Dylan and Eric's Experience With Bullying

This is an opinion I often see people bring up to villainize Eric and Dylan. I believe this traces back largely to Dave Cullen (as well as the Columbine principals insistence that no bullying occurs whatsoever), who in his book and the wonderfully insensitive video "Lessons of Columbine"
not only claimed they weren't bullied and never mentioned bullying; but that they were pot-smoking, keg-pounding popular bros who were drowning in bitches and too busy partying to have any real troubles.

To put it bluntly, this is one of the most pathetic attempts at demonizing them and misinforming the public that I've ever seen. Absolutely nothing about this argument is true. But let's take this chance to create a full compilation of all confessions and accounts of bullying as well as their own personal mentions of it in their diary and other media.

Let's start with the easiest to disprove:

"Neither of their diaries mentions bullying anywhere!"

Uhhh...what journals are you reading?

• Dylan's journal, March 1997: "I see how different i am (aren't we all you'll say) yet i'm on such a greater scale of difference (as far as I kno, or guess)"


• Dylan's journal, September 1997: "I have always been hated, by everyone & everything, just never aware...."


• Dylan's journal, April 1997: "I dont know what i do wrong with people (mainly women) - its like they all set out to hate & ignore me."


• Dylan's journal, November 1997: "The meak are trampled on, the assholes prevail"


• Eric's journal, November 1998: "Everyone is always making fun of me for 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 knowledge and guidance more, treated me more like a senior and maybe I wouldn’t have been so ready to tear your fucking heads off."


• Eric's journal, November 1998: "I have practically no self-esteem, especially concerning girls and looks and such. Therefore people make fun of me . . . constantly . . . "


• Eric's Journal, November 1998: "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's journal, April 1999: "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 don’t let the weird looking Eric kid come along, ohh hell nooo."

Sure, they didn't technically say word-for-word "Today I got bullied at school," but Jesus, I learned the magic of synonyms and inferences in my grade 4 English class. You'd think a guy who claims to be a reliable professional when it comes to journalism would have that level of sense when it comes to reading.

Cullen even goes so far in his speeches to say not even synonyms for "bullying" were used, so here's a list of synonyms or near-synonyms for bullying used in Dylan and Eric's journal entries:

• "Ripping"
• "Made fun of"
• "Trampled on"
• "Hated"

Some other mentions of bullying or harassment from the transcript of the basement tapes:

• "Dylan then recalls how popular and athletic his older brother Byron was and how he constantly "ripped" on him, as did his brother's friends."


• "Klebold: "You made me what I am. You added to the rage." Dylan says that as far back as the Foothills Day Care center he hated the "stuck-up" kids who he felt hated him.


• Klebold: "Being shy didn't help. I'm going to kill you all. You've been giving us shit for years.""


• "They also mention enemies that abused them and friends who didn't do enough to defend them"

"But they could've been lying!/Their personal view was warped!"

This is also an argument with an abundance of evidence against it. Let's make a lovely compilation of all of the witness accounts or personal confessions regarding Eric and Dylan's bullying.

I think I'll start off strong with Evan Todd's confession about harassing the perceived members of the "TCM," including Eric and Dylan, as well as other students.

(you can view this comment in the original Time Magazine article here.)

I'd like to take a moment to note this is the same guy who, according to the 11k report, said that during the massacre, upon being asked by Dylan why he shouldn't be killed, and angering Dylan with the reply of "not wanting any trouble," he said: "That's not what I meant! I mean, I don't have a problem with you guys. I never will and I never did." Dylan stared at him for a moment then looked away, saying: "I'm gonna let this fat fuck live, you can have at him if you want to."

"Columbine is a clean, good place except for those rejects," Todd says of Klebold and Harris and their friends. "Most kids didn't want them there. They were into witchcraft. They were into voodoo dolls. Sure, we teased them. But what do you expect with kids who come to school with weird hairdos and horns on their hats? It's not just jocks; the whole school's disgusted with them. They're a bunch of homos, grabbing each other's private parts. If you want to get rid of someone, usually you tease 'em. So the whole school would call them homos, and when they did something sick, we'd tell them, 'You're sick and that's wrong.'"

Personally, this is not how I talk about someone who I have no problem with, but this guy has always generally been a piece of shit and this experience made no difference in that as far as I can tell.

He's currently a still-homophobic, anti-vaxx, conspiracy spouting bible-thumper. I won't lie, he hasn't gone on to make a great case for his survival.

• John Savage said athletes would throw skittles at them, and that on at least one occasion, it escalated further, with Hoffschneider (Rocky Hoffschneider, known athlete and bully) and his friends surrounding Harris and Klebold's table and taunting them, "Why don't you two fags kiss? You guys are such sweethearts."


• Savage also said Dylan was teased for his clothes.


• Zach Johnston said: "My friend Cale referred to them as the "RammStein Boyz." Whatever you wanted to call them, you could tell they were different. Well, one day, My friend snarled a remark about Rammstein under his breath as we passed these 2 guys. The short one, who was named Eric Harris, confronted my friend about it. He said, "Every day you pass me and make fun of me saying Rammstein sucks. Why do you do this shit? What did I do to you?" My friend replied "oh man you're so cool, you're my idol!" Then Eric's friend Dylan approached us, seeming to back up his friend."


• An account from an unnamed student to the Enquirer: "There was an incident a year ago that set Eric and Dylan off on their murderous course. They were sitting in the library wearing their ridiculous heavy black coats on a warm spring day last April. A group of girls was sniggering at the table next to them, and Eric finally asked what they were laughing at. One of them told him, "You guys look alike, talk alike and are always together. We just want to know when you're getting married!" A look of rage came over Eric's face, and he made a fist at the girl. "Shut up!" he shouted. Dylan got up and screamed, "You're all so stupid! Everyone in this school is stupid! You better watch it!"


• Danielle Danford said Dylan once complained to them about jocks giving him trouble.


• Patrice Doyle said Eric and Dylan were bullied for "bowling weird" and wearing trenchcoats, but were not bothered before wearing the coats.


• Joseph Ragole said jocks would pick on Eric and Dylan in the halls.


• Justin Baer said Eric was picked on in gym class by jocks, and they would push him into lockers.


• Amy Evans noted they were both teased for wearing trench coats on hot days.


• Angela Nelson and David Smith both said Eric was bullied "occasionally."


• Steve Trujillo said he heard about Eric and Dylan being bullied and shoved into lockers, but hadn't seen it himself.


• Mollie Weksler said teachers and staff members also picked on Dylan and Eric.


• Chris Morris said Eric was bullied for being small, got picked on more than Dylan and had said he was depressed because of the harassment.


• Blackjack Pizza owner Robert Kirgis heard Eric and Dylan mention that they were harassed by jocks, and heard them say they got picked on "because they were nerds."


• An account from a redacted student: "Relentless in his (unnamed student's) abuse of Eric during gym, Eric was bad at sports; others teased him too"
  
• Another redacted student "had friends who taunted Eric."


• And yet another redacted student "made fun of Eric in gym; [Eric] had big head on skinny body; and made fun of lots of people (not just Eric.)"


• Kristi Epling and Alyssa Sechler noted Eric was teased by jocks and others for his size and the way he dressed.


• Cory Friesen thought Eric and Dylan were "picked on constantly" at school.


• Robert Perry said, "like a lot of other TCM members, he (Eric) had been constantly picked on, taunted, and had food thrown at them."


• Mike Paavilainen claimed Eric and Dylan were teased more during Junior year by jocks who graduated in 1998, and that Eric was teased for heil Hitler salute during bowling.


• Nathan Vanderau witnessed a cup of feces being thrown at Eric and Dylan. (see 18:58 in linked reference for this mention.)


• Devon Adams told the Governor's Columbine Review Commission that the boys were regularly called "homos, fags, losers, weirdos and freaks."


• Brooks Brown recounted in his book: "I was smoking cigarettes with [Klebold and Harris] when a bunch of football players drove by, yelled insults, and threw a glass bottle that shattered near Dylan's feet. I was pissed, but Eric and Dylan didn't even flinch. "Don't worry about it, man," Dylan said. "It happens all the time.""


• Devon Adams recounted that some jocks had spotted her talking to Dylan in the school hallway between classes. After she walked away from him, one of the bullies slammed her against the lockers and called her a "fag lover." None of the students came to help her, and when asked why she didn't report the incident to administration, she replied that it "wouldn't do any good, because they wouldn't do anything about it."


• Brooks Brown said that once, people surrounded Eric and Dylan in the commons and threw ketchup packets at them. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it."


• Chad Laughlin said "I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." in reference to the aforementioned incident witnessed by Brooks. He also stated they were ketchup-covered tampons, rather than regular packets.


• Eric complained to coworkers Kim Carlin and Sara Arbogast that some jocks were bullying him.


• In "A Mother's Reckoning," Sue says: "Once, during sophomore year, Dylan said something to Tom about "hating the jocks." Tom asked if they were giving him a hard time, and Dylan answered with confidence: "They don't bother me. I'm 6'4. But they sure give Eric hell."


• Also in "A Mother's Reckoning," Sue recalls a time in junior high where he came home crying and she couldn't get an answer as to why. She also mentions the ketchup incident, saying that Dylan came home covered in ketchup stating he'd had the "worst day of his life," and didn't want to talk about it.

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With sources this extensive, It's clear that plenty of people beyond Dylan and Eric themselves believed they were bullied. Multiple people admitted to harassing Eric and Dylan by their own hands, on top of the massive number of witness accounts. Believing Eric and Dylan were never bullied, and even beyond that were overall popular and well-liked students, is simply unrealistic when you look at the facts of Columbine's student environment.
Their music did not make them cool, because it was the 90s. The way they dressed did not make them cool, because it was the 90s. Their skill with computers did not make them cool, because it was (gasp) the 90s. None of these aspects improved their standing with their fellow students, no matter what Cullen would like to have you believe. It made them, as you can obviously see, weird-acting goth nerd freaks in these people's eyes. Not a cool label.

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Pt. 3 currently in progress!

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