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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1999)
Possibly 25 die in shootings By Robert Weller The Associated Press LITTLETON, Colo. — Two students in black trench coats swept through their suburban high school with guns and ex plosives in a horrifying suicide attack Tuesday that left as many as 25 people dead. Several stu dents said the killers were gun ning for minorities and athletes. It was by far the bloodiest in a string of school shootings that have rocked U.S. communities over the past few years. “They were laughing after they shot,” said student Aaron Cohen. “It was like they were having the time of their life.” The gunmen — both juniors at Columbine High School in this Denver suburb — were found dead in the school libraiy with self-inflicted gunshot wounds and bombs around their bodies, sheriffs spokesman Steve Davis said. “It appears to be a suicide mission,” Sheriff John Stone said. Police refused to identify the killers, but classmates and Den ver media identified them as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Students said the killers ap parently belonged to a clique of outcasts called the “Trench Coat Mafia” who wore long black coats, boasted of owning guns and disliked blacks, Hispanics and football players. Andrew Beard, a student, said Harris and Klebold often said they “hated the jocks” “be cause they thought they could do anything they wanted, walk through life smoothly. ” Josh Nielsen, a junior, added: “They liked playing war games. That’s all they could talk about. They played war games and they liked to re-enact World War II battles.” Davis said that the motive for the attack was unknown and that school officials had not heard re ports of trouble from the students. Davis said 20 to 25 people were killed, students and teach ers alike. But officers did not plan to remove bodies — which were in rooms throughout the school — until Wednesday because of the danger of explosives and the need to preserve evidence. FBI agents and police SWAT teams slowly made their way through the building, and a bomb set on a timer exploded just be fore 11 p.m. No one was hurt. At least 12 other bombs were found, some set up as booby traps, Stone said. “It’s like walking through a minefield,” he said. Explosives also were found in two cars in the school parking lot, with one bomb rigged to blow up a gas tank, Stone said. Also, the gunmen’s homes were being searched, and a bomb was found in one. Shooting Continued from Page 1A swer the question of why this happened, Smith said. Many questions will surface about what the school could have done to prevent it, he said. At the University, many stu dents have shown concern about the rising number of school shootings across the country. Joe Allen and Phillip Wolfe are environmental studies ma jors who said they thought of the Thurston shooting as soon as they heard about the tragedy in Colorado. “It’s a very similar situation,” said Allen, a senior. “But this sounds like it’s more orga nized.” Kirsten Schmiedling, a junior psychology major, said she first heard about Tuesday’s shooting from a television in the Univer sity Bookstore. “At first I just saw it was about Denver, then I thought, ‘Oh God, it’s happened again,”’ she said. “It just made my guts turn. ” University research associate Geoff Colvin studies behavioral disorders and lias been involved in school safety issues. He said he feels hurt by this year’s shoot ing in Colorado, whereas he was more shocked with the Thurston shooting last year. Colvin said an organization formed to deal with school shoot ings should be modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “For a long time, drunk dri ving was the norm,” he said. “I think we’re almost at the same point with this.” MADD started because of out rage, Colvin said. That organiza tion began education for both parents and youths. “We’ve got to do something like that with this shooting epi demic,” he said. Colvin said no single entity can be blamed for the rash of school shootings, but the media and vio lent cartoons are contributors. “There are so many levels,” he said. “MADD was able to at tack it at every level, and that’s what we need to do. ” To stop this trend, Colvin sug gested early intervention pro grams for troubled youths. “It’s a necessary way to go,” he said. “But if that’s all we do, it’s not enough.” Antisocial kids can be identi fied at an early age, and they can be targeted at that level before they can get hold of guns, he said. “The picture is very complex but it is multi-solutional,” he said. “We’re not going to stop until its done.” Felicity Ayles can be reached via e-mail at fizzer®gladstone. uore gon.edu. Nader Continued from Page 1A funds to practice democracy,” he said. Nader said OSPIRG had “used its own money” to fight for its causes. Nader said the PIRGs have fought for issues such as prison re form, worked against increased bank charges and studied pesti cide use. “All of this is founded on a prin ciple called community,” he said. “Corporate interests don’t like community. They want to break down bonds in every direction.” Nader said corporations want to eliminate unions and close off telecommunications access to grassroots public interests. He blamed corporations for many other problems, including the unequal distribution of wealth, pushing legislation to lim it class action lawsuits and play ing down student activism. “They would love you to be triv ialized, to look at the University as a trade school to learn computer programming so you can work at Microsoft,” he said. Nader said OSPIRG would help students to organize their sense of priorities. “This is a student group that is universally accessible,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re com ing from. It’s open to all students.” After praising OSPIRG for work ing on high profile cases such as the Trojan nuclear power plant, Nader held up a copy of The Other Paper, an alternative newspaper that published an article written by “anonymous Eugene anar chists” in its April 1999 issue. “We should never have to use the word ‘alternative’ to describe us,” he said. Nader criticized a “gee-whiz” analysis of the information age and wanted students to turn informa tion into knowledge and wisdom. “What human purpose is this information to be dedicated to?” he said. Nader said OSPIRG would help students break the “harmony ide ology” of political agreement on college campuses and get them to start debating more. “So students don’t say: ‘What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? We don’t know and we don’t care,’” he said. Some University students who attended Nader’s speech said they were inspired. “It’s good to get the fight back in everybody,” said Scott Boyes, a sophomore fine arts major. Annie Bruce, a senior in history, said she was encouraged by Nader’s talk about building community. Jonathan Collegio, publisher of The Oregon Commentator, a self described conservative journal of opinion, described Nader’s speech as “strongly leftist.” He said Nader had only come to cam pus because money for OSPIRG was involved. “It was a rally with a political cause,” he said. Benefits of fully funding higher ed budget touted Senate President Brady Adams wants to reduce the budget $16 million By Tori Meeuwsen Oregon Daily Emerald Members of the education sub committee of the Ways and Means Committee listened in Salem on Tuesday to how a fully funded budget model would make Oregon more productive in engineering and technology. A business panel talked about how the model would help with the training of people for Oregon’s economy, said Ed Dennis, Oregon Student Association spokesman. Higher education advocates asked for $116 million to fully fund the new budget model. The model will help keep student money on campus and make Uni versities more responsible for their funding. Senate President Brady Adams has proposed an even $100 mil lion instead. The presidents from Oregon State University and Southern Oregon State University and Ore gon Institute of Technology gave testimonies that pushed for Brady’s $100 million proposal. The reason cited for supporting the lower amount was that even that much would be better than suffering further cuts. “They are the ones that would be most hurt by any cut, so they were really pushing for it,” Dennis said. Paul Risser, Oregon State Uni versity president, said that the committee should take the in creased need for bachelor’s de grees into consideration when making funding decisions. “Unless students complete a bachelor’s degree, they will not have an opportunity to compete for many of the best jobs,” he said. Most of the best jobs will be in high technology fields, he said. The new budget model will help educate students in those fields if it is fully funded. “Oregon cannot count on hiring out-of-state employees,” Risser said. “We will be at an increasing competitive disadvantage for educated employees.” Rep. Bar bara Ross (D Corvallis), a member of the subcom mittee, said she com mends these universities for highlighting the need for educa tion in highly technical fields. The subcommittee will go into a work session where it could pass the budget through to the full Ways and Means Committee, Ross said. The budget may receive ap proval as soon as Thursday, Den nis added. However, he said he doesn’t expects the budget to be fi nalized until later in the legislative session. “The committee has been listen ing to stuff about higher ed for the past two weeks, so I think this committee is getting tired of listen ing to higher education, and frankly, so am I,” Dennis said. Ross said she has been im pressed with the testimonies, es pecially those of students. “They have been tremendous,” she said. Today’s Events Wednesday, April 21 Joe Fracchia, an associate profes sor in the Robert Donald Clark Hon ors College, will give a gallery talk, "Embodied Culture,” at 6 p.m. dur ing the free MusEvenings! weekly program at the Museum of Art. • The Career Center is hosting the Career Fair from tta.m. to*4 p.m. Hi the EMU Ballroom. * The lesbian Cay Bisexual Trans gendered Alliance is showing a film for Pride Week in 180 PIC at 7 p.m. m "The Riverfront Research Park: Efforts to Preserve the Willamette Greenway ” a discussion on pre serving the last open space along the Willamette River in Eugene, takes place at noon at the EMU Artis phitheater. ■ "Bicycles for Appropriate Trans portation,” demonstrations, 2 p.m, at the EMU Amphitheater. m East European Folk Ensemble fol lowed by the Eugene Highlanders, 5 7 p.m. atthe EMU Amphitheater. 8 Ecofeminism Now/Baraka, 7:30 pjn. at 100 Willamette Hall (Reported April 13 to April 19} ■April 13, Theft II, 400 block of East 13th Avenue: bike stolen. ■April 13, Criminal Mischief II, 1600 block of Columbia Street, Facil ities Services: graffiti on walls. ■April 14,1400 block of Kincaid Street, Prince Lucien Campbell Hall: reckless burning. ■April 16, Burglary 1,1400 block of Alder Street items stolen. * April 17, Fugitive From Justice, Shoplift 1,800 block of East 13th Av enue, University Bookstore: attempt to steal items. m April 17, Burglary I, Criminal Trespass i, Criminal Mischief li, Ha rassment, 2000 block of Agate Street. m April 18, Burglary i, 500 block of East 16th Avenue. » April 18, Theft II, 1500 block of Kincaid Street, Knight Library: items stolen. m April 18, Harassment, Parole Vio lation, 1300 block of Alder Street. m April 19, Burglary 1,400 block of East 15th Avenue. ©regonSKsEmeralb The Oregon Oaily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A member of the Associated Press, the Emerald op erates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. NEWSROOM — 346-SS11 Editor in chief: Ryan Frank Managing Editor Laura Cadiz Community: Mike Hines, editor. Felicity Ayles, Amy Jennaro Entertainment Nicole Garton, editor Jack Clifford, Bryan Petersen Freelance: Ashley Bach, editor. Higher Education: Ten Meeuwsen, editor G. Jaros, Tricia Schwennesen In-depth: David Ryan Penpectivn: Kameron Cole, Stefanie Knowtton, editors. Aaron Artman, Amy Goldhammer, Vince Medeiros, Ashley Bach, columnists Bryan Dixon, Giovanni Salimena, illustrators Student Activities: Sarah Skidmore, editor, Jason George, Victor Runyan, Erin Snelgrove Sports: Tim Pyle, editor. Scott Pesznecker, Allison Ross, Mirjam Swanson Copy Desk: Jennifer Shinen, Rich Dirks, copy chiefs. 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