The following book review is for my strategic public relations class, so when you read it, it may have an unusual media relations/public relations slant. However,
Columbine is a fascinating, eye-opening read, and I'd encourage you to check it out. Author Dave Cullen takes the reader deep into the minds of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Kleybold (a very scary trip) and into the hearts of the heroes and families of the Columbine tragedy.
Before the book review, here are a couple of links you might enjoy:
Columbine Online -- Dave Cullen's website that contains a HUGE amount of his research, plus background, photos, videos, etc.
High School Massacre: Columbine Bloodbath Leaves Up to 25 Dead -- The Denver Post 2000 Pulitzer Prize Winner -- Breaking News Reporting
Columbine: Images of Tragedy -- The Denver Post 2000 Pulitzer Prize Winner -- Breaking News Photography
Book
Review: Columbine
Cullen, Dave. Columbine. New York: Twelve, 2009.
Print.
417 pages. $26.99
My
rating: H H H H (out
of five)
Quick
description: Columbine after 10 – Sorting truths, wreckage,
blunders and urban legends
The
murderous actions of teens Eric Harris and Dylan Kleybold on April 20, 1999,
ripped apart the handbook on school security and crisis communications, and
exploded America’s notion of school as a safe haven for children. Columbine author Dave Cullen covered
Columbine for salon.com, then spent 10 years taking an investigative
journalist’s look at the emotions, events and aftermath of the two
students’1999 attack on Columbine High School, where they killed 13 students
and adults, and wounded 24 more. He delivers a 20/20 focus that reveals the
gross misrepresentations and urban legends that concreted public opinion on
topics as wildly diverse as gun control and Christian witness, bullying and
media ethics, mental health and police accountability, and parental
responsibility and crisis communications. Columbine
begins in January, 1997, when readers meet Harris and Kleybold, and concludes
after Cullen’s final update on survivors immediately prior to publication.
1. Best aspect of this book
Reading
this book is as easy as watching a train wreck. The reader knows the tragic
ending, but Cullen combines the detail and thorough research of a
national-stage investigative journalist with the skill and timing of a captivating
story-teller; and the book can easily become an all-night read.
·
In true journalistic style, the book is
a relatively easy read, although there are passages where the reader may read,
then re-read just to be sure that he understood exactly what happened.
·
More importantly, Columbine drove me to the Internet to research more about Columbine
and its characters. I had to see Harris’ and Kleybold’s photos, view their
notorious “Basement Videos” and attempt to learn more about media relations and
coverage of the event.
·
David Flynn is a mental health
professional active in the Clinton Administration, who accompanied Vice
President Al Gore to memorial services in Littleton five days after the attack.
He said reading Columbine “was like seeing the full-length movie of what I’d
seen a few frames of” at the memorial service (Flynn 383).
2. Worst aspect of this book
The
worst and saddest aspect of this book is that it’s true.
3. What I really think
This
book is frightening. Introducing his interview with Cullen for Voice of Youth Advocate, Patrick Jones
writes that “Cullen separates myth from fact. The facts are so disturbing that
it is no wonder myths evolved” (Jones 377).
·
Reading Cullen’s descriptions of Harris’
ruthless psychopathy that played out for years leading up to the attack and of
Kleybold’s suicidal desperation that made him a willing partner to Harris’ plan
are so grossly disturbing that it is easy to understand Jones’ premise that the
myths surrounding Columbine are far easier to grasp than the cold-blooded
truth.
·
For the public relations professional,
the mismanagement of communications and the lack of preparedness that allowed –
maybe even forced – the media to latch onto to rumors and un-truths should be
terrifying.
o
From the Jefferson County Sheriff’s
“cowboy” press conferences, where he randomly tossed out speculation as if it
was fact (Columbine 85), to the
JEFFCO Public Schools communications department, which is almost non-existent
in Cullen’s meticulous coverage of the events surrounding Columbine, the lack
of professionalism and its international, long-lasting impact are disturbing
and worth exploration by anyone who practices media relations.
From
a personal perspective, related both to personal beliefs and to churches’
community relations efforts, Christians’ response to Columbine intrigues me. I
believe Christian behavior gone awry can be the faith’s own worst public
relations nightmare, and Columbine allowed Christians to be seen at their best
and their worst.
·
Evangelical churches and mainstream
denominations split over the better approach to minister to those pained by
Columbine. Mainstream denominations sought to provide comfort, respect and
support for those affected directly and indirectly by the attack. Evangelicals
saw Columbine as an opportunity to recruit for Jesus; however, even some
Evangelicals “bristled at ‘spiritual headhunters, just racking up another
scalp.’” (Columbine 179)
·
Cassie Bernal never exchanged her life
for her belief in God. Cassie was branded a martyr by Columbine, with legend
saying that Harris angrily asked her at gunpoint if she believed in God, then
shot her when she said, “yes.” Unfortunately, witnesses testified that Harris
found Bernal under a table in the library, said “Peekaboo” and shot her in the
face (Columbine 228).
o
In reality, Kleybold wounded Valeen
Schnurr, heard her praying and asked if she believed in God. She said, “yes,”
and he walked on (Columbine 224-225).
o
Craig Scott, who started the Bernal
legend, recanted later when officials walked a group through the library, and
identified where the victims were found. When officials pointed out to Scott
that the location where he thought Bernal gave her Christian testimony was
actually where Schnurr’s wounded body was found, nowhere near Bernal’s, he got
sick and had to leave the library (Columbine
231)
o
Bernall’s parents authored a book, She Said Yes, that trumpeted her
martyrdom. After the truth was revealed, Bernall’s youth pastor, Reverend Dave
McPherson said, “You will never change the story of Cassie. The church is going
to stick to the martyr story. You can say it didn’t happen that way, but the
church won’t accept it.” (Columbine 287)
It
amazes me that a people who live for truth and God’s love can be so
short-sighted and selfish, and not realize what it does to an entire faith’s
public image and outreach capabilities.
4. Who should read this book? Why?
Columbine
is a fascinating book, and I would recommend it to anyone. My younger daughter
will read it (she just doesn’t know it yet) because I think young people need
to remember what happened. My older daughter will read it because she is a
relatively new high school teacher and coach, and Columbine has shaped a
significant part of her career. It also tells the story of Principal Frank
DeAngelis, whose genuine love for his students and his open communication with
them facilitates healing when students will turn to no one else.
I
encourage public relations professionals to read Columbine and consider how they would respond to a previously
unimaginable tragedy. The book regularly offers intervention opportunities,
where the experienced professional wants to stop the action and fix it. It
provides a solid insight into media and bureaucracy gone bad.
5. Main lesson of this book
This
book touches on too many issues to identify one “main lesson;” however, from a
public relations perspective, it offers an in-depth look at events that redefined
school-related media relations. A few of those lessons include:
·
Build
a collaborative, management-level plan, and follow the plan. The
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department held its first press conference at 4 p.m.
on the day of the attack, after department spokesperson Steve Davis and Sheriff
John Stone had spent the day individually briefing reporters.
o
Cullen described Stone as “a straight
shooter; he had a deep, gruff voice and classic western mentality: no hedging,
no bluster, no bullshit.” Unfortunately, he took the microphone from the
better-trained Davis, when the first question was directed to Davis, and “held
custody” of the microphone during the conference’s question-and-answer session.
o
Cullen then paints a media relations
nightmare: “The sheriff answered nearly every question directly, despite later
evidence that he had little or no information on many of them. He winged it.” (Columbine 85)
o
Darrell Scott, whose daughter, Rachel,
was killed at Columbine, represented a group of parents asking for Stone’s
resignation because of his callous mishandling of the Columbine incident. He
refused (Janofsky 1999).
·
Communicate,
and practice transparency. Throughout the book, Cullen
portrays Harris as a monster-in-the-making (he was) and as the exclusive
mastermind behind the attack. Cullen allows the reader to feel sympathy for
Kleybold. He describes the killers’ first shots: “Eric wheeled around and shot
at anyone he could see. Dylan cheered him on. He rarely fired.” (46) And later,
Cullen describes a scene where Kleybold passes over a wounded victim: “He (a
janitor) advised Sean to play dead. He did. Dylan fell for it again, or
pretended to. He stepped right over Sean’s crumpled body and walked inside.” (Columbine 47)
o
Why is this relevant? Kleybold’s parents
openly cooperated with police and, to some extent, with the media. Cullen is
even able to include details of his private funeral. Harris’ parents – his
father a career military officer – figuratively battened down the hatches and
minimized communications.
§ On
his website, Columbine Online, Cullen
sites the New York Times interview
with Sue Kleybold – Parents of a Killer
-- and her column written for O: The Oprah Magazine, I Will Never Know Why.
§ His
only citation for information from the Harrises is a questionnaire completed
when Eric Harris was required to participate in a court-mandated discipline
program and Mr. Harris’ personal journal seized by law enforcement authorities
(Cullen 2010).
§ Although
both sets of parents have been vilified, Kleybold and his parents are seen, to
some extent as victims, while the Harrises remain a mystery left open to
speculation and rumor.
·
Network
among peer professionals. Kimberly Thomas, a relatively
inexperienced community relations officer for West Metro Fire Protection
District in Lakewood, Colorado, found her role escalated from public education
and community events to national-scale media relations, forced to go toe-to-toe
with hard-pressing network journalists.
o
She recommends networking among peer
professionals and building trusted relationships who can be called on for reliable
advice and, if needed, capable volunteers to answer phones, schedule interviews
and record questions for follow-up (Thomas 12).
o
The shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church
in Fort Worth, also in 1999, resulted in a similar coalition of school
counselors who shared common processes and practices, to fill in gaps when
crises overtaxed the resources of individual school districts and additional
help was needed.
·
Understand
and strategically use social media. Evelyn McCormack,
Director of Communications for Southern Westchester BOCES, wrote in a National
School Public Relations Association blog that, after Columbine, people felt
helpless. She added that after the more recent school shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut, people felt that same sense of helplessness turned to social media
to find ways to help (McCormack 2012).
o
As McCormack recommends, take the lead
on facilitating healing and allowing people to help. Social media is about
engagement. Demonstrate empathy and support, and take a leadership role in the
recovery.
o
More importantly for crisis communications,
share plans with specific instructions early and regularly with staff,
teachers, and parent and student organizations that control school-related
websites, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, blogs and other social media to
convey the importance of structured crisis communications and to TRY to control
messages shared with the public and the media.
o
Cross-train communications staff and
administrative personnel to maintain regular communications throughout the
crisis, enabling use of the district’s social media to continue while
managers may be distracted by more urgent priorities requiring his/her skill or
decision-making level.
Works Cited
Cullen, Dave. Columbine. New York: Twelve, 2009.
Cullen, Dave. “The
Parents of Eric & Dylan.” Columbine Online. n.p. 2010. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Flynn, Brian.
"Dave Cullen. Columbine.” New York: Hachette Book Group, 2009. 403 pp.,
$26.99." Psychiatry: Interpersonal
& Biological Processes 73.4 (2010): 382-386.
Janofsky,
Michael. “Columbine Parents Ask Sheriff To Resign Over Tapes of Gunmen.” 21
Dec. 1999. The New York Times. Web.
29 Oct. 2013.
Jones, Patrick.
"The Revelations of Columbine: An Interview With Dave Cullen." Voice Of Youth Advocates 32.5 (2009):
377.
McCormack,
Evelyn. “Newtown and Social Media.” NSPRA: Social School Public Relations blog.
21 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Thomas,
Kimberly. "Remembering April 20. (Cover Story)." Public Relations
Tactics 6.7 (1999): 1.
