by Jeff Kass
The note, signed by Dylan, is in block letters with misspellings and crossed-out words. He gives the girl his locker number and the combo, and draws two hearts, one with DK inside. The name or initials in the other heart are blocked out, per the sheriff’s department. It is unknown if he ever passed on the note, and if so, the girl’s reaction.
∞
About one month after the van break-in, Dylan scratched something into another student’s locker. Peter Horvath, the dean, doesn’t know why Dylan chose the locker, and doesn’t recall the student’s name, only that the student felt threatened when he saw Dylan scratching with a paper clip. Because Dylan didn’t finish, the design he was scratching was unclear, Horvath says.
Dylan was detained and Horvath was with him for about forty minutes while they waited for Tom Klebold to arrive and deal with the incident. “Dylan became very agitated,” according to a summary of Horvath’s interview with police. Horvath tried to calm him down, and Dylan cussed at him, although it wasn’t personal. Dylan was “very upset with the school system and the way CHS handled people, to include the people that picked on him and others,” according to the police interview. Horvath thought Dylan was a “pretty angry kid” who also had anger issues with his dad and was upset with “stuff at home,” the police report continued.
Yet in an interview with me, Horvath doesn’t recall Dylan being upset with his father, but at “being suspended for what he felt was a pretty minor incident.” Dylan, Horvath adds, “understands the politics of how, like, a school system works. He was smart around that. And he was angry at the system; not angry at me, but angry at the system; that the system would be established that it would allow for what he did to be a suspendable offense, if that makes any sense to you. He was mad at the world because he was being suspended, but he was mad at the system because the system that was designed was allowing him to be suspended.”
Horvath continued: “Talking to Dylan was like talking to a very intellectual person. He wasn’t a stupid kid. He’s not a thug kid that’s getting suspended. He’s a smart, intelligent kid. I just remember the conversation being at a level; that would, you know, you’d sit there and you’d think, ‘Wow, this is a pretty high-level conversation for a kid like this.’ You could just tell his feelings around, I’m going to use the word politics again but again, he was too intelligent sometimes I felt for his age. You know, he knew too much about certain things and he spoke too eloquently about knowing the law and why he was being suspended and knowing, just, you know, speaking about how society is this way towards people.”
Tom Klebold, whom Horvath thought of as an “Einstein,” eventually arrived. With his glasses and salt and pepper hair, he was proper, eloquent, and astute. He also had serious problems with this second suspension and asked Dylan to leave the room—an unusual move in Horvath’s experience. “He [Tom] felt as though it was too severe for what had happened,” Horvath said of the standard, three-day suspension for essentially a vandalism charge.
“Can’t we do anything else? Can’t he [Dylan] just do, you know, twenty-five hours of community service, thirty hours of community service?” Tom Klebold asked.
Nope. Horvath didn’t budge.
∞
The next month, on March 17, 1998, Brooks Brown says Dylan walked up to him at school and gave him a piece of paper with Eric’s website address. “Don’t tell Eric I told you,” Dylan said, “but look it up tonight.” Brooks did. Some stuff from the 1997 riffs was still there. But Eric had also done some updating; he had found a ground zero for his beloved bombs: “Mother fucker blew BIG. Pazzie was a complete success and it blew dee fuck outa a little creek bed. Flipping thing was heart-pounding gut-wrenching brain-twiching ground-moving insanely cool! His brothers havent found a target yet though.”
Eric also expanded on his thoughts regarding Brooks:
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. If I do something incorrect, oh fucking well, you die. Dead people cant do many things, like argue, whine, bitch, complain, narc, rat out, criticize, or even fucking talk. So that’s the only way to solve arguments with all you fuckheads out there, I just kill! God I cant wait till I can kill you people. Ill just go to some downtown area in some big ass city and blow up and shoot everything I can. Feel no remorse, no shame. Ich sage FICKT DU! I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will after I mow down a whole fucking area full of you snotty ass rich mother fucking high strung godlike attitude having worthless pieces of shit whores. i don’t care if I live or die in the shootout, all I want to do is kill and injure as many of you pricks as I can, especially a few people. Like brooks brown.
“I sat there staring at the screen for a moment,” Brooks wrote in his book. “It was unexpected, to say the least.”
Brooks told his parents. Randy suggested telling the Harrises or maybe faxing the pages to them anonymously. Judy Brown wasn’t impressed with how the Harrises handled the windshield incident. They settled on the police.
The Browns called the Jefferson County Sheriff on March 18, and Deputy Mark Miller was dispatched to their home. Randy talked about the other run-ins with Eric, and said the family feared for Brooks’ safety. Brooks says he did not mention Dylan but the Browns gave police his name anyway because he was such close friends with Eric, and Eric’s website mentioned Dylan taking part in the “Rebel Missions.”
Deputy Miller examined the web pages but said he didn’t know much about computers and that other officers were more expert. Miller submitted a report to the records department and recommended that copies be forwarded to the investigations division, and the Columbine High School resource officer—Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Gardner. A notation on the bottom of Miller’s report reads: “Copies to: Dep. Gardner Columbine S.R.O.”
The report, however, would harm the Jefferson County Sheriff more than Eric and Dylan.
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Eric and Dylan still faced charges of theft, criminal mischief, and first degree criminal trespass in the van break-in, but were working out a deal with the district attorney to plead guilty and enter a diversion program. For one year they would participate in activities ranging from community service to anger management classes. The district attorney would then dismiss all charges upon successful completion.
The district attorney also ran the diversion program, but no one, including Eric and Dylan, ever seems to have heard about the Browns’ March 18 report. And on March 19, diversion counselor Andrea Sanchez filled out the one-page intake forms for Eric and Dylan to determine their eligibility for the program.
Eric and Dylan would not only be accepted into the program but also allowed to leave early for a job well done. Yet diversion hardly stopped them. If anything, it inflamed them.
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Sanchez indicated on the boilerplate intake forms that Eric and Dylan had not been physically or sexually abused, and did not have problems at school with discipline, truancy, or “success.” Their suspension for hacking into the school computer for locker combinations was noted, but the two teens were not in a gang and did not carry weapons. They did not have girlfriends and said they had never been sexually active, but were educated on sexually transmitted diseases and birth control. Neither said they had experienced a significant loss.
Dylan said Eric was his only friend with a criminal history. Eric said Dylan was, “Best friend past and current,” and his only friend with a criminal history. They both took responsibility for breaking into the van and neither had any prior police contact.
Written notes on Eric say, “Quick temper—punch objects.” Eric himself checked off the litany of problems he was having after the break-in, including homicidal thoughts.
The families had no criminal histories. Both sets of parents said they knew the names, ages, addresses, and phone
numbers of Eric and Dylan’s friends. Eric and Dylan said they checked in with their parents every three hours.
The intake forms also include an eight-page “parent information” section. For Dylan, there is no clear indication which parent filled out the form, but the handwriting appears feminine. One or both of the parents, with staccato answers, indicated the following: Dylan often stayed around the house and “stays in his room constantly.” He was typically disciplined for “disrespect, failure to do what’s been asked.” Punishments included grounding, loss of privileges, additional chores, and being yelled at. Family feuds were characterized by “loud but controlled discussion.” Conflicts ended when “people communicate, spend time together.” Although it would not be mandated for Dylan, the parental attitude toward mental health treatment was “I support it but need more info.”
“Significant loss” for the Klebolds was Tom Klebold’s recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Over the last ten years, the family had had “episodic financial difficulties.” On a strangely upbeat note, the parents were glad Dylan was caught and thought diversion would help. “Grateful!” they wrote when asked about the program.
Assuming Susan filled out the questionnaire, she had a notable way of addressing some of Dylan’s behavior, often crossing out phrases or words that seemed to make him more culpable. Of Dylan’s suspension at school, she explained: “He and two friends gained access to school’s computer figured out how to find old locker combination.”
She then crossed out “gained access” and wrote: He and two friends who had access to school’s computer figured out how to find old locker combination.
She said Dylan “opened a locker or two” to see if the combinations were “current,” as if he was only trying to help the school. Dylan himself explained the situation as, “Hacking and possessing important documents.”
Susan also noted another suspension Dylan had for scratching a school locker, and when it came to Dylan’s ticket for running a red light, Susan first wrote that he slowed down then kept going “when he thought no one was around.” She then wrote that he had actually come to a full stop before going through the light. Dylan himself said it was “running a red light when no one was around.”
Susan said the van “allegedly had a parking ticket on it which made the boys think it was abandoned.” She did not quite finish writing the word “parking,” then crossed it out altogether. Eric and Dylan never mentioned any ticket. Nor did any police report.
The Klebolds indicated they had not seen any sudden behavior changes in Dylan and were surprised when he admitted to occasional use of marijuana and alcohol. “Was not aware of it at all until [counselor] Andrea Sanchez asked the question a few moments ago,” the parent, or parents, wrote.
The parental attitude towards alcohol and drugs was oddly written in the third person. “Vehemently opposed to drug use. Dylan’s father is more tolerant to limited/reasonable alcohol use than Dylan’s mother is.” The family had no history of alcohol or drug addiction (although that does not appear to be completely true given Byron’s case). Tom and Sue indicated they were proud of Dylan’s accomplishments. One list filled out by Sanchez reviewed “family problems” and included a section labeled: “Psychiatric history.” Sanchez marked that in the affirmative, and circled “father, mother, sibs.”
Contradicting the normalcy Dylan’s parents channeled to police and the public after Columbine, they told the diversion program he had issues related to anger, authority figures, jobs, and loneliness. “Dylan is introverted and has grown up isolated from those who are different in age, culture, or other factors,” Susan explained. “He is often angry or sullen, and behaviors seem disrespectful to others. He seems intolerant of those in authority and intolerant of others.” She then crossed out the phrase, “He seems intolerant of those in authority.”
Still, Susan had pegged Dylan’s core problems. And outlined the profile of many school shooters.
Dylan also answered questions for intake. When he fought with his parents or brother they would yell at each other. It would end “when we are aware of each others’ arguments & understand them.” His punishment included being grounded and not being able to use the computer.
Dylan’s attitude toward diversion was, “I’m hoping I can get the best I can out of it & am optimistic about it.” He did not think he needed mental health treatment but wrote, “I will do it if diversion deems it necessary or desirable.”
Dylan characterized his classroom behavior as “good,” and Sanchez concluded, in stark contrast to what his own parents had reported, “Dylan gets along well with teachers and administrators, and has many friends.”
Regular classes did not challenge Dylan, Sanchez noted. He mostly took honors courses, but struggled with them. Dylan said he made a “good” effort at schoolwork, but acknowledged he could try harder.
His past jobs included a courtesy clerk at Albertson’s supermarket, which he left because he didn’t want to join the union. He had worked there twenty hours a week earning $5.45 an hour. He also worked at Blackjack Pizza about ten hours a week for $5.15 an hour as a cook. He left, he said, to find a better job. The longest he had ever held a job was three months.
Dylan indicated he had problems with finances and jobs. “Kind of difficult to find a technician job when I am only sixteen years,” he added, apparently referring to computers. Dylan said his spare time was spent on “computers & networks, shooting pool, movies, electronics, reading, going to start working on a car soon.” He had three friends; two were sixteen, one seventeen. Dylan said he had broken the law “quite a few times,” and also indicated he had been in trouble with the law—maybe a reference to the van break-in itself.
He said he felt in control of his life and got along equally well with men and women. Gangs were “pointless,” and he had no interest in them.
Dylan said he never drank or used drugs with a family member, despite the drinking he claims to have done with his brother. Dylan summarized his drinking habits as a couple times by himself but indicated his past and present drinking was “light.” He had not had a drink for about two months; the last time was when he had had some vodka at his house. He said he was “careful” with booze. According to Dylan, a few of his friends occasionally drank, and he himself had passed out one to three times from “drugs” (maybe he meant alcohol). He concluded that booze was okay in moderation.
In different places, Dylan indicated that “maybe yes” he wanted to stop drinking, but also that he had stopped drinking because it “wasn’t worth it.” He also said he didn’t like the taste or effect of alcohol. When asked how his parents felt about drugs and alcohol, he simply drew a question mark.
Dylan said he had not used marijuana for several months and characterized his past use as “light.” “It is a waste of everything,” he wrote of the drug, “definitely not worth it.”
Dylan said harder drugs were “devastating.” He had never been offered or used them. Likewise, his friends did not use them.
When asked if the family had any history of drug or alcohol addiction, Dylan wrote, “None that I know of.” Yet the file goes on to note his brother’s drug struggles.
As for Dylan’s relationship with his parents, Sanchez wrote, “Dylan had a difficult time communicating with them, but he is getting better.” Dylan said he got along with his parents “better than most kids.” Dylan was comfortable bringing friends over to his house. When he had problems, which generally meant his grades, he turned to his parents. Dylan felt Tom and Sue were loving, dependable, and trustworthy. Both were equally supportive because they “encourage me to succeed.”
“Dylan was cooperative and open during his intake,” Sanchez wrote. He felt diversion was the appropriate solution, and the tasks he would have to pursue were fair. But Sanchez concluded, “It is my belief that even though Dylan knows what he did was wrong, he still lessens the seriousness of his offense.”<
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∞
Eric, his parents, and counselor Sanchez filled out the same diversion forms. Eric had considered suicide more than twice, but Sanchez’s notes indicate it was “never seriously, mostly out of anger.” She also wrote of his suicidal thoughts that he “didn’t plan or think much about it.”
Sanchez put an X next to the line for “psychiatric history: father, mother, sibs.” In the margin, she wrote, “Marriage/Fam. Therapy.” The parents said their attitude toward mental health treatment was, “Can be effective. Worth a try.” As with Dylan, it is unclear which Harris filled out the parental form, although the printing is somewhat blocky and masculine.
