a good deal of the harassment was verbal, with kids picking on Eric and Dylan because of their style of dress, musical tastes, and athletic ability.
• Eric and Dylan were both picked on by jocks during their bowling classes because “[the jocks] thought [they] could play the game better.” It did not help that both boys bowled unusually, with Dylan tossing his ball like a softball and Eric throwing his like a basketball.
A student in Dylan’s gym class said Dylan wasn’t very coordinated and that everybody made fun of him in class. They even called him “stretch” because he was so tall. Another classmate said students would refer to Dylan as “the jolly green giant.”
• “The asshole [redacted] in gym class, how he worries me.” – Dylan Klebold
• Jordan Grimm, a student who categorized himself as a “jock-prep,” stated that he would make fun of Dylan every time he saw him wearing his trench coat in the cafeteria.
• Ryan Walda stated that he and Dylan once got into an argument about Dylan’s AOL shirt after he asked him what it meant because he “wore it almost everyday.” Dylan told him it had to do with programming and an IM group called “punters and progs.” Ryan was on Dylan’s hit list.
• Bret O’Neil said Dylan was, “sort of the brunt of jokes.” He said they wouldn’t make fun of him openly, but Dylan may have been aware of it.
• According to Eric, a group of boys once shot up Dylan’s bicycle.
• Danielle Danford stated that Dylan once told her that the jocks were giving him trouble but didn’t elaborate any further.
• Devon Adams stated that she was pushed into the locker by a jock and called a “fag lover” for talking to Dylan.
• According to Brooks Brown, he, Eric, and Dylan were outside school smoking cigarettes when jocks drove past them and threw a glass bottle that shattered near Dylan’s feet. Brooks was pissed, but Eric and Dylan didn’t even flinch. Dylan said it happened all the time.
• Nathan Vanderau reported that Eric and Dylan were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a “cup of fecal matter” was thrown at them.
• Eric and Dylan had been the victims of a particularly humiliating incident in which they were surrounded in the cafeteria by other students who squirted them with ketchup, laughed at them, and called them “faggots.” Teachers were present at the time, but did nothing to intervene.
• Sue Klebold said Dylan came home from school with spots of ketchup all over his shirt. When she asked him what happened, he said he had the worst day of his life and didn’t want to talk about it.
• According to Robert Perry, “Eric had been constantly picked on, taunted, and had food thrown at him by some of the other students.”
• During sophomore year, someone named Ryan was friends with Eric. Ryan said he would sometimes join in on any teasing against Eric.
• One student said he spent the most of his time in gym class teasing Eric because he had a big head on a very skinny body. Another student said he had been relentless in his abuse of Eric during gym class and that the entire class ridiculed Eric for not being good at sports.
• Another student in Eric’s gym class said that after Eric won a dodgeball game, some jocks ganged up on him during the second game and hit him in the face with balls. After gym, they pushed him into lockers.
• “[Eric] had a slight chest deformity. It wasn't that noticeable — it was just sunken in a bit — but when Eric would take his shirt off in p.e. class, the bullies were ready and waiting to mock him.” – Brooks Brown
A student said it was routine for jocks to “line up across the hall, one next to the other, forcing students to have to go all the way down another hallway to get around them.” This video suggests Eric did not want to give in to their intimidation.
• Dylan was more likely to ignore the bullying, but Eric tried to stand up for himself on several occasions. Eric once challenged a wrestler who was known for harassing the TCM to a fight in the school parking lot. It was called off because the other boy brought friends for backup
• One student would always make fun of Eric’s clothes, so Eric told him to shut the fuck up. Another day, the bully came up to him and said “What’s up” in a smartass tone, so Eric yelled at him.
Dan Lab punched Eric in the face, which resulted in him ending up on Eric’s hit list. Dan wanted off the list. Eric agreed to take him off if he could punch him in the face, and if he “showed respect to [Eric] and Dylan,” and “never [made] another smartass remark about [them].”
Eric once told a bully: “Every day you pass me and make fun of me saying Rammstein sucks. Why do you do this crap, asshole? What did i do to you?” The student sarcastically replied, “Oh man, you’re so cool, you’re my idol!” Dylan approached them, seeming to back up his friend.
• In March of 1999, Eric was observed walking down the hallway with several students following him and taunting him, saying that “the war is over, you can go home.” Eric yelled, “Shut up assholes!”
• According to Dustin Harrison, Eric and Dylan would both get picked on during their classes and the teachers did not care or do anything to stop it.
• Chris Morris said Eric was constantly picked on by the jocks because he was small and that Eric was depressed as a result of this.
• After Dylan got in trouble for scratching a locker, he paced the Dean’s office and started to cuss. According to the Dean, he “was very upset with the school system and the way CHS handled people, including the people that picked on him and others.”
• On February 20, 1999, Eric and Dylan visited the Dean to seek help regarding a problem with another student. The boys told the Dean that this student was parking too closely to one of their cars and was “mouthy” with them. The Dean claimed to have told the student’s counselor.
• Mollie Weksler said some teachers at CHS picked favorites, and that Eric and Dylan were not one of their favorites. She said a female employee who ran the computer lab would unjustly pick on Eric and Dylan. They’d glare at her when this happened, but say nothing.
• Alyssa Sechler said Eric did not like their German teacher because she would always pick on Eric, herself (Alyssa), and Kristi Epling. In Kristi’s yearbook, Eric wrote: “Frau sucks, but German rules!”
• Dylan often slept in his calculus class. When this happened, the teacher would yell at him and embarrass him.
• Before the massacre, a teacher’s aide believed bullying was a serious problem at Columbine and raised the issue of bullying at a faculty meeting, but nobody acted on her complaint.
• Eric and Dylan’s manager at Blackjack said the boys “would gripe about how they did not feel they were being treated fairly and were unjustly persecuted at school.”
• “Everyone is always making fun of me because of how I look, how fucking weak I am and shit, well I will get you all back, ultimate fucking revenge here. You people could have shown more respect, treated me better, asked for my knowledge or guidance more, treated me more like a senior, and maybe I wouldn’t have been so ready to tear your fucking heads off.” – Eric Harris
• “People make fun of me... constantly... therefore I get no respect and therefore I get fucking PISSED.” – Eric Harris
• “If people would give me more compliments all of this might still be avoidable... but probably not. Whatever I do people make fun of me, and sometimes directly to my face. I’ll get revenge soon enough. Fuckers shouldn’t have ripped on me so much huh!” – Eric Harris
• “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 #, and I asked and all, but no. no no no don’t let the weird looking Eric KID come along, ooh fucking nooo.” – Eric Harris
According to Tom Klebold, Dylan denied being bullied himself but said people would pick on Eric.
• Dylan is possibly referencing bullying in these quotes from his journal: “Go to school, be scared and nervous... hoping that people can accept me... that I can accept them," “Nobody accepting me even though I want to be accepted,” “I swear - like I’m an outkast.”
• "Only four or five people here didn't rip on me - four or five out of the whole state of Colorado!" - Eric Harris
• "Whenever I’d start at a new school people would see me and say, “there’s another fucking scrawny white kid.” I had to go through all that shit so many times." - Eric Harris
• "I just know I want to kill the little fuckers who fucked with me. It’s going to be like Doom, man." - Dylan Klebold
• "Being shy didn't fucking help. I'm going to kill you all. You've been giving us shit for years." - Dylan Klebold
• During the basement tapes, they mentioned enemies that abused them and friends that didn't do enough to defend them.
• Multiple times throughout the massacre, Eric and Dylan mentioned "jocks" and people with "white hats," and said it was for everything they were put through the past four years.
• During the massacre, Eric told Bree Pasquale that it was all happening because people were mean to him last year.
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