Sue Klebold

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Sue Klebold (* 25. March 1949 as Susan Frances Yassenoff in Columbus , Ohio ) is an American author and activist . She gained worldwide fame after her 17-year-old son Dylan Klebold and his school friend Eric Harris committed the rampage at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 and then committed suicide.

Klebold dealt with the act and the suicide of her son in her 2016 memoir Love Is Not Enough - I'm the mother of a gunman (original title: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy ), which became a bestseller . She donates her share of the book's proceeds to institutions that are dedicated to suicide and violence prevention as well as educating people about mental illnesses and researching them. She regularly gives lectures on suicide prevention herself.

biography

Klebold's life before the rampage

Sue Klebold was born on March 25, 1949 to Charlotte (née Haugh, 1921–1987) and Milton Rice Yassenoff (1919–1967) in Columbus, Ohio. Her mother was an accountant and her father, who had Russian ancestry, worked as a cinema manager. As a toddler he was adopted by the successful Jewish businessman Leo Yassenoff (1893–1971) and his wife Betty (née Lupton). Leo Yassenoff was considered a philanthropist and when he died he bequeathed almost all of his multi-million dollar fortune to charitable organizations. The Jewish community center in Columbus was named after him.

Klebold grew up in Bexley, Ohio with her older sister Diane and younger brother Philip. After graduating from Columbus School for Girls in 1967, she first studied at Knox College in Galesburg , Illinois , and then moved to Ohio State University in 1969 . There she met Thomas Klebold (* 1947), whom she married in July 1971. In 1972, Klebold graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in art education with a minor in psychology. She then moved with her husband to Milwaukee , Wisconsin , where she worked as an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital. In 1975 she began studying at Cardinal Stritch College, which she completed with a master's degree in educational science. In addition to her studies, she taught socially disadvantaged primary school students.

In October 1978, Klebold gave birth to their first son, Byron. Two years later, the Klebolds moved to Colorado , where they settled in Littleton, in the Denver metropolitan area. As part of her work at Colorado Community College, she helped people with disabilities to integrate into the labor market. In September 1981 their second son Dylan was born, who attended Columbine High School in Columbine from 1995 . Sue and Thomas Klebold were seen as attentive, concerned and committed parents and did not tolerate any weapons in their household. Looking back, Sue Klebold said: "The ordinariness of our lives before Columbine will perhaps be the hardest thing for people to understand about my story." ("The ordinariness of our pre-Columbine life will be perhaps the hardest part of my story for people to understand.")

The day of the rampage and the time after

On the morning of April 20, 1999, Sue Klebold heard her 17-year-old son Dylan rush out of the house before sunrise. Later that morning, he and his 18-year-old school friend, Eric Harris, went on a rampage at their school in which they shot and killed twelve students and a teacher. Another 24 people were injured, some seriously. The two then committed suicide. Sue Klebold was at work in Denver when her husband notified her around 12:00 noon that there had been a shooting at Columbine High School and that Dylan was suspected of being a suspect. In the late afternoon, the police informed them of their son's death and evicted the Klebolds from their home to search for evidence. Her son's name was announced by the media late on the evening of the day. For the next four days, the Klebolds went into hiding with relatives to avoid reporters. Worried about the desecration of the grave, Sue and Thomas Klebold had their son's body cremated on April 24, 1999. The funeral took place in close family and friends.

The day after the rampage, the Klebolds issued a statement through their lawyer expressing their condolences to the relatives of the victims and the injured. In May 1999, Sue Klebold wrote personal letters to the 13 families of the murdered and later also to the wounded victims, expressing her condolences.

At first, the Klebolds did not believe in their son's deliberate involvement. It was only after they received the police report and video footage showing Dylan and Eric discussing their plan in October 1999, after the investigation was over, that they realized the extent of the crime and his guilt. In an interview with Andrew Solomon Sue Klebold later stated: “Seeing those videos was as traumatic as the original event […] Everything I had refused to believe was true. Dylan was a willing participant and the massacre was not a spontaneous impulse. " ("Seeing these videos was as traumatic as the original event [...] Everything I didn't want to believe was true. Dylan was a willing participant and the massacre was not a spontaneous impulse.") Investigators later came after evaluating his left behind Journal entries concluded that Dylan had been depressed and suicidal for about two years . The Klebolds did not find out about the existence and content of his written records until a year after the act.

After the rampage, Sue and Thomas Klebold and Eric Harris' parents were exposed to massive criticism, numerous accusations and hostility from the public. They were accused of, among other things, a lack of parental care and overlooked warning signals. Despite the hostility, the Klebolds decided against changing their name or moving away. They were supported and protected by their friends and neighbors. Nevertheless, the Klebolds lived very isolated in the first few months after the crime and could not confide in their friends or a self-help group, as they might have had to testify against them in a later court case.

Neither the Klebolds nor Harris' parents were prosecuted. In April 2001, both parents reached a settlement with the families of the victims for a total of 1.6 million US dollars in compensation, which was covered by their homeowner insurance. After the legal disputes were settled, over the years Klebold met with some of the victims' relatives.

In July 2003, Klebolds and Harris' parents testified under oath and in camera. The statements, recorded and sealed by court order, will be kept Template: future / in 5 yearsin the US National Archives until their planned publication in 2027 due to their historical value .

Two years after the killing spree, Klebold contracted breast cancer , from which she was able to be cured. She later developed post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered from panic attacks . The Klebolds divorced in 2014 after 43 years. As the reason for the divorce, Sue Klebold stated that their views on the act and the way they coped with grief were too different that in the end they no longer had anything in common. While Thomas Klebold attributed the natural things more to external factors such as the social climate at school or bullying and wanted to finish with what she had experienced, Sue Klebold suffered from feelings of guilt and dealt introspectively with her son's development into a killer.

Step out in public

In the first five years after the killing spree, the Klebolds avoided contact with the media on the advice of their lawyer, on the one hand for fear that their statements could be misinterpreted and on the other hand because they received numerous threats in the months after the crime. In May 2004, in an interview with the New York Times, they first publicly commented on their son's rampage and the criticism of them and stated that Dylan had committed the act not because of, but against his upbringing. Klebold and her husband granted another interview in 2012 for Andrew Solomon's book Far From the Tribe . In it she said about her son: “I know it would have been better for the world if Dylan had never been born. But I believe it would not have been better for me. " ("I know it would have been better for the world if Dylan had never been born. But I think it wouldn't have been better for me.") She gave another interview to Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt for her book The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable (2020).

In 2009 Sue Klebold wrote an essay for Oprah Winfrey's O magazine in which she wrote that she had no idea about her son's depression and suicidality. The Denver Post ruled that the essay was eloquently written and moving, but at the same time revealed little that was helpful for understanding. In 2016, she published her memoir Love Is Not Enough - I'm the Mother of a Gunman , in which she gives insight into Dylan's childhood and adolescence, as well as her family life before and after the crime. She also tries to find explanations for her son's actions and answers on how the act could have been prevented. She sees her own failure as failing to recognize the signs of her son's mental health problems. According to Klebold, her ex-husband and son Byron were uncomfortable with the thought of publishing their memoirs, but they would never have tried to stop them. The work was ranked No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list in the non-fiction category . Klebold donates its share of the book's proceeds to organizations that are dedicated to suicide and violence prevention as well as education and research on mental illnesses. Their donations totaled $ 427,200 from 2015 to the end of 2018.

In February 2016, Klebold granted her first television interview to Diane Sawyer for the ABC Special 20/20: Silence Broken. A Mother's Reckoning. In it she said among other things: “I think we like to believe that our love and our understanding is protective, and that 'if anything were wrong with my kids, I would know,' but I didn't know, and I wasn't able to stop him from hurting other people. I wasn't able to stop his hurting himself and it's very hard to live with that. " (“I think we like to believe that our love and understanding are protective, and 'if something is wrong with my children, I would know,' but I didn't know and I couldn't stop him from talking to other people I couldn't keep him from harming himself, and it's very difficult to live with. ”) The reactions to the interview were mixed. While the Attorney General of the state of Colorado commented on Twitter that Klebold's move to the public was irresponsible because it could inspire her son 's imitators , the daughter of the teacher who was killed in the rampage expressed sympathy for Sue Klebold: "If anybody's pain is bigger than mine, I imagine it's hers. " ("If someone's pain is greater than mine, then I assume it's hers.") Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was seriously injured in the rampage and has been in a wheelchair since then, shared on Facebook that she had no grudge against Sue Klebold cherished, and praised the fact that she donated the proceeds of her book. Patrick Ireland, who had survived two headshots inflicted by Dylan Klebold, said during the interview that he preferred to forget the perpetrators and their families. The author Dave Cullen found that Klebold provided “thrilling insights and a gripping portrait” of the gradual development of her son into a murderer: “We saw the agony of a mom living with those two visions of her boy, struggling to reconcile them even now [...]. " ("We have seen the agony of a mother who has to live with these two faces of her boy and is still struggling to reconcile them [...].")

Klebold confirmed in interviews that she had occasional contact with Eric Harris 'parents, but emphasized that she wanted to protect their privacy and that no one should take the Harrises' silence about the rampage as indifference. For most relatives of people who have done something so terrible, it is too difficult to go public and relive the memory of the event over and over again. Your own willingness to talk about it is the exception.

Klebold's views on her son's involvement

Klebold came to the opinion that the rampage could not be traced back to a single cause such as bullying or poor gun control, but was caused by a combination of biological, psychological, social and ecological factors as well as triggering events. In addition to the influence of his accomplice Eric Harris, she believes that Dylan's suicidal tendencies are decisive for his involvement.

She understands the death of her son as an extended suicide (murder-suicide) . This perspective enabled her to see the rampage in a different light: "Whatever else he had intended, Dylan had gone to the school to die." ("Whatever else he was up to, Dylan went to school to die.")

Regarding his state of mind and the psyche of Harris, who has been classified by experts as a psychopath , she said in an interview with the Guardian : “They had different brain conditions. I believe Dylan had some kind of a mood disorder. I believe psychopathy is in a different category. [...] I don't want to say someone commits crimes because they have a mental illness - that is not true - but I strongly believe that both Dylan and Eric were victims of their own pathology, just as everyone else was a victim of that pathology. " ("They were in different mental states. I suppose Dylan had some kind of mood disorder . I think psychopathy falls into a different category. [...] I don't want to say that someone commits a crime because they have a mental illness has - that's not true - but I firmly believe that both Dylan and Eric were victims of their own pathology , just like all the others were victims of this pathology. ")

In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Klebold expressed her conviction that she could have prevented her son from being involved if she had realized that something was wrong with him: “[…] if I had recognized that Dylan was experiencing some real mental distress… he would not have been there. He would have gotten help. " ("[...] if I had realized that Dylan had real mental health problems ... he would not have been there. He would have gotten help.")

social commitment

Since the rampage and suicide of her son, Klebold has been committed to suicide prevention by giving regular lectures, among other things. Your lecture My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story at TED Talks in November 2016 was viewed over 10 million times by February 2020. She is a member of the Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and a subcommittee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline . She also took part in the 2019 documentary American Tragedy - Love Is Not Enough , in which she is interviewed and her story is re-enacted. In the end credits of the film, it is pointed out that their participation was free of charge.

Klebold sees her calling in her commitment: “[At first] you feel helpless and beaten by life and then you begin to feel like a survivor [and you are] going to try to help other people going through this type of loss. And then you become an advocate, someone who wants to make a change and it kind of crystallizes what you want to live for and fight for. " ("[At first] you feel helpless and battered by life, and then you start to feel like a survivor [and] try to help other people through this kind of loss. And then you become an advocate, someone who wants to change something and it crystallizes out what you want to live and fight for. ") The psychologist and author Peter Langman , whom Klebold had interviewed during her research for her book, wrote about her:" I have studied dozens of school shooters and their families, and am not aware of any other parent of a perpetrator who has pursued this path. I applaud Sue Klebold for her courage and her commitment. " ("I have studied dozens of school ramblers and their families and I don't know of any other parent of an offender who has taken this route. I admire Sue Klebold's courage and commitment.")

Works

  • I will never know why. Essay in O, The Oprah Magazine , November 2009.
  • Love is not enough - I'm the mother of a gunman. From the American by Andrea Kunstmann. S. Fischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-596-03431-4 (paperback); ISBN 978-3-10-403579-6 (e-book);
    Original: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy. The Crown Publishing Group ( Penguin Random House ), New York, NY 2016, ISBN 978-1-101-90275-2 (hardcover); ISBN 978-0-147-52670-0 (audio book, read by Sue Klebold, Random House Audio).
  • If guns had been harder for my son to buy, Columbine might not have happened. Op-Ed in The Washington Post , February 2016.

Footage

  • 2016: 20/20: Silence Broken. A Mother's Reckoning (ABC special, Sue Klebold in an interview with Diane Sawyer)
  • 2016: The Dr. Oz Show (Sue Klebold in an interview with Mehmet Öz )
  • 2019: American Tragedy - Love Is Not Enough (Documentary)
  • 2019: The Fifth Estate (Season 45, Episode 5: Dear Mr. Bissonnette ; Sue Klebold in an interview with Mark Kelley)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Jeff Kass: Columbine: A True Crime Story. Conundrum Press, Golden, CO 2014, ISBN 978-1-938633-26-3 , pp. 33-46.
  2. ↑ Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , p. 268.
  3. ↑ Sharon Cohen: Friends of Suspects' Families Mystified. In: The Denver Post. April 26, 1999, accessed May 26, 2019.
  4. ^ JS Hong et al .: The social ecology of the Columbine High School shootings. In: Children and Youth Services Review. No. 33. Elsevier, 2011, pp. 861-868, here: pp. 864 f. ( online [PDF; accessed October 18, 2019]).
    Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , p. 155.
  5. ↑ a b Dinah Lenney: In 'A Mother's Reckoning', Sue Klebold tries to make sense of her son and Columbine. In: The Los Angeles Times. February 14, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019.
  6. ^ A b Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , pp. 587 ff.
  7. ^ Jaclyn Schildkraut, Glenn W. Muschert: Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond. 2019, p. 26.
  8. ↑ Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , pp. 278 ff.
  9. ↑ Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , pp. 230 f., 530.
    Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , p. 589.
  10. ↑ Quoted from Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , p. 593.
  11. ↑ Ralph W. Larkin: Comprehending Columbine. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA 2007, ISBN 978-1-59213-490-8 , p. 148.
  12. ^ Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , p. 590.
  13. ^ A b David Brooks: Columbine: Parents of a Killer. In: The New York Times. May 15, 2004, accessed June 9, 2019.
  14. ↑ Susanne Billig: The mother of the gunman. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. September 23, 2016, accessed October 9, 2019.
  15. ↑ Jeff Kass: Columbine: A True Crime Story. Conundrum Press, Golden, CO 2014, ISBN 978-1-938633-26-3 , pp. 277 f.
    Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , pp. 660 ff.
  16. ↑ a b c d Columbine killer's mother Sue Klebold: He was our Sunshine Boy. In: The New Zealand Herald . February 15, 2016, accessed May 26, 2019.
  17. ^ Howard Pankratz: 20-year seal put on Columbine depositions. In: The Denver Post. April 2, 2007, accessed June 7, 2019.
  18. ↑ Teresa Woodard: Mother of Columbine shooter speaks in Dallas: 'I hated what he did, but I never hated him'. WFAA.com, November 1, 2018, accessed May 26, 2019.
  19. ^ Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , pp. 589, 591.
  20. ^ Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , p. 589.
  21. ↑ Susan Dominus: 'A Mother's Reckoning' by Sue Klebold. In: The New York Times. February 15, 2016, accessed May 26, 2019.
  22. ↑ Quoted from Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-7432-3671-3 , p. 598.
  23. ↑ Melody Chiu: Katherine Schwarzenegger to Release Book About Forgiveness: 'It's Really a Gift You Give Yourself'. In: People. November 19, 2019, accessed November 20, 2019.
  24. ↑ Edecio Martinez: Susan Klebold Essay in O Magazine: Columbine Killer's Mom "haunted by the horror" Son Caused. CBS News, October 14, 2009, accessed May 26, 2019.
  25. ↑ Mike Littwin: Littwin: Essay by Klebold's mother reveals little. In: The Denver Post. October 13, 2009, accessed June 1, 2019.
  26. ^ The New York Times Best Sellers. In: The New York Times. The New York Times Company, March 6, 2016, accessed May 26, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Susan Dominus: 'A Mother's Reckoning' by Sue Klebold. In: The New York Times. February 15, 2016, Retrieved May 26, 2019.
    Emma Brockes : My son, the Columbine high school shooter: 'a mother is supposed to know' In: The Guardian. February 14, 2016, accessed September 22, 2019.
  28. ↑ Brittany Freeman: How Much Has the Book By the Mother of a Columbine Killer Raised for Charity? In: Rocky Mountain PBS News. April 20, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  29. ↑ Quoted from Jimmy Benjamin: Columbine shooter's mother tells students to be aware of signs of suicide, struggle of others. In: The Duke Chronicle. September 11, 2018, accessed September 21, 2019.
  30. ↑ a b Emilie Rusch: Mixed reaction expressed in Colorado after Sue Klebold talks with Diane Sawyer. In: The Denver Post. February 13, 2016, accessed September 21, 2019.
  31. ↑ Margaret Dawson, Lauren Effron: Healing After Columbine: Survivors, Victims' Families Talk About Moving Forward. ABC News. February 12, 2016, accessed October 11, 2019.
  32. ↑ a b Dave Cullen: Updated: Columbine Mother Sue Klebold's First TV Interview Was a Startling Look at the Parent of a Mass Shooter. In: Vanity Fair . February 13, 2016, accessed May 26, 2019.
  33. ↑ Andrea Dukakis: 'I'll Never Know If I Could Have Prevented It,' Says Mother Of Columbine Shooter. Cpr.org. February 16, 2016, accessed September 22, 2019.
  34. ↑ Meghan O'Rourke: A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold review - why my son killed at Columbine. In: The Guadian. February 14, 2016, Retrieved September 22, 2019.
    Emma Brockes: My son, the Columbine high school shooter: 'a mother is supposed to know' In: The Guardian. February 14, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
    Mila Sanina: Mother of Columbine shooter talks about guilt and suicide prevention. Publicsource.org. October 10, 2019, accessed October 11, 2019.
  35. ^ Carlos Lozada: 17 years after Columbine, the mother of one of the killers finally tells her story. In: The Washington Post. February 13, 2016, accessed October 11, 2019.
  36. ↑ Dave Cullen: Columbine. Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-446-55221-9 , p. 497.
  37. ↑ Quoted from Emma Brockes: My son, the Columbine high school shooter: 'a mother is supposed to know' In: The Guardian. February 14, 2016, accessed September 22, 2019.
  38. ↑ Quoted from Margaret Dawson er al .: Columbine killer's mother Sue Klebold on relationship with her son, warning signs she missed, what she went through after the tragedy. ABC News. February 12, 2016, accessed October 10, 2019.
  39. ↑ Jimmy Benjamin: Columbine shooter's mother tells students to be aware of signs of suicide, struggle of others. In: The Duke Chronicle. September 11, 2018, accessed September 21, 2019.
  40. ↑ Sue Klebold on TED Talk: My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story. November 2016, accessed February 28, 2020.
  41. ^ National Board, Councils and Committees. afsp.org, accessed September 21, 2019.
    Miranda Jonswald: A Mother's Reckoning: Sue Klebold Talks Suicide Awareness and the Columbine Aftermath. In: The Other Paper. October 3, 2018, accessed October 11, 2019.
  42. ↑ Quoted from Mother of Columbine shooter reflects on that day, 19 years later. CBC.ca, April 20, 2018, accessed June 10, 2019.
  43. ^ Peter Langman: My Conversations with Sue Klebold. In: Psychology Today , February 15, 2016, accessed August 19, 2019.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Klebold, Sue
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klebold, Susan Yassenoff (married name); Yassenoff, Susan Frances (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and activist
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus , Ohio