They did more than wound students and devastate their families and their community. They changed the way adolescents and adults look at each other. As America approaches the second anniversary of this terrible event we see some important lessons being learned-and forgotten. Ten are particularly important. Dylan and Eric set out to become cultural icons for angry, disaffected youth who sought revenge against the nastiness of exclusionary youth culture.
Recent events suggest they succeeded in that.
A look at the web page of a teenage boy in California who was apprehended just days before he implemented his plan to blow up his school confirms this. Add to this the availability of weapons, and it is a lethal combination. The average teenager reports that he could get a gun if he needed one, and with about half the households in the country harboring a gun there is little reason to doubt what kids say on this score. Bad things really do happen to good parents. Troubled kids often have secret lives in which they accumulate and suffer from victimization by peers and feelings of rejection and sadness, and the hoard their fantasies of revenge until the play it out as a violent scenario.