26 April, 2014

The Principal of Columbine, Frank DeAngelis, is Retiring - Esquire

The Principal of Columbine, Frank DeAngelis, is Retiring - Esquire:

Mr. D’s job
of reconciling the past with the present and the future is a difficult
one. Because, as the students will readily attest, people are uncommonly
weird about Columbine. Tour buses stop to let their riders
snap pictures during the school day. Visitors take selfies in front of
the school’s sign. Travelers who’ve gotten lost looking for the memorial
end up wandering around the parking lot. The memorial was built in
2007, in nearby Clement Park. It was set away from the school to deter
tourists from bothering students, but that didn’t work. They keep
coming. To them, the school itself is the monument. 

“There was a caravan of tourists,” says
Megan, seventeen, a senior, recalling a recent instance. “About twenty
of them right out there in the parking lot—and they were wearing aloha
shirts. I wondered, Why is this a tourist spot?