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Oprah Cancels Columbine Special: Victims, Not Killers, Remembered

by Tina Kells | April 20, 2009 at 08:28 am

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Oprah Winfrey had been planning to mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting massacre with a special episode but decided to cancel the show at the last minute. Stating that she felt the show spent too much time focusing on killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and not enough time honoring the 37 Columbine victims.

Detailed account of the Columbine killing spree from Wikipedia

As is usually the case in horrific crimes like the Columbine massacre, the murderers names are thrown in the headlines while the names of victims are buried in the story. Oprah Winfrey said that she wanted a show that would honor the 13 killed and 24 injured that day, like the inspiring Patrick Ireland (the Boy in the Window), and had no interest in hosting an episode that remembered killers.

The names of the 13 Columbine victims killed 10 years ago are:

Cassie Bernall (The Girl Who Said Yes),
Steven Curnow,
Corey DePooter,
Kelly Fleming,
Matthew Kechter,
Daniel Mauser,
Daniel Rohrbough,
Dave Sanders (Teacher/Coach),
Rachel Scott (the first person killed),
Isaiah Shoels,
John Tomlin,
Lauren Townsend,
Kyle Velasquez

See Photos and Read Bios of the 13 Columbine Victims

The names of 24 Columbine victims who were injured and survived are:

Patrick Ireland (The Boy in the Window),
Richard Castaldo,
Sean Graves,
Lance Kirklin,
Michael Johnson,
Mark Taylor,
Anne-Marie Hochhalter,
Brian Anderson,
Patti Nielson (Teacher),
Stephanie Munson,
Evan Todd,
Daniel Steepleton,
Makai Hall,
Kacey Ruegsegger,
Lisa Kreutz,
Valeen Schnurr,
Mark Kintgen,
Nicole Nowlen,
Jeanna Park,
Jennifer Doyle,
Stephen Austin Eubanks,
Nicholas Foss
Joyce Jankowski
Adam Kyler

See M ore NowPublic Columbine Coverage

The episode, "10 Years Later: The Truth About Columbine," was to air Monday, the anniversary of the massacre in Littleton, Colo., that killed 12 students and a teacher.

Winfrey posted a message Monday morning on her Facebook page, saying that after she reviewed the taped show she decided to pull it because of its focus on the two gunmen.

She urged viewers to keep the Columbine community in their thoughts.