Columbine
Sean Graves Story
By: Aubrey loveridge
C olumbine High School, Colorado April 20, 1999. A name and date that will
live in infamy because of the events that happened there. Although it has been
almost 20 years since that fateful day many are still haunted
by its events and the pain it brought. Sean Graves was a witness and victim of the horrific
event and lost friends in the process. He hopes that by sharing his story, many will feel
inspired to find solutions to stop school shootings.
Sean was a sophomore and 15. It was lunchtime and around 11:00 am. He had
been outside the cafeteria walking to the “Smoker’s Pit”, a popular place across the street
of the school for smokers, with his two other friends when he saw two figures dressed in
black trench coats 12 feet away. One of them, later identified as Dylan Klebold, started
firing multiple shots at them. At first Sean, like many other students, thought it was just a
prank and that he was shooting at them with a simple paintball gun. Once his best friend
Dan Rohrbough fell to the ground however he knew that it was not a paintball gun. He
makes a run for it after seeing Lance Kirklin, the third boy, running toward the cafeteria to two hours, slipping in and out of consciousness.
escape the gunman. Lance was shot in the leg and fell to the ground. He looks back
quickly to see where the two boys were standing, Sean witnesses Eric Harris shoot Dan
point blank in the chest then Lance in the face, images that he still hopes one day he will
be able to forget. Dan becomes one of the first fatalities of the shooting.
Looking forward again Sean yells in shock at the horrific scene but it didn’t
keep his legs from moving, he struggles getting to the safety of the cafeteria door because
of the uneven ground of the large grassy field in front of the school. Sean hears several
more gunshots which result in a pinch in his back, then his arm, and then his leg. The last
pinch makes him trip and fall on his stomach five feet from the door, five feet from safety.
Grunting he tries to crawl to it but the pain in his arm stops him. Looking back at the field
he sees that the two gunmen are walking back toward the parking lot. While he watches
them walk away he slowly takes off his backpack to see a bullet hole in the front with no
exit hole and assumes that a book has stopped it. A female teacher that he doesn’t
recognize tries to pull him into the cafeteria but another teacher stops her because of the
injuries to his back. He says that she could do more damage than the bullets already have.
Sean quickly wipes blood on his forehead and decides that the best way to survive is play
dead. His sucks in a breath from the movement and hears the gunmen begin shouting not
to far off. Those in the cafeteria begin to run to different hiding places. Staying as still as
he can as the two gunmen approach where he lays, one of them steps on him as they go
into the cafeteria to wreck more havoc. He hears more gunshots ricochet from inside and
the sprinkling system turn on. Sean lays on his stomach in pain for what he believes is
Sean hears explosions go off periodically as they wake him from
unconsciousness but he continues his charade which isn’t hard, he feels as though he
might be dead already. The only thing that convinces him that he is alive is the pain that is
pulsating throughout his body. Later Sean learns that the explosions throughout the school
were from homemade pipe bombs, and molotov cocktails the two gunman threw at
random throughout the school. Extensive damage was caused to the school some even
caused small fires. The sprinkler system turned on and a lot of water damage occured.
Two large propane bombs were placed in the cafeteria in hopes that they would blow up
part of the school, kill a large number of people, and then the gunmen would come in to
finish those who were not killed by the blast. The FBI predicted that the bombs would
have caused the floor above, the library, to cave in. For whatever reason though they did
not go off.
The paramedics came to his rescue and many others. At this time Sean is
unconscious and doesn’t remember being taken to the hospital. He was lifted onto a
stretcher and taken to Craig hospital where doctors find six gunshot wounds and find an
“incomplete spinal injury”. Meaning that he was paralyzed from the waist down but not
completely; he still had some movement and feeling in his lower extremities. One of
Sean’s best friends, Patrick Ireland, was one of those severely injured survivors in the
library: there were 10 fatal victims in the library. He survived multiple gunshot wounds to
the the head and back. Both of them were good friends with Dan. Lance miraculously
survived a gunshot to the face. Sean says that he has not talked to Lance Kirkland much
since that day, and prefers email because he gets too emotional to talk in person. Even
though he has gone through an experience that many would not be able to handle, Sean
Graves in solemn and respectful words says, “Watching my friend die is still traumatic,
but it is in the past. I am not trying to be mean. I just have to focus on today and looking
at the positive and the future”. When Sean graduated two years later he was able to use a
crutch to walk across the stage and accept his diploma. When asked why he thought the
shooting happened Sean replied, “I never think about why it happened. It was just straight
and simple evil — just evil”. Now although he is half paralyzed he has been able to go to
college and gain a degree in computer technology. That was as of 2005. Now he is
Over Time
Columbine is a memory that Sean Graves wishes he could forget.
However, as time has gone on from the day of, at the age of 15 (left) to
now 32 (right) he realizes that now more than ever is to speak out about
his experience. With school shootings ravaging the nation he knows that
if he shares his story, the nation will realize that there needs to be a
solution now and not after another school shooting happens.
happily married to Kara Deheart, and speaks occasionally for the Dana Reeve
Foundation. A foundation that raises money for those with spinal cord
injuries. Sean also annually goes back to the school and lights a cigarette on
the spot where Danny died to honor his memory.
Sean doesn’t blame gun laws or the guns themselves. He blames
the people wielding them. He tries to forget about the experience everyday
and there has been a lot of emotional turmoil because of it. After one of the
recent school shootings he said, “It's taken me years to get to the point where
I'm at now," says Graves. "It's been a struggle, and it's been painful and
emotional. But to see a bunch of families have to go through this -- they're
just starting their journey now. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy”. The
solution may not be with the guns but with our schools. Social ladders and
bullying may be a cause. For Columbine one of the main reasons that the
shooters committed this act was because of consistent bullying over their high
school and middle school years. Zero tolerance bullying is not working and
something has to change if we want the violence to stop.