JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Along Pierce Street south of Bowles Avenue, a small green road sign along the curb directs drivers to the Columbine Memorial, perched on the side of a hill near Clement Park.
Drive a little farther – to Columbine High School itself – and there is no outward sign that 25 years ago, it was the scene of what was then the deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S. history. Instead, there’s 1970s institutional architecture, expansive lawns and teenagers coming and going.
That the school still stands is part of the legacy of what happened on April 20, 1999. It exists because Jeffco Public Schools officials – with support from families of the victims, staff members and the community – rebuffed talk of demolishing the building after the murders of 12 students and a teacher.
“Columbine High School is very much a story of triumph over tragedy, good over evil,” said Scott Christy, who joined the staff a decade after the shootings and became principal seven years ago. “It's a symbol and a model for what happens when people come together in the face of tragedy and pour all their love and determination into a place to make it stronger than it was before.”
For him, that heartbreaking history is not often front-of-mind.
“Rarely, you know, other than probably April 20th – April – do I think of that horrific day,” Christy said.
Except, he said, when the unseen legacy rears its head, often in the form of gawkers who stop and point and stare and sometimes come onto school grounds.
“We call them ‘loos. If they’re lookey-loo-ing, we're talking to them right away,” Christy said.
Usually, the story is the same.
“They're in the area,” Christy said. “They're from out of state. And they're like, oh, that's Columbine High School – I’m gonna go take a look at it. That's pretty much all they're there to do. But we remind them that we are we are functioning high school, that kids are here.”
For Frank DeAngelis, who was principal on the day of the shootings, the unseen legacy creeps into his mind every single day. It begins when he awakens and thinks of those who lost their lives, the ones he calls “my beloved 13.”
“I get up every morning and before my feet hit the ground – Cassie Bernall, Steven Curnow, Cory DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matt Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Danny Rohrbough, Dave Sanders, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez,” he said, struggling with emotion. “They give me the inspiration.”
He retired in 2014 after 15 years as principal. Today, that unseen legacy emerges for him in a different way: When there’s news of a mass shooting, or a report of a school lockdown, DeAngelis immediately thinks about his granddaughter, who’s in fourth grade. He thinks about Uvalde and Sandy Hook and so many others.
“I don't want her to go through with those poor kids did at Uvalde or Sandy Hook – or hiding under desks at Columbine,” he said.
Before 1999, he had never considered that there could be an attack at his school.
“The only drills we did were fire drills,” he said. “That was it.”
Now he knows active-shooter drills are a regular part of training at schools across America. He knows that his granddaughter goes through them again and again.
“Parents will say, well, are we scaring these kids?” DeAngelis said. “It's not to scare, it's to prepare. It’s how you deliver the message.”
It’s no different, he said, than teaching a small child to hold an adult’s hand while crossing the street.
“I mean, it's happening in schools, it's happening in churches, it's happening,” he said. “Myself, when I walk into buildings and things I see where exits are and things of that nature. And that's where we are right now.”
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