Editing Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (section)

====Bullying====
At the end of Harris's last journal entry, he wrote: "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't fucking say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come along, ooh fucking nooo."<ref name=USAToday/> However, in another entry by Eric in his journal, he stated that even if he were complimented and respected more by his peers, the attack would've still, in all likelihood, occurred.<ref name=langman_16>{{cite web |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_search_for_justification_1.3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120065247/https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_search_for_justification_1.3.pdf |archive-date=November 20, 2021 |url-status=live |quote=If people would give me more compliments all of this might still be avoidable... but probably not. |first=Peter |last=Langman |title=Eric Harris: The Search for Justification |date=3 February 2016}}</ref>

Similarly, Klebold wrote in his journal both about perceived rejection, bullying others, his desire to belong, and his extreme contempt for others. In January 1997, he wrote, "I am GOD compared to some of those un-existable [sic] brainless zombies," referring to his perception of the morons of the world. In March 1997, he wrote, "I do shit to supposedly ‘cleanse’ myself in a spiritual, moral sort of way... trying not to ridicule/make fun of people ([name omitted] at school), yet it does nothing to help my life morally."<ref>{{cite web |title=Dylan Klebold's Journal and Other Writings Transcribed and Annotated |url=https://schoolshooters.info/dylan-klebolds-journal-and-other-writings-transcribed-and-annotated |website=SchoolShooters.info |access-date=31 December 2023 |archive-date=December 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231033632/https://schoolshooters.info/dylan-klebolds-journal-and-other-writings-transcribed-and-annotated |url-status=live }}</ref>

Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years. You're fucking gonna pay for all the shit! We don't give a shit. Because we're gonna die doing it."<ref>{{cite episode |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwxoDRYJ7_M |series=Zero Hour |title=Massacre at Columbine High |season=1 |number=3 |network=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History]] |airdate=2004|access-date=June 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108181605/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwxoDRYJ7_M |archive-date=January 8, 2015|url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=basement /> However, they also stated on the tapes that nobody is to blame and nobody could have prevented the attack.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/columbine_basement_tapes_1.0.pdf|title="Transcript of the Columbine "Basement Tapes"|access-date=October 6, 2018|archive-date=July 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715180540/https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/columbine_basement_tapes_1.0.pdf|url-status=live}}"There is nothing you guys could have done to prevent any of this. There is nothing that anyone could have done to prevent this. No one is to blame except me and Vodka [Klebold's nickname]. Our actions are a two man war against everyone else."</ref>

Accounts from various parents and school staffers describe bullying at the school as "rampant".<ref>{{cite news|first=Howard|last=Pankratz|date=October 3, 2000|url=http://extras.denverpost.com/news/col1003a.htm|title=Columbine bullying no myth, panel told|newspaper=[[Denver Post]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607090541/http://extras.denverpost.com/news/col1003a.htm |archive-date=June 7, 2013 }}</ref> Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, Harris's eighth-grade science partner, reported that Harris and Klebold were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them.<ref name=UnderstandingWhy>{{YouTube|KikvzIlNg9g|''Investigative Reports: Columbine: Understanding Why''}}. [[A&E (TV channel)|A&E]]. 2002</ref> "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots", Brooks Brown says. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it."<ref name=DenverWestword1/> In his book ''[[No Easy Answers|No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine]]'', Brown wrote that Harris was born with mild [[Pectus excavatum|chest indent]]. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him.<ref name=brooksbrown/>

"A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us", Chad Laughlin states. "There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board. I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." That incident, according to Laughlin, involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons.<ref name=DenverWestword2/> However, other commentators have disputed the theory that bullying was the motivating factor.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/19/bullies-black-trench-coats-columbine-shootings-most-dangerous-myths/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421033120/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/19/bullies-black-trench-coats-columbine-shootings-most-dangerous-myths/ |archive-date=April 21, 2019 |url-status=live |title=Bullies and black trench coats: The Columbine shooting's most dangerous myths |first=Gillian |last=Brockell
|date=20 April 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Jeff Kass who has also published a book on the attack believes that bullying wasn't the cause.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/20/columbine.myths/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113151945/https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/20/columbine.myths/ |archive-date=November 13, 2023 |url-status=live |title=Debunking the myths of Columbine, 10 years later |work=CNN |first=Stephanie |last=Chen |date=20 April 2009}}</ref> [[Peter F. Langman|Peter Langman]] also argues against bullying being the cause of the attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/search_for_truth_at_columbine_2.2.pdf |title=The Search for Truth at Columbine |access-date=13 April 2024 |archive-date=November 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120065255/https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/search_for_truth_at_columbine_2.2.pdf |url-status=live |first=Peter |last=Langman |date=31 July 2014 |website=schoolshooters.info}}</ref><ref name=langman_16 /> Other researchers have concurred.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564886.2017.1307295?journalCode=uvao20|doi=10.1080/15564886.2017.1307295|title=Columbine Revisited: Myths and Realities About the Bullying–School Shootings Connection|year=2017|last1=Mears|first1=Daniel P.|last2=Moon|first2=Melissa M.|last3=Thielo|first3=Angela J.|journal=Victims & Offenders|volume=12|issue=6|pages=939–955|s2cid=148745392|access-date=November 20, 2021|archive-date=November 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120065244/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564886.2017.1307295?journalCode=uvao20|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>