-06
EXPANDED WITH A NEW EPILOGUE "The tragedies keep coming. As we reel from the latest horror . . ." So begins a new epilogue, illustrating how Columbine became the template for nearly two decades of "spectacle murders." It is a false script, seized upon by a generation of new killers. In the wake of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech, the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year. What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about jocks, Goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book-widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings-several reproduced in a new appendix. Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers. They contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors.
The Martyrs of Columbine by Justin Watson
ISBN: 0312239572
Publication Date: 2003-05-02
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve fellow students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Two of the victims of the Columbine massacre, Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott, reportedly were asked by the gunmen if they believed in God. Both supposedly answered 'Yes' and were killed. Within days of their death, Cassie and Rachel were being hailed as modern-day martyrs and are seen by many American evangelicals as the sparks of a religious revival among teenagers. Cassie and Rachel, as innocents martyred for faith, also became useful symbols for those seeking to advance a conservative political agenda and to lay the blame for Columbine at the feet of their liberal opponents. According to police investigators, however, Cassie and Rachel may never have been asked by their killers about God. They may have been simply victims of a senseless crime rather than martyrs to a cause. The Martyrs of Columbine provides a careful examination of the available evidence and attempts to discover what really occurred. Despite these questions the martyr-stories continued to be told and the religious and political use of Cassie and Rachel continues. The popular significance of the martyrs of Columbine persists, and may even be growing. How and why is this happening? The Martyrs of Columbine is a groundbreaking investigation of what this tragedy has come and will come to mean in American religion, politics, and culture.
A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold
ISBN: 9781101902752
Publication Date: 2016-02-15
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives. For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently? These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother's Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts. Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother's Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent. All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues.

Project Group D: Mass Shootings - Parkland Case Study

Research Questions

What happened on the day of the mass shooting? Create a timeline.
Who did the shooting (not just their name, but what’s their story)?
If known, what motivated the shooter(s)?
How did the shooter(s) families respond to the shooting?
What was the school’s emergency response the day of the shooting? What did they do well? What were they criticized for not doing well?
What was the school’s response in the days after the shooting? How did they care for the student body and “move forward?”
What are some of the long-lasting effects of this particular shooting (both on the community and nationally)? Of all the school shootings, why is this one significant? If it was a “turning point” explain how with evidence.
Parkland only: What are some of the successes of the March for Our Lives movement? What have been some of the criticisms?

Helpful links:

UIUC Lib Guide about school shootings
March for Our Lives: A student-led demonstration in support of tighter gun control that took place on March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C., with over 800 sibling events throughout the United Statesand around the world. Student organizers from Never Again MSD planned the march in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety. The event followed the February 14, 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which was described by many media outlets as a possible tipping point for gun control legislation.
Resources for Talking and Teaching About the School Shooting in Florida from the New York Times
Fast Facts from CNN

Parkland Speaks by Stoneman Douglas Stoneman Douglas Students; Sarah Lerner (Editor)
ISBN: 9781984849991
Publication Date: 2019-01-22
This raw, reflective diary features poetry, drawings, photos, interviews, and speeches from the rally, walkout, and March for Our Lives event organized by the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The intimate collection will inspire readers to reflect on their own lives and the importance of celebrating the people they love every day. A section on activism and resources for mental health will be featured in the back of the book.
#NeverAgain by David Hogg; Lauren Hogg
ISBN: 9781984801838
Publication Date: 2018-06-19
On February 14, 2018, seventeen-year-old David Hogg and his fourteen-year-old sister, Lauren, went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, like any normal Wednesday. That day, of course, the world changed. By the next morning, with seventeen classmates and faculty dead, they had joined the leadership of a movement to save their own lives, and the lives of all other young people in America. It's a leadership position they did not seek, and did not want--but events gave them no choice. The morning after the massacre, David Hogg told CNN- "We're children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Get over your politics and get something done." This book is a manifesto for the movement begun that day, one that has already changed America--with voices of a new generation that are speaking truth to power, and are determined to succeed where their elders have failed. With moral force and clarity, a new generation has made it clear that problems previously deemed unsolvable due to powerful lobbies and political cowardice will be theirs to solve. Born just after Columbine and raised amid seemingly endless war and routine active shooter drills, this generation now says, Enough. This book is their statement of purpose, and the story of their lives. It is the essential guide to the #NeverAgain movement.
We Say #NeverAgain by Melissa Falkowski (Editor); Eric Garner (Editor); Parkland Student Journalists
ISBN: 9781984849960
Publication Date: 2018-10-02
A journalistic look at the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the fight for gun control--as told by the student reporters for the school's newspaper and TV station. This timely and media-driven approach to the Parkland shooting, as reported by teens in the journalism and broadcasting programs and in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas newspaper, is an inside look at that tragic day and the events that followed that only they could tell. It showcases how the teens have become media savvy and the skills they have learned and honed--harnessing social media, speaking to the press, and writing effective op-eds. Students will also share specific insight into what it has been like being approached by the press and how that has informed the way they interview their own subjects. "One thing is clear: The Parkland students are smart, media savvy, and here to fight for common sense gun laws." --Hello Giggles

Guns in Society Project (Spring 2019) - Schoeplein: Topic-Specific Resources, Groups C & D

What you'll find on this page

Project Group C: Mass Shootings – Columbine Case Study

Project Group D: Mass Shootings - Parkland Case Study