I can’t remember if we had locks on our classroom doors. Must have done, I guess, since I remember having the drills and the teachers saying we were going to lock ourselves into the classrooms. I liked the phrase “duck and cover”.

Hey, and if you can’t face reading Columbine, I’m telling you: And the Band Played On. Non-scary (except for how scarily slow the response to the epidemic was) but equally fascinating.

I wouldn’t have thought I’d want to read about Columbine either, and I even made a deal with myself I could stop reading the book if I wasn’t into it by fifty pages in. But it turned out to be entrancing. Not as good as And the Band Played On, though! :p

I think the only thing I vaguely believed from the media coverage was that they were bullied. I’m not sure Cullen makes a convincing case that this didn’t happen, to be honest — I think most kids get bullied to some extent while they’re in school. But the bowling thing, I hadn’t even heard of that. (I’m embarrassed to say.)

My amygdala-control is not always good. Just sometimes, if I have plenty of warning to prepare myself.

Welllll, I think I’m going to tell myself you’re a bit older than I am, just so that I don’t feel as much like a jerk for waiting so late to start paying attention to the news. :p

I suppose if I ever have the stomach to confront a national tragedy book, this will be it, though I’m generally traumatized enough by the mere thought of it that reading about it is well out of my capabilities.