Remembering the cruelest month: The network, labor, and haunting of memories of Columbine

On April 20, 1999 Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and murdered twelve classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in the school library. In the aftermath of the shootings people in Littleton and across the United States were forced to consider how and why Klebold and Harris planned and executed their brutal attack in the quiet, upper-middle class, suburban community of Littleton. The labor of making sense of the shootings, of making death meaningful and making mourning manageable, depended upon securing the memory of the shootings. This work of securing memory and utilizing the secured memory was done by a various religious leaders, journalists, mental health professionals, memorial specialists, and government officials who worked in the days, months, and years following the shootings with the intent to "stabilize the traumatized" and "heal the wounded." Such efforts by these memory technicians often promised to bring closure to the event and to find redemption in the shootings. But in the rush to transform chaos and vulnerability into meaning and stability the community members in Littleton continued to mourn as the past haunted, often painfully and relentlessly, the present.;Remembering the Cruelest Month: The Network, Labor, and Haunting of the Memories of Columbine explores the ways that community members in Littleton, along with others across the nation, attempted to manage memories and mourning in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School. This work begins with an exploration of networks of memory and the technologies that are utilized to reveal the meaning of the shootings, to frame those memories, and to store those memories for later use. Part two analyzes the ways that the memories of the shootings, once framed, were utilized by various individuals in the advancement of religious, political, and other social agendas. Finally, part three explores the ways that the community members in Littleton remain haunted by the memories of the shootings at Columbine. This interdisciplinary study seeks to illuminate Americans' engagement with school shootings, school shooters, and survivors, and suggests possibilities for a new ethics of memory.