Yesterday, somewhere I noticed a blurb about someone requesting a tour of Columbine High. The school district as expected declined the request.

This got me to thinking about Columbine, so I decided to do a search. As with all big news stories of recent vintage, the results were numerous, almost overwhelming and confusing. I quickly learned I had to consider several questions. Did the information appear valid? Could it have been superseded by more recent info? How objective was the data?

I guess I'd never really examined the situation before. So it was a scary experience to read through the timeline and look at the diagrams with multi-colored dots representing shooters, injured, deceased and witnesses.

Then I read about the "climate" of the school: the preferential treatment given to the jocks, the harassement of the "outsiders", and the indifference of the administration. Having read that I'm surprised such events are not far more common.

It was not surprising to read that one of the most common epithets thrown as the "outsiders" was "fag." Within the pecking order, the ultimate denigration was to be gay.

There were many articles about suggestions on how to prevent such a tragedy. Better security. More personnel. Smaller schools. Schools designed with a view toward safety. How to spot the "hostile" student.

Very little showed up about changing the psychological environment of a school. Or how to alter the culture that the school represents.

So having done lots of reading, I'm not sure I'm any wiser. About the safest thing I can say is that society is not either.

PAX!