Just over two years after the country’s deadliest school shooting, the families of the slain and injured have unveiled a new library at Columbine High School that replaces the one where most of the victims died.
The opening of the Hope Columbine Memorial Library at the Jefferson County, Colo., school was announced at a June 9 press conference. The 13,900-square-foot structure was financed by more than $3 million in donations raised by the families of those who died April 20, 1999, when Columbine seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into the school and began shooting.
The two teenagers killed one teacher and 12 fellow students—10 of whom were gunned down in the library—before taking their own lives. After the shootings, the district walled off the old library and moved the school’s collections to temporary buildings on campus, district spokeswoman Marilyn Saltzman said.
Along with raising money for a new library, the victims’ families had the floor of the old library removed and an atrium with a view of the Rocky Mountains built in its place last summer.
—DARCIA HARRIS BOWMAN
