Columbine updates
What happened after the bullets stopped flying and shooters were dead? Officials had to examine the evidence. The damages to the school needed repair. Healing was supposed to happen but for a lot of the people involved in the tragic shooting at Columbine, healing hasn't been an easy road--or a fast one. Some individuals have gone on to turn a tragedy into personal triumph while others never were able to put back together the fragments of their shattered lives.

Along with physical recovery for the victims came the official investigations and, sadly, the obligatory lawsuits. In the modern age, due process is the only recourse we have in the United States; the only legal revenge. The county was sued, the law enforcement agencies were sued, the parents of the shooters were sued. Charity organizations, major corporations, retail outlets, and more were all sued. Lawsuits can't resurrect the dead, though, and no amount of money can undo what happened that fateful April morning. For some families it simply meant they could afford to bury their dead loved ones.

The repercussions are far from over and never will truly end. December 1999, a disturbing email sent to a student of Columbine High warned the student not to go to school that day; the incident resulted in canceled classes. The same year one of the survivor's parents committed suicide. A year later Columbine basketball player Greg Barnes (archived offsite link), who saw Coach Sanders get shot during the attack, killed himself right after the anniversary of the shooting. Several surviving students couldn't cope with returning to school at all, much less Columbine, though some did try. Some even managed to graduate, with honors.

Each year that has passed since the events of April 20, 1999, there have been new developments, new chapters in the collective stories of Columbine's aftermath. Copycat shootings and conspiracies to commit similar crimes flare up like an angry rash all over the world. Reporters point to the Littleton shooting each time someone goes ballistic, insuring in a grim way that Columbine will never be forgotten.

Below you can find photo galleries and information featuring key events that have gone on in the months and years that have followed the shootings at Columbine High. The pages are set up in chronological bullet-point fashion for ease of keeping track of what happened when.