After Columbine: How People Mourn Sudden Death‪.‬

In April of 1999, two students, seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, came to school armed with an assortment of guns and bombs and killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher before committing suicide themselves. While this was the sixth of such school shootings in 18 months, it riveted the attention of the nation because it involved well-to-do suburban children, had the greatest number of victims and "because it played out on television" (Belkin, 1999 p. F61). In fact according to a Pew Charitable Trust survey, the Columbine High School shootings became one of the most closely followed news stories of the decade (The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 1999). During crises such as this, the Office for Victims of Crimes (OVC), a part of the Department of Justice, helps mobilize state and community based crises assistance. This often involves recruiting social workers and other helping professionals from neighboring communities to provide short and long term counseling and other services (OVC, 1999). In a kind of ripple effect, social workers around the country--school social workers in particular--go into high gear, helping school administrators develop crises plans, trying to anticipate copycat crimes, reassuring students nervous about attending school and assuaging parental anxiety.