KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Almost 20 years after the shooting at Columbine High School, mass shootings continue to happen and dominate the national conversation.
On Wednesday, two people who know a thing or two about these tragedies were in Kalamazoo – the former Columbine principal and a victim of the Virginia Tech shooting. They were keynote speakers at a conference about preventing and preparing for these tragedies.
Frank DeAngelis was the principal at Columbine High School in 1999 when two students killed more than a dozen people. Kristina Anderson was shot three times in 2007 when she was a sophomore at Virginia Tech.
Both spoke with first responders and educators in Kalamazoo Wednesday about their experiences.
“I can remember making a statement early on that, ‘I hope the 13 who lost their lives did not die in vain, and we do not have any more shootings,’” DeAngelis said. “And unfortunately, they continue to happen.”
Anderson hopes their experiences serve as learning experiences.
“It’s really disheartening when you hear about other events that happen at other schools or public spaces,” said Anderson. “You feel, to some degree, like your event, nothing was learned from it, like it happened for nothing sometimes. “I think it re-motivates a lot of us that are doing work in different spaces to get our stories back out there, to make sure people don’t forget about those that we lost in our events and do our best we can to prevent them.”
FULL STORY: WOOD TV