Teens Talking to Teens
About Littleton

New responses are listed below

The following responses came out of long discussions and a lot of soul searching on the part of High School students at CVRHS in Ormstown, Quebec.
In remembrance of those who died so needlessly at Columbine High School, these messages send out strong words, from teens to teens.

Please Stop the Violence

"One problem is criticism.  You should respect everyone for who they are, no matter how they dress, no matter what their beliefs.  If everybody criticized a certain group of people, that group is going to get fed up!  That's how violence starts."

The Devastation
The devastation that happened at Littleton, Colorado, was very disgusting...  Two teens decided to kill other teenagers, who they thought were not good enough to live.  In their killing spree they killed 12 teenagers and 1 teacher.  After that they ended up killing themselves in the school's library.

These teens must have seen a dead end, and though the only way out was murdering innocent human beings and disposing of themselves.

Many families are hurt, shocked, and now paranoid of letting their own children go to school.  I mean, how can someone feel safe in their school, when there is a possibility of being gunned down by their own classmates.

"Nothing

Nothing to see
Nothing to think
Nothing to feel
Nothing to heal

Nothing to laugh
Nothing to cry
Nothing to smile

Nothing to love
Nothing to hate
Nothing to say

What price do I pay,
to have you in my arms?
What price do I pay, to once again see the sunset rise?
I hear a voice telling me too late,
I'm gone, I love you, I will miss you but I'll see you again
Good-bye my dear friend
Take care."

You must have heard

"You must have heard about the shooting in Littleton.  Some people have sick minds.

The message I am going to get across is that you don't have to have a gun to be cool.  If someone tries to pressure you into buying a gun, just say no.  You don't have to kill someone to have friends.

Those 12 students will never see their parents again, and never be able to have a chance to have a family of their own.

I don't know how you feel, but just think if someone came in your school and started to shoot everything and anyone that they saw. What would you do if someone had a gun pointed at your face?  Where would you go?

What I am trying to say is don't carry a gun.  You could end up the way those 12 students and a teacher did."

Do Guns Solve Anything?

"Do people get what they want when they kill people?
These are questions that we can't answer, but we can solve them.
People kill people because they aren't in the same gang as them.  Does that sound normal to you?  It doesn't sound normal to me.  To me we are all in one big gang.  Think about it."

What's the problem?

How come people have to kill to be listened to?  No one can control others.  We can only control ourselves.  People are afraid of the unknown.   Maybe even teachers are part of the problem.  What about the gym teacher who doesn't pay attention to someone who is not athletic?  What about  the principal who doesn't know you until you do something bad on the one hand, or if you have fantastic marks on the other?  I feel this is a problem.  If a person has less money than others, he won't be accepted.  But wake up!  No one can be rich, athletic, and smart at the same time.  No one is perfect!  And if you can't accept that, well, you have a problem.


 


Think

"Think the next time you tease or laugh and label someone.  Think about what you are really doing to them.  Think about their feelings.  Most of all, think about how it affects them in general, and how it might affect you."


 



 


You won't know what it is like, until it happens to you !

Strange Illusion

"If you are under the strange illusion that something like what happened in Colorado could or will never happen to you, where you live...  you are very wrong!

The students at Columbine High School weren't expecting anything to ever happen to them there.  They never really suspected the "Trench Coat Mafia" of having any violent or cruel intentions.  Then at lunch time they were proved terribly wrong.

I watched the live coverage after school on CNN.  I watched hypnotized and shivering, staring at the television screen.  I couldn't help but be terrified to go to school the next day.  When I went to bed that night, I couldn't get to sleep.  I stared up at my dark ceiling and ran through all of the images of every single student that I had ever seen at my school.  I wondered what labels I had given them, and what labels that they had given me.  I wondered who the type of person who did this was.  Then I stopped myself and noted that it could be anyone at all!!!

Their choice of action... I'm not sure that I can explain.  But I am sure that it was a combination of many different things.  The looks and stares in the hallways, the attention diverted towards everyone else but them.  The whispered comments that maybe only THEY  heard.

They had too many unresolved issues...

I am scared.

Are you?


New Responses by concerned youth who have read what we wrote and who were compelled to respond:

From: "Ronaldo Enrique Morilla"
To:
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 00:36:24 -0300

Hi!
All I want to say is for those who do not understand the teenagers, that can not always find the best way to express themselves, to please try to understand them so we can start a new form of communication with them who need it, to try to be open and listen.

Thats just about the best thing you can do, to be Open.

And for those who are having difficult times, and can only fall into violence to please realize that there's always a better way, to have a little hope to find a happier life for you as for the others.