Columbine: Chapter 41 Summary & Analysis

Though Fuselier is confident in his diagnosis of Eric as a psychopath, he knows there will controversy and “resistance” over diagnosing such a young man. Three months after the attack, the FBI organizes a summit on school shooters, at which Fuselier briefs attendees on the inner workings of the killers’ minds and then tentatively posits, to minimize controversy, that Eric Harris was “a budding young psychopath.” As Fuselier waits for blowback, a psychiatrist in attendance speaks out: “I don’t think he was a budding young psychopath. I think he was a full-blown psychopath.”

Though the killers’ motives are now known, Fuselier is not permitted to talk to the public, as the FBI has prohibited him from speaking to the media. However, “failure to address the obvious” has begun to eat away at the Jeffco sheriff department’s already-waning credibility. Jeffco is covering a lot of things up—like the disappeared affidavit, which, Guerra attests, was “purged” from the system in the wake of the attacks.

Meanwhile, Patrick Ireland struggles to regain movement of his legs. He is rebuilding the frayed signals in his brain. He makes steady progress each day, and within a few weeks, he is on his feet. It will take him “months to hold a pen without shaking,” but he is on his way to normalcy. Another injured student, Anne Marie Hochhalter, receives less positive news. After weeks “delirious on morphine with a ventilator and a feeding tube keeping her alive,” Hochhalter finally asks a nurse whether she will ever walk again, and the nurse tells her she will not. She joins Patrick and several other survivors at the Craig rehab.

Families of the library victims return to the scene of the crime with investigators. School officials and families all realize that the library must be rebuilt—sending any child back in is “unthinkable.” Students, however, continue to fight for the idea of getting their school back—not as a tragedy, but as a high school. Tourists begin to arrive, angering the students further. On June 2nd, students are finally allowed to return to the building to collect the belongings which have been inside the school since the attack. The students are then “kicked out” again for another two months while the interior is renovated. Fall enrollment increases. Students want their school back. The library renovation will be total, but the rest of the school will be redesigned in a “balanced” way that will “surround [students] with changes too subtle to identify.” 

The parents of the thirteen victims form a group to support one another—the Thirteen—as one of the victims’ families files a wrongful death suit against the killers’ parents for a quarter of a billion dollars. The family insists that the lawsuit is a symbol, but the other victims’ families are largely repulsed—they have been spending the months after the attack rededicating their lives to social justice and activism, not seeking financial recompense. As relief funds pour in, families fight about how the money is allocated, and eventually the Healing Fund announces plans to distribute 40% of the 3.8 million raised to direct victims. The Thirteen will receive slightly more money than the survivors.

On May 28th, Kathy Harris writes condolence letters to the Thirteen. She sends all the letters in one envelope to a clearinghouse for victim correspondence. The school district turns the letters over to the sheriff’s department, who keep them as evidence.

Sue Klebold also writes apologies, and mails them directly to the Thirteen. Misty Bernall is moved by the letter she receives, and describes Sue Klebold’s act of writing it as “courageous,” recognizing that the Klebolds have no comfort whatsoever in their grief—at least Cassie died nobly.