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
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and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by
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the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A
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in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The
Emerald is private property. The unlawful removal
or use of papers is prosecutable by law.
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