Columbine

This chapter details the hours leading up to the death of Dave Sanders, the only adult to die in the Columbine mass shooting.

Sanders is in Columbine’s science wing, which also houses the classrooms used for music education. He is shot in the back; the bullet “tore through his ribcage and exited through his chest” (138). A second bullet “entered through the side of his neck and came out his mouth, lacerating his tongue and shattering several teeth” (138).

Other teachers get Sanders to Science Room 3, which is full of students. The teachers assisting Sanders are sure that help is close. Students dress Sanders’ wounds and attempt to slow the bleeding. Cullen writes,“Law enforcement was first alerted to Dave’s predicament at 11:45,” and that dispatchers assured help “would arrive ‘in about ten minutes’” (141). Students continue to do what they can for Sanders, who is aware of how grave his injuries are.

Around 2 p.m., students “informed the 911 operator they were going to hurl a chair through the window and get Dave out themselves” (142). There is a TV in the classroom, and the group of students and teachers is watching delayed news footage of the events happening around them at the school.