Chapter 149 Section 14

Eric Harris was transferred from another school in the seventh grade. Not many people know about his childhood and his past.But the children think that Eric should have similar experiences and feelings as Dylan.The difference is that Eric is short-tempered and vindictive. The question for the kids is, how did Eric convince Dylan to take part in his massacre?And how was Eric himself pushed to the brink of crime bit by bit? The children shared their problems with the adults around them.After that tragedy, these teens were mature enough to conclude that there are no easy answers to these two questions, no easy answers.

From elementary to middle school, bullies can be seen everywhere, but it is not until Columbine Middle School that the Erics really get a taste of those high-spirited athletes.Brooke Brown said: "Sometimes, they just ignore us. But more often, we become their target. We were the lowest grade 9 students, a bunch of 'bad guys who can only show off in video games. ’. At lunch, those athletes would come and kick our chairs down, put our heads on the table, or knock over our trays, trip us up, wrestle us, and throw food at us. Usually in the corridors , they'd suddenly shove a kid against a coat box as they passed by, or call him names in front of everyone. During gym class, they'd catch any kid in the locker room and beat him up because There are no teachers there."

Seniors like to spill baby oil on the floor, a prank nicknamed "bowling."When a younger child is off guard, they shove it from behind, and the pushed child may slide far and end up hitting other children.Later, a ninth-grade girl broke her arm because of this, and the school came forward to stop this "game". "The problem is, the school and the teachers love the athletes, and we're the 'problem students,'" Brooke Brown said. Children, it makes teachers feel very nervous. Usually, teachers always keep a certain distance from us, but once they have the opportunity, they will not hesitate to punish us. Athletes often stretch paper clips on catapult us like a slingshot. If a teacher sees you get shot, he or she will pretend it's okay. But as soon as you shoot back, he'll come. Those athletes kind of figured it out gone."

Eric Harris was the most frequently targeted of their circle of five because of his two physical disabilities.Eric's chest was abnormally developed and slightly sunken.So when he took off his T-shirt during swimming lessons, he became the object of ridicule and fun for bad boys.What's more, Eric is not tall.All the other boys in the five-person circle later surpassed 1.8 meters, but he did not.Plus, he wasn't born and raised in Colorado, he was an "outsider." When the Erics were in the 10th grade, there was a so-called "Black Trench Coat Gang" in Columbine, which was composed of "second-class citizens" or "out-of-class people" on campus.In the early days after the Columbine school shooting, television news portrayed the Black Trench Coats as a sort of secret society, with reporters implying their national scale , and had explicit or implicit connections with the neo-Nazi movement that arose in Germany and Europe at that time.

In fact, the "Black Windbreaker Gang" at Columbine Middle School was just a few students in the 12th grade at the time. Because they were friends and because they were always bullied by athletes, they often went together, so that "when one is in trouble, everyone helps each other. ".Once, one of Ted Bowles wore a black military trench coat, which everyone thought was "cool" and it was said that his mother bought it when there was a "big sale" in the store , They all went to the store to buy one by one. One day, these people sat together for lunch as usual, and it happened that everyone was wearing black military raincoats that day.A few athletes passed by and joked with them, saying that a group of cowards also want to play cool, thinking that wearing the same "uniform" can pretend to be a gangster?

One of them added an adjective: "By the way, black military raincoat gang, how about it?" The athletes burst into laughter and walked away.Since then, the "Black Windbreaker Gang" has been popular on campus.Those "not in the stream" are not ashamed, but proud, and gladly accepted this derogatory and insulting title. The Black Trench Coats openly antagonized the athletes, but they were open to other kids.Eric and Dylan sat with them in the cafeteria a few times and made friends with some of them, like Chris Morse who introduced them to Black Jack's Pizzeria.

Unfortunately, the Black Trench Coats, who set out to differentiate themselves from the hard-nosed athletes, turned out to be a bunch of bad guys too.The only difference is that every time there is a conflict with the athletes, no matter right or wrong, no matter who picks the head, it is always the "Black Windbreaker Gang" who is sent to the principal's office and punished. In less than a year, the Black Trench Coats had all left Columbine after graduation, but their influence lingered.Eric and Dillon's fellow American government classmates recalled collaborating on a video about the Black Trench Coats Conservation Project, which they claimed could be hired by any student who was bullied by the athletes , to avenge them.

In an essay that he hadn't had time to hand in to his writing class teacher, Dylan Colebord made up a fictional story about a gunman in a black military trench coat who assassinates a sportsman in a dimly lit bar. After the Columbine school shooting, because Eric and Dylan hid several weapons in their black military raincoats, middle schools all over the country have successively revised their dress codes (DressCode), prohibiting students from wearing any style of raincoats to school. Kids poke their problems into the state through the adults around them.