| There are three words
the country learned in the wake of the school shooting in Littleton, Colorado.
Those three words were printed on school t-shirts and bumper stickers as
a pep rally slogan. Now, they take on historic value. The words are:
We Are Columbine.
The strength, cohesion,
and spirituality of the community and school was brought under the microscope
of national media attention when two young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
"declared war" on their high school. "Declared war" is a description given
by law enforcement, school officials, and Littleton citizens who describe
the events of April 19, 1999.
Events of such a magnitude
bring the community in which they happen to the foreground. In this multimedia
study, jointly produced by the Digital Journalist, and Behind the Viewfinder,
we take to behind the scenes covering the events of late April 1999.
Unique to this coverage,
is the participation of James Keivom from the photojournalist journal site:
Behind the Viewfinder. James, who writes about his life and work as a freelancer
in Boulder, has described in previous diaries covering his 4th riot in
4 years, the most recent one to celebrate the Denver Bronco's championship.
As word of the shooting made it's way across national news wires, and the
"national media" started moving its forces in to cover the story, James
wrote a short note to the Behind
the Viewfinder project:
-----Original
Message-----
From: James
Keivom [mailto:keivom@rintintin.colorado.edu]
Sent: Wednesday,
April 21, 1999 5:26 AM
To: nordengren@digitalstoryteller.com
Subject: SHOOTING
PHOTOS
Fritz, here
are the images, and their captions are in the file info section. I don't
have much to say right now as I have to go and shoot the memorials, but
the pictures say enough for now. Being down there was strange, you'd go
in phases where you would be numb and then suddenly snap out of it and
feel frustrated and angry that such madness could go on. The event was
so unpredictable, heck, even Nostradamus couldn't have predicted it. I'll
add the words later on.
 As
Keivom worked as a freelancer, the Denver Rocky Mountain News team of photojournalists
took on the incredible challenge of bring this story to the world. Their
task required feeding the wire services, Sygma, and other Scripps Howard
newspapers. But as community photojournalists who live there, they took
on the almost impossible challenge of telling this story to their home
town. Covering a war is no easy job. Covering the war at home is the challenge
met by the RMN team, and freelancers like Keivom.
RealAudio: Janet Reeves
talks about publishing the extra edition of the
Rocky Mountain News - "That was the start of some very good coverage." |
