It takes only 272 steps to get from the front door of Deer Creek Middle School to 13-year-old Savannah's house. But on Tuesday, February 23, those 272 steps felt more like miles for Savannah and her sister Makayla.

For Savannah, it was supposed to be just another Tuesday. She woke up, got dressed, and ate a large bowl of Grape Nuts cereal with extra sugar before driving to school with her dad and 12 year old sister Makayla. At school, Savannah went through her daily routine, chatting with friends, working on homework, and handing in assignments. Everything at Deer Creek seemed to be going according to business as usual.

At about three p.m., just as Savannah and her sister began walking home from school, the sound of gunshots pierced the air. Savannah recognized the sound immediately, remembering it from a camping trip earlier that year during which she'd practiced shooting a rifle at the surrounding pine trees. As Savannah turned around towards the noise, she saw children and adults, running towards the parking lot and screaming. Savannah never saw the shooter, but something told her to run. She felt strangely calm as she grabbed her sister by the hand and started running towards her dad's house. "It's okay, It's okay, It's going to be okay" Savannah repeated over and over, trying to calm her terrified sister.

Shortly after she got home, Savannah got a call from her friend Kelly. She was in hysterics. "Matt got shot, Matt got shot," she told her. Matt had been Savannah's lab partner in science class, a nice kid who loved skateboarding and whose closest friends called him "Frenchie" because he was born in France. We know now he survived, but at that moment, for all Savannah knew, he could have been dead.

By: Erin Bilir

At 12:08 on the day of the Columbine shooting, I was sitting in a playground sandbox playing with my Barbie dolls, not at all aware that five minutes away shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were committing suicide.
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In the hours and days that followed Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s deadly spree at Columbine High the nation, stunned by the seeming randomness of the massacre, sought answers. Why had two boys gone from geeks to gunmen? Could this happen at my kid’s school? What drove their violent impulses? Could the shocking music of Marilyn Manson or the ultra-bloody first person shooters the boys enjoyed have been the catalyst of their rage?