Posted on 10/10/2009 4:18:47 PM PDT by real saxophonist
Dylan Klebold's mom speaks in "O" magazine
"No inkling" of plans for Columbine massacre
By The Denver Post
Posted: 10/10/2009
Susan Klebold wrote an essay in the November issue of O magazine. (Denver Post file photo )An essay by the mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold says she had "no inkling" of her son's inner turmoil, and her examination of his journals has prompted her to learn about suicide in an effort to understand the school shooting.
The essay by Susan Klebold, which appears in the November issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, explores her son's role in the 1999 massacre where he and co-conspirator Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher and left two dozen wounded before killing themselves.
Neither family has spoken at length in the aftermath of what at the time marked the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history. Pending litigation contributed to the silence for several years, but even with the lawsuits resolved, repeated requests for interviews have been turned down.
In a news release, Oprah Winfrey also noted that Susan Klebold had declined interview requests but then, several months ago, agreed to write about her personal experience. The magazine released a few advance excerpts.
"From the writings Dylan left behind, criminal psychologists have concluded that he was depressed and suicidal," Susan Klebold wrote in one passage. "When I first saw copied pages of these writings, they broke my heart. I'd had no inkling of the battle Dylan was waging in his mind."
She added: "Dylan's participation in the massacre was impossible for me to accept until I began to connect it to his own death. Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there. And so in order to understand what he might have been thinking, I started to learn all I could about suicide."
Susan Klebold received no payment for the essay, said a magazine spokesperson, but hoped to "raise suicide awareness and to generate support for organizations such as The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology."
A spokesperson for the Klebolds' attorney, Gary Lozow, would not field questions and said that the Klebold family would have no further comment.
The magazine hits newsstands on Tuesday.
In another passage, Susan Klebold recounted the early morning before the violence began:
"Early on April 20, I was getting dressed for work when I heard Dylan bound down the stairs and open the front door. Wondering why he was in such a hurry when he could have slept another 20 minutes, I poked my head out of the bedroom. 'Dyl?' All he said was 'Bye.' The front door slammed, and his car sped down the driveway. His voice had sounded sharp. I figured he was mad because he'd had to get up early to give someone a lift to class. I had no idea that I had just heard his voice for the last time."
Another excerpt describes her struggle to come to grips with the tragedy.
"For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused," she wrote. "I cannot look at a child in a grocery store or on the street without thinking about how my son's schoolmates spent the last moments of their lives. Dylan changed everything I believed about myself, about God, about family, and about love."
Really? Absentee parents or empty house, I could agree with you, but working moms, really? My four kids who are never- ever in a lonely house, and never without a parent or grandparent would probably not agree with that.
I think you are right. Also, do other FReepers out there think that teenagers should be kept on a short leash? From what I have gathered, Harris and Klebold did as they pleased. It’s like the Charlie Brown cartoons where the adults are a strange voice in the background. I don’t know the Klebold mother, but if I had to guess she paid her son very little attention and really did know nothing about what he was up to because she chose not to know.
Here’s an article about Klebold and Harris that another FReeper had posted a year or two back that was interesting:
The Depressive and the Psychopath
http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/
“Cops have no duty to protect any adult or child. “
If that’s the case, these people shouldn’t be cops. I can give a hundred examples of cops, sheriffs, deputies and peace officers protecting adults and children. If some cop can’t live up to that standard, he should’nt be a cop or sheriff.
Only a simpering cop would whimper that he has no duty to protect adults and children.
She’s basically still thinking that in some way, he was a victim.
A LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE MINDSET AND A WASHING OF A GOOD BRAIN WITH PROPAGANDA. “killers are victims too”
My hair and how I looked for the world would be the last thing I would be thinking about.
I don’t think growthful is a word.
A few weeks ago I was just about to fall asleep when I heard a “gun shot”...one shot. ...then quiet. I live in a nice area, in a small condo building with a few other buildings...a VERY quiet neighborhood.
I called my neighbor and said, “did you hear that?” She said, yes ..also thought it was a gunshot. It was dark, I saw nothing so I got on the phone and called 911. The police were there in minutes and I went downstairs when the dispatcher said they were just talking to someone and it was NOT a gunshot.
I was pretty shook up as I thought at first, it was a suicide. The police were talking to the teenage boy that lives in another building...there are very few kids here.
It turns out he had tried an “experiment “ he saw on TV You tube and the bottle blew up and popped.
The point of this story is...here comes his mom.She tells the police that “He saw something on Youtube and wanted to try it.He didn’t mean to wake anyone up”..then to the kid, “ Now say you’re sorry.” Kid mumbled “sorry”. ..
I said looking straight at the kid, “Are you sure you don’t have a gun?” ....and then off they trotted.
I tell this story cause if that had been me as a teenager:
1. I would not be wandering around at 11pm on a school night “experimenting”
2. My parents would have been furious and ashamed. ..no doubt my dad would have grabbed me and yanked me around and yelled at me.
The times have changed....”Now, say you are sorry...and tell them you didn’t mean anything.”
My parents were very strict and to this day I am grateful for their love.
. I wanted and enjoyed my two...
.. and their daily existence and emotional well being were important to my husband and I.
We were 24/7 with them....
...and God was central to our child rearing....social activities....etc.
Now they are grown.... and we continue to maintain good contact with them, love and respect.
There is no legal obligation to be every single individual's personal bodyguard. If you don't think your life is worth protecting then why should government mercenaries care about it.
My parents were strict but loud noises around the house were just asking for an ass beating. As far as todays measure goes you would hardly believe it’s crossbow season! :^)
I think the point is ....how could anyone be so detached to keep a hair appointment when their child is dead and their child is the reason other parent’s children are dead.
Mine were super strict also....they LOVED us.....they CARED......they were CONCERNED about us. I thank them and I thank God FOR them.
There was one wounded faculty member, in particular, who almost certainly bled out because of that delay in confronting the two scum.
As I’ve read the replies, I’ve though to myself that I haven’t read the whole article so I cannot really judge all of Mrs. Klebold’s thoughts and comments on her son’s actions at Columbine. I don’t know all that she had to say. Unless I buy a copy of Oprah’s magazine, which I never do, I do not feel that I am in a position to judge.
But when I go to sleep tonight I will thank God for my two beautiful children and the very close relationship that I have with them. I’m blessed to be a stay at home mother. And I’m thankful that I have that opportunity.
Yeah, I guess the Virginia Tech massacre never happened...
The psychiatrists can't help speculating what might have happened if Columbine had never happened. Klebold, they agree, would never have pulled off Columbine without Harris. He might have gotten caught for some petty crime, gotten help in the process, and conceivably could have gone on to live a normal life.
Their view of Harris is more reassuring, in a certain way. Harris was not a wayward boy who could have been rescued. Harris, they believe, was irretrievable. He was a brilliant killer without a conscience, searching for the most diabolical scheme imaginable. If he had lived to adulthood and developed his murderous skills for many more years, there is no telling what he could have done. His death at Columbine may have stopped him from doing something even worse.
It’s sad how so many people blame the parents, especially Mom, in cases like this. None of us know the situation and none of us is/was a perfect parent.
Please think twice before you say that again. It is the most patronizing, superior thing you can say and it is also blasphemy because I don’t believe you mean it in the true sense.
If you really had the intent, you would not put it on this site to proclaim your superiority.
Where I grew up(suburban Sacramento), gunshots were a nightly occurrence, as was the sound of hovering police helicopters.
I wouldn’t have thought twice about a single gunshot.
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