Columbine families challenge gagged evidence

The families of Columbine school shooting victims pledged to appeal against a judge’s decision to seal information about the two killers that they say might have helped prevent the Virginia Tech massacre.

Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, was closed yesterday, as it has been every April 20 since the 1999 attack in which two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

To mark the eighth anniversary of the killings, Colorado governor Bill Ritter asked state residents to join a bell-ringing and moment of silence for Monday’s Virginia Tech victims.

In the years since Columbine, Colorado had become a better place, Ritter said during a solemn ceremony outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, moments before the cathedral bells tolled.

“It’s a place of healing, it’s a place of unity, a place of hope because we got there together,” the governor said.

However, it has been difficult for some families to understand federal judge Lewis Babcock’s decision earlier this month to seal for 20 years the testimony of Harris’ and Klebold’s parents about the boys’ home lives.

Families feel the information could help prevent future school rampages.

“If we can find a way to finance it, we are going to appeal,” said Brian Rohrbough, whose son, Daniel, was killed at Columbine.

At a news conference, Rohrbough called on the Jefferson County sheriff, the Columbine principal and Babcock to release all information on the killings immediately.

“I am absolutely convinced that the information here would have prevented other school shootings, most likely the most recent one,” Rohrbough said of the shootings in Blacksburg, Virginia, in which crazed gunman Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and then himself.

Much information about the Columbine killers is available on the internet. Authorities learned that Harris and Klebold played violent games, made violent videos at school, and were bullied.

Michael Shoels, father of Columbine victim Isaiah Shoels, was at Virginia Tech yesterday to urge officials there to avoid secrecy and keep families informed during the investigation.

“I don’t want them to get caught up in what we got caught up in Colorado,” he said. “They need to let these parents know that they are going to do whatever they can to get to the bottom of this.

“The child that killed their children, he’s dead also. There’s no prosecution here. So why not open up and let it be a lesson to everyone?”

In the Columbine records ruling, Babcock cited a need for confidentiality and concerns that releasing the testimony from the killers’ parents could encourage copycat crimes. The judge declined to comment this week.

Cho, 23, had called Harris and Klebold “martyrs” in a video he sent to NBC television news.

Randy Brown, whose son, Brooks, was threatened by Harris, before the killings, said, “There is information in these files that will make you cry, that will make you angry and will make you sick to your stomach.”

The Harrises and Klebolds commented publicly only through their lawyers. Michael Montgomery, a lawyer who represented the Harris family, said the judge made an appropriate decision.

Rohrbough said he was encouraged by Virginia authorities who released information about their investigation into Cho, including his video tapes.

“The people got to see the murderer for being a murderer,” Rohrbough said.