Edison High students learn from Columbine teens

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- About 1,000 Edison High School students sat silently

as they listened to a 16-year-old Columbine High School student tell what

it was like to have a gun pointed at his head and be ordered to explain

why he deserved to live.

The teen was among four students from Columbine in Colorado who, on

Tuesday, shared their experiences from last year’s shooting with the

hushed Edison High audience.

The teens are speaking to seven Orange County schools this week. Their

goal: to prevent similar tragedies from occurring. They recounted their

brushes with death, what it was like to see their teachers and friends

dead, and how they dealt with the aftermath.

Their messages were simple. Don’t make anyone an outcast, and take time

to know your friends.

“I look back and think, how could this have been prevented?” said

17-year-old Richard, who along with the other three students, withheld

his last name for confidentiality reasons. “What if someone knew? They

could have told someone. Get to know your friends. Know what’s going on

in their lives.”

Seventeen-year-old Courtney, another Columbine student, pointed out that

the responsibility does not rest with the students alone, but also with

parents and teachers.

“Be there for each other. Know if something’s wrong with a friend,” she

said.

Elisha, who witnessed a teacher getting shot, escaped several bullets by

inches while running from the shots of killers Dylan Klebold and Eric

Harris. The 17-year-old saw a friend dead in a hallway as she was trying

get out of the building.

She urged fellow teens to make more friends and accept people for who

they are.

“Saying hi to someone could bring up their day, because you don’t know

what people could be going through at home,” she said.

Perhaps the most compelling words came from 16-year-old Evan, who was

among the “jock crowd” at Columbine that was singled out by the two

killers. He was shot in the back and had a gun held to his head while the

boys asked him why he deserved to live.

“It was because they knew I never teased them that they let me live,” he

said.

But Evan remembers the group of jocks who taunted Klebold and Harris.

“They set the stage for what happened on April 20, 1999,” Evan said.

“They sparked the hate in Eric and Dylan.”

After a set of questions from the audience, the students at Edison gave

the guests a long, thunderous round of applause. Some stood up. Some had

tears streaming down their cheeks. Others asked more questions on their

way out.

“I think it hit everybody. I never saw an audience here react like that,”

said Alex Liang, 17.

Knowing that Columbine is a school similar to Edison shook some of the

students. Some were amazed at the speakers’ composure and the camaraderie

of the group.

“I’m glad I chose to go [to the assembly],” said Clark Nelson, 17. “You

take a lot for granted until its gone.”

Edison held a well-attended candlelight vigil after the tragedy last

year.

“We’re just trying to touch just one person, and I think we did that here

10 times,” Evan said.