Sue Klebold, the mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that when the Columbine tragedy happened, she couldn’t stop thinking about the victims and their families.
“I just remember sitting there and reading about them, all these kids and the teacher,” Klebold said in an exclusive interview that will air in a special edition of “20/20” Friday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
“And I keep thinking-- constantly thought how I would feel if it were the other way around and one of their children had shot mine,” she continued. “I would feel exactly the way they did. I know I would. I know I would.”
On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire at Columbine High School, killing 12 students and one teacher, and wounding 24 more people before taking their own lives. The tragedy not only shocked the community in Littleton, Colorado, but stunned the nation and forever changed how school administrations and law enforcement handle school shootings.
“There is never a day that goes by where I don't think of the people that Dylan harmed,” she said.
“You used the word ‘harmed,’” Sawyer observed.
“I think it's easier for me to say harmed than killed, and it's still hard for me after all this time,” Klebold added. “It is very hard to live with the fact that someone you loved and raised has brutally killed people in such a horrific way.”
Before Columbine happened, Klebold said she was one of those parents who believed she would have known if something were wrong with her son -- but that all changed after the tragedy.
“I think we like to believe that our love and our understanding is protective, and that ‘if anything were wrong with my kids, I would know,’ but I didn't know,” she said. “And-- it's very hard to live with that.”
“I felt that I was a good mom… That he would, he could talk to me about anything,” Klebold continued. “Part of the shock of this was that learning that what I believed and how I lived and how I parented was-- an invention in my own mind. That it, it was a completely different world that he was living in.”
This was Sue Klebold’s first television interview since the Columbine shooting. The interview coincides with the release of Klebold’s new memoir, “A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy,” out on Feb. 15. Her book profits will go towards research and charitable foundations focusing onmental health issues.
Watch Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Sue Klebold in a special edition of "20/20" Friday, Feb. 12 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
I can't imagine going through what she did. I think she did the right thing by not doing an interview until nearly 20 years later. That is respect for the families.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
I highly recommend Andrew Soloman's book Far From the Tree. It's about parents of children who are profoundly different in some way - whether that is a physical difference, or a mental difference, or a child that is in prison, an addict etc. It's an amazing book. She was interviewed for it and that chapter was spellbinding. She is haunted by what her child did and I feel for her.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I respect the fact that she didn't make excuses or claimed that he really was a good boy. I feel for her. Not only is she grieving that her son was at fault and caused pain for other kids and their families, but she lost her son too and has to live with the consequences and quilt of what her son has done and the condemnation from the public.
I think it does us all some good to see the parent.
We've all did the "where's the mom/dad" or "why didn't they see it" and we've blamed parents but to see it through their eyes, even a little bit, is a good reminder that every troubled soul was someone's baby.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
He had a good upbringing. He choose evil. She didnt kill , he did. I dont think that there was anything she could have done that would have changed it.
it takes a lot of warp to just walk in and shoot unarmed innocents in cold blood--a lot of disassociation, profound in fact--it takes a lot to shoot ARMED antagonists, let alone unarmed and it stays with you for a long time afterward
believe the boy was truly mentally ill in some fashion--that could never be held against her and she should never hold it against herself
lord, what a tragedy
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" the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "--edmund burke
There were SO many signs. So many. Nobody put the pieces together.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Parents don't look at their kids and assume the worst (usually). They want to see the good in them. In the end they say, "I should have..." but in the middle of it they want to believe they have a loving normal child.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
There were SO many signs. So many. Nobody put the pieces together.
What signs for him? Yeah if she had read the private journal. But spending time alone in your room or being a quiet teen isnt a sign of anything necessarily.
If she waz like Lanzas mother who bought guns for her mentally disturbed son then yes she has blame. Not sure what if any intervention would have thwarted what they had been planning for a year.
We all want to believe that there is some magical warning sign and some magical intervention. Some people simply choose evil. Yes we should do everything in our power to stop it. But you cannot be privvy to someone else's thoughts 24/7.
I highly recommend Andrew Soloman's book Far From the Tree. It's about parents of children who are profoundly different in some way - whether that is a physical difference, or a mental difference, or a child that is in prison, an addict etc. It's an amazing book. She was interviewed for it and that chapter was spellbinding. She is haunted by what her child did and I feel for her.
There were SO many signs. So many. Nobody put the pieces together.
What signs for him? Yeah if she had read the private journal. But spending time alone in your room or being a quiet teen isnt a sign of anything necessarily.
If she waz like Lanzas mother who bought guns for her mentally disturbed son then yes she has blame. Not sure what if any intervention would have thwarted what they had been planning for a year.
What about the paper he handed in for school, that was so disturbing that they didn't accept it and called his mother?
Should she have seen some signs? Maybe. Maybe she even did--but NO ONE truly thinks that their child is going to do something like this. It's unfathomable. It's so far out of the realm of almost everyone's experience that it would never cross their mind even if they do see some red flags.
This is also why I have an issue with trying to somehow hold parents criminally liable for stuff their kids do. These kids were TEENAGERS. Had the guns been locked up it's HIGHLY likely the teens would have access to them, anyway, whether intentionally or because it's just what teens do.
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I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right.
Well, I could agree with you--but then we'd both be wrong.
Should she have seen some signs? Maybe. Maybe she even did--but NO ONE truly thinks that their child is going to do something like this. It's unfathomable. It's so far out of the realm of almost everyone's experience that it would never cross their mind even if they do see some red flags.
This is also why I have an issue with trying to somehow hold parents criminally liable for stuff their kids do. These kids were TEENAGERS. Had the guns been locked up it's HIGHLY likely the teens would have access to them, anyway, whether intentionally or because it's just what teens do.
This. So much this. I can't believe I'm saying this but husker is so right. You don't look at your child and think "OMG Maybe he's going to go shoot up a school!" Parents look at their kids and they want to see innocence. It's like when a child is being sexually abused by a relative. The signs may be there but no parent thinks, or wants to think, Hey, maybe uncle Bob is molesting my kid. No parent's brain automatically goes to that level. At least not the normal one. So even when there are signs parents will often brush them off as other things.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
Should she have seen some signs? Maybe. Maybe she even did--but NO ONE truly thinks that their child is going to do something like this. It's unfathomable. It's so far out of the realm of almost everyone's experience that it would never cross their mind even if they do see some red flags.
This is also why I have an issue with trying to somehow hold parents criminally liable for stuff their kids do. These kids were TEENAGERS. Had the guns been locked up it's HIGHLY likely the teens would have access to them, anyway, whether intentionally or because it's just what teens do.
This kids got their guns from an older classmate. They got her to legally buy them.
I doubt the mother even knew there WERE guns to lock up.
I highly recommend Andrew Soloman's book Far From the Tree. It's about parents of children who are profoundly different in some way - whether that is a physical difference, or a mental difference, or a child that is in prison, an addict etc. It's an amazing book. She was interviewed for it and that chapter was spellbinding. She is haunted by what her child did and I feel for her.
I'd be interested in reading that. Thanks.
flan
I'd like to read it too.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
Should she have seen some signs? Maybe. Maybe she even did--but NO ONE truly thinks that their child is going to do something like this. It's unfathomable. It's so far out of the realm of almost everyone's experience that it would never cross their mind even if they do see some red flags.
This is also why I have an issue with trying to somehow hold parents criminally liable for stuff their kids do. These kids were TEENAGERS. Had the guns been locked up it's HIGHLY likely the teens would have access to them, anyway, whether intentionally or because it's just what teens do.
This kids got their guns from an older classmate. They got her to legally buy them.
I doubt the mother even knew there WERE guns to lock up.
Um, yeah, not remotely the point, but whatever.
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I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right.
Well, I could agree with you--but then we'd both be wrong.
There were SO many signs. So many. Nobody put the pieces together.
What signs for him? Yeah if she had read the private journal. But spending time alone in your room or being a quiet teen isnt a sign of anything necessarily.
If she waz like Lanzas mother who bought guns for her mentally disturbed son then yes she has blame. Not sure what if any intervention would have thwarted what they had been planning for a year.
What about the paper he handed in for school, that was so disturbing that they didn't accept it and called his mother?
There were SO many signs. So many. Nobody put the pieces together.
What signs for him? Yeah if she had read the private journal. But spending time alone in your room or being a quiet teen isnt a sign of anything necessarily.
If she waz like Lanzas mother who bought guns for her mentally disturbed son then yes she has blame. Not sure what if any intervention would have thwarted what they had been planning for a year.
What about the paper he handed in for school, that was so disturbing that they didn't accept it and called his mother?
She never saw the paper.
And why not? If the school contacted me that my son's paper couldn't be accepted because it was so dark and disturbing, you can bet I'd insist on seeing it and getting him some help.
Oh for fvck's sake. Do you think Stephen King wasn't writing crap that was "dark and disturbing" when he was in high school English? The crap he wrote probably scared his teachers to death--but did he need to be rushed to some psychologist to get "help"????
So everyone that writes about unicorn farts and care bears is a great kid--and everyone who might write about something odd or morbid or violent needs "help"?
That in and of itself signifies NOTHING.
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I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right.
Well, I could agree with you--but then we'd both be wrong.
In February of '99, Dylan Klebold turned in a story he wrote about an assassin in a black trench coat who shoots down students and bombs the city. "The man unloadeone of the pistols across the fronts of [the] four innocents," Klebold wrote. "The…streetlights caused a visible reflection off of the droplets of blood…I understood his actions."
Klebold's teacher later called it "the most vicious story she'd ever read," and voiced her concerns about it to Klebold's parents and his school counselor. But no school official ever looked into the matter, and it ended there. It was two months before the shootings.
He wrote a story that later was found to have context.
If he had not killed anyone, it would just be a story.
The point of the OP, in my opinion, is not about the shooter. It's about his mom.
I bet she blames herself more than anyone else ever could.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
You can't jail someone for writing a story. You can't jail someone based on something you think they MIGHT do.
"Um, yeah, not remotely the point, but whatever."
Who said anything about jail, besides you?
Detention, then, or waving whatever magic wand you think would work.
They needed to see a psychiatrist to see if they were a danger to themselves or others. They needed HELP.
husker doesn't believe in psychiatrists.
flan
Of course not. It's all psychobabble.
These kids were just fine, like Stephen King was just fine.
No cause for alarm and nothing to see here.
So Stephen King is not fine in your opinion? Although he is able to write dark stories without living them in real life? Many people have artistic "dark" thoughts and channel them into writing or painting or music lyrics. They don't kill a bunch of people.
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
You can't jail someone for writing a story. You can't jail someone based on something you think they MIGHT do.
"Um, yeah, not remotely the point, but whatever."
Who said anything about jail, besides you?
Detention, then, or waving whatever magic wand you think would work.
They needed to see a psychiatrist to see if they were a danger to themselves or others. They needed HELP.
husker doesn't believe in psychiatrists.
flan
Of course not. It's all psychobabble.
These kids were just fine, like Stephen King was just fine.
No cause for alarm and nothing to see here.
So Stephen King is not fine in your opinion? Although he is able to write dark stories without living them in real life? Many people have artistic "dark" thoughts and channel them into writing or painting or music lyrics. They don't kill a bunch of people.
Who has Stephen King killed?
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
You'd think someone who is supposed to have a psych degree could tell the difference between real life and fiction.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.