It seems like we can’t go a few weeks without hearing about a school shooting involving people who are often emotionally or mentally disturbed. How can we prevent these things in the future? Maybe we can’t. But looking at the past to address what we’re going to do in the future can’t be a bad idea, so let’s talk about children, youths and socialization. This isn’t about being the most popular kid in the school or having dozens of friends; it’s about community and the very real roles we each play in it. I appreciate your input on this crutial topic.
Tuesday April 20, 1999 was a normal day across America; it would quickly turn to hell for students of Columbine High School, in the town of Littleton Colorado. Two students, known to their peers as outcasts, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planned a murderous rampage that took the nation by storm, and left a trail of mourning that seemed endless. In the end, questions led to outrage, as we learned that the two young shooters, who killed over a dozen students and staff, injuring an additional twenty-five, and planted some thirty homemade bombs on campus before taking their own lives, all in just under one hour, displayed what most would deem obvious warning signs of violent behavior (Steel, F., 2007).
To the untrained eye, Dylan and Eric seemed like nothing more than two normal kids being raised in two-parent homes, with bright futures on the horizon. The two met three years before the massacre and quickly became close friends. Though the friendship seemed innocent enough, the boys were arrested together in 1998 for criminal trespass. Their ability to impress law enforcement involved in the case seems to be a reason why the incident was not taken as a serious one, or considered as a warning of things more serious to come. It was only after their death that the other side of their young lives emerged, and we began to understand that Dylan and Eric felt entitled to enact revenge on a world that had done them wrong (Steel, F., 2007).
One of the ways the two expressed their frustration and anger was in a website operated by Eric Harris, in which he expressed his rage, anger, and constant desire to shoot and kill those who he felt treated him badly. The two were seen as unpopular outsiders by other students at their school, and were thought to be members of a student click known as the Trench Coat Mafia.At one point, the two, who often complained of being bullied by “the jocks”, made a video for a school project, which eerily showed the two walking through the halls of the school with guns, killing all in their path. Though a teacher had seen the video and refused to show it because of the violence it contained, apparently the video was not enough to get the attention of teachers, administrators, or law enforcement. Though teachers had reported concerns about the two, citing, depression, anger, and writings of violence, none of it was enough to prevent the events of April twentieth. As in so many schools across the country, Eric and Dylan were perceived by other students as outcasts. They were teased and ridiculed on a regular basis, and by their own writing, this was what pushed them over the edge; their school life felt like a living hell, and their resentment spiraled out of control until revenge was all they wanted. It seems that no one in the school was alarmed enough to reach out and help the boys cope. Instead, Eric and Dylan believed that their relationship to society was adversarial, and that it would never get better. They believed their only remedy was murder (Steel, F., 2007 and Siegel, L.J., 2006).
The finger of blame was soon pointed at Wayne and Kathy Harris, and Sue and Tom Klebold, the shooters’ parents, but the parents insisted that the school had failed to inform them of the incidents and concerns. Still, it seemed impossible that both sets of parents had no idea what their sons were planning. Were the parents actively engaged in their sons’ lives, or did they stay on the peripheral, never hovering, never asking questions, never getting too involved in what their kids were up to? It seems that it was the latter. By all accounts, both boys had “normal” home lives; neither were abused or neglected, and both families provided stability for their children. However, it is also clear that both boys seemed to lead double lives, never showing their parents their anti-social behavior, or sharing their anger and frustration at what they perceive was bullying by their student peers. In essence, the parents were blissfully unaware that their sons’ were suffering until it was too late; even when a concerned parent brought the content of Eric’s website to his parents, it wasn’t taken as a viable threat; what parent wants to believe that their child is planning to kill 500 people, as Eric and Dylan were (Steel, F., 2007 and Siegel, L.J., 2006)?
In the wake of the shooting, and as police investigated, evidence of the boys’ plans was reportedly found in plain sight inside Eric Harris’ bedroom, including a journal detailing the plans for April twentieth, bomb materials and a shotgun barrel Steel, F., 2007).
Law enforcement believes that others were aware of the plot before it was carried out, but none had stepped forward in an attempt to stop Dylan and Eric. Police also believe that, beyond mere awareness, that Dylan and Eric had accomplices that helped them plan their attack on the school, but that the two friends were the only shooters (Steel, F., 2007).
It seems virtually impossible to define, how, if at all, this horrific crime could have been prevented. We have only to look to hindsight to discern what should have been done differently; the threats made to other students should have been taken as serious threats. The content of the webpage, which was previously reported to law enforcement, should have been a clear indicator that the two boys intended on carrying out the attack on their school. The students, or friends of Dylan and Eric, who, as police believe, knew about the boys’ plans, should have come forward to law enforcement to explain the severity of the situation. The bullying that occurred at school should have been addressed early on, the anti-social behaviors which were openly displayed at school, should have been taken as warning signs and responded to. It is hard to say, even if all of these things had been done, that if they had, Dylan, Eric and their victims would still be alive today (Steel, F., 2007 and Siegel, L.J, 2006).
This case proves that the influences of social forces and crime is very real, particularly when we talk about crimes committed by youths whose relationships in their community are negative, thus negatively impacting their perception, as well as their reality. For someone as young as Dylan and Eric, the social factor of school is a huge one; until one either drops out or graduates, the life of a teen revolves around their school, the relationships they have, and their overall school experience. For these two, the experience was so unbearable and so awful that it damaged them (Siegel, L.J., 2006).
Update 4/12/08
By Scott Zamost and Abbie Boudreau
CNN Special Investigations Unit
It would be a fitting payback to his high school classmates who Richard said relentlessly bullied him.
“I always wanted to get back at them,” Richard Sonnen said of his classmates. “I always wanted to strangle them. … I was always mad. I was always angry and I would come home and cry to mom and dad.”
Both Richard and Elaine Sonnen spoke to CNN at the 45-acre family farm.
Unlike Columbine and recent school shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, Elaine Sonnen did see the warning signs in her son and was able to stop him.
Elaine and her husband, Tom, adopted Richard from a Bulgarian orphanage when he was just 4½ years old.
“I mean, we just loved him, and he was just a big sparkle of life,” she said.
But only a few months after they brought him home, they began to see another side of their son. He was angry and unpredictable.
Elaine Sonnen says that at age 6, Richard told her he wanted to kill her. She said he would shake with anger to the point that he’d scream at her, telling her he wanted to destroy her.
“People thought he was just the greatest kid in the world. Very polite, well-mannered, caring,” Elaine Sonnen remembered. “At home, he could be anywhere from just a really helpful kid to a monster. A terrifying monster.” 
Mother says son had ‘two’ personalities »
In junior high, he said, “evil” classmates started picking on him. Boys and girls, he said, bullied him until he couldn’t take it anymore.
“I always wanted to get revenge,” he said.
By the eighth grade, Richard was put on anti-psychotic medications. He had been diagnosed as bipolar and was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and other disorders.
In 1999, when the Columbine shootings happened, the Sonnens feared that Richard might do the same thing one day.
“We stopped and looked at each other and said, ‘This could be Richard; some day this could be him,’ ” Elaine Sonnen said.
Years later, during his junior year in high school, they were right.
Fed up with the bullies, Richard says, he felt like an outcast and started looking for a way to get even.
Secretly, he began reading books about Columbine in his school library. The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, became his heroes.
“They planned it out so perfectly and so meticulously … that I just, wow, you know,” he said. “They’re my gods.” 
Watch a preview of “Campus Rage” »
He even created a hit list of the classmates he planned to kill at Prairie High School in Cottonwood, Idaho.
“My plan was to set around bombs around the school. … I analyzed a lot of where everybody sat and where everybody did their thing,” he said. “I had pinpoints of where I wanted to go, where I wanted to do it.”
Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack, who consulted on a 2002 federal government study of school shootings, said it found that most school shooters often had feelings of anger, sadness and isolation as well as homicidal and suicidal thoughts.
“We see a young man who obviously is telling us how depressed he was, how angry he was and how much he looked up to people who we know are very disturbed and very dangerous, and how close he came to killing people,” said Pollack, who watched CNN’s interview with Richard.
Elaine Sonnen found out about her son’s plan during a conversation with him. She ordered him to write down the names of the eight students he wanted dead and then gave the list to his caseworker the next day. Later, he added a teacher and his mother and sister to the hit list.
She took immediate action and had her son committed to an Idaho mental institution. Over the next 16 months, he received treatment at several mental health facilities throughout Idaho.
“There, I opened up. I felt better. I moved on with myself,” Richard said.
“They felt at that point … they had done everything they could do for him,” Elaine Sonnen added. “He was doing great. He could make it on his own. They had no question.”
In January 2007, after almost a year and a half in mental institutions, Richard Sonnen started a new life at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. He was taking a cocktail of three anti-psychotic drugs to help him function.
“[For] the first time in 12 years, I was able to hold my son,” said Elaine Sonnen. “So I knew he was on the road to be well.”
Everything seemed to be looking up, but in April 2007, three days after the Virginia Tech massacre, Richard’s mother received a call from police. They told her Richard had made about four threats to carry out shootings at Lewis Clark State College and Lewiston High School.
Police told her Richard planned to go home, get some guns and go back to school to pull off a sniper attack from a clock tower on the college’s campus, she said.
Police took him into protective custody and searched his apartment for clues. But, in the end, he was released because, authorities say, they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with a crime.
Richard said the whole incident was a big misunderstanding. He said he was telling people about his high school plot and never threatened his college or local high school.
But his mother doesn’t believe his version of the story.
“No. I believe he made those threats,” she said. “I still believe it.”
Richard, now 19, signed an order banning him from campus for one year. Today, he lives on his own in Washington state. He’s still on medication but not seeing a psychiatrist. Since he’s over the age of 18, his mom can’t force him to go.
Is Elaine Sonnen still afraid of her son?
“Yeah, at times, I’m very afraid,” she said. “Because he still has a lot of anger towards me.”
She said the signs are still there, and she fears what could happen if he ever stops taking his medicine.
“He’s not getting the help and the insight from a professional that could see the signs,” she said. “Because as a person with a mental illness, you have skewed thinking.”
Even though Richard calls her the “greatest person in the world,” Elaine Sonnen protects the family by keeping an alarm on her son’s bedroom door when he comes home to visit.
So why are Richard Sonnen and his mother, Elaine, speaking out now? In the wake of the Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech shootings, Richard wants young people experiencing the same symptoms he had to seek out help. His mother wants parents and authorities to listen for warning signs and to act fast and decisively.