On that day there were more gunshot’s heard round the world.  But the silent one’s were being loaded aimed and more people were being executed that day.  The silent one’s were being accused and punished for no reason at all.

Nearly all the Goth’s out there were astonished when the news said that two young Goth’s had gone in and shot students in their high school.  Possibly even more astonished were the rest of the people out there.  All the jocks felt as if their kind had been plowed down, and they must get revenge for their fallen kind.  So high school age Goth’s all over the nation was targeted.  I know, I was a high school senior in Colorado Springs, about 70 miles away from Littleton.

If you know anything about Colorado Springs, you would know that nestled under the ever popular Pikes Peak, is the home of the Religious Right.  Aside from all of the computer companies and support teams, Focus on the Family is one of the biggest industries here.  Religion seams to be what this town bleeds.  And it is because of this town that Colorado has been dubbed, “The Hate State”.  Nothing aside from the church is sacred.  No other religions are accepted without a fight.   Alternative lifestyles are founed upon and hassled anyway  possible.

The day of the shooting, I was at work.  I don’t dress in full Goth garb all the time, so my job at a day care was nothing to snicker at. 

The children trusted me, which probably would have been impossible after that day if everyone knew how I really am.  I worked there with two friends, my same age.  All of the children were outside on the playground while Casey and I cleaned up in the main room.  Like people all over the country, we were glued to the radio that day, listening to any clip of news that would come up.  That was when I heard it was Goth’s.  I was as horrified as one little boy who had chosen to stay in the building.

As I cleaned, and silently prayed that it wasn’t as the news had said, the young boy questioned me about what had happened.  At seven, he didn’t quite know what had happened.  So I tried to explain it in words that Adam would understand.  “Some bad people went into their school, and killed people because they were made fun of.”

Adam sat silently thinking this over.  After a while he came up to me again and asked more questions.  “Is it going to be like this when I get to High School?”  I nearly choked when he asked that.  I tried to assure him that it would not happen.  But I couldn’t be certain of it. 

Later that day, Casey told me something that Adam had told her later.  Eyes brimmed with tears; she repeated what our seven-year-old charge had confided in her.  “I don’t want to go to High School.  I don’t want to die.”  His words still haunt me.

By the next day, everyone knew.  The news had come on, apologizing saying that it was not Goth’s, but the so-called, “Trench Coat Mafia”. 

But in a High School, nobody listens to the apology.  They remember the original statement.  “Two Goth’s entered their High School, and opened fire upon their class mates.”  No one I know dressed Goth that day.  We all wore colors, trying to state that we did not endorse this, and abhor it.  But everyone knew who we were.  And we were crucified. 

Chris, the most extravagant Goth I know, wore blue jeans, a plain white T-shirt and sneakers.  No make up, and no jewelry.  I have never seen him like that.  But it didn’t help.  A security guard escorted him out of the middle of class, to the office.  Everyone saw him go.  They questioned him, searched through all of his stuff and threatened him and all of his friends.  We were all told that if anything happened, we were all to blame.  We tried to stand up for ourselves, tell them that they really had no right to threaten us.  But it didn’t matter.  They weren’t listening.

My best friends, people I have known and been close to for years, suddenly doubted me.  When I talked to them, they never met my eyes.  I invited them to do things with me, they were “busy”.  They would hurry off to class, cast glances and always stay in-groups. 

And that was only my best friends.  The school friends you have, the one’s you talk to in class but never see outside of school, dropped me.

And like I said earlier, I don’t do the full out Goth thing very often.  The other’s, like my friend Chris, were harassed constantly. 

He counted that in the first week, he was called to the office and to the counselor nearly 36 times in five days. 

The jocks felt they were the enforcers.  We were threatened with violence, our lockers were broken into, some car’s even vandalized. 

And yet, we prevailed.  People began to realize that if the Goth’s were hassled enough, they flip, and hurt people.  So after two weeks, it began to settle down and sort of return to normal.  My friends realized that they were being silly, and that I had had nothing to do with it. They could trust me.  After all, I would never let anything happen to them.  Somehow because of this, we are closer now then before. 

Bit it can never be the same as it was.  Even though everyone knows that it was not Goth’s, that fear is still nestled inside everyone’s mind.  Everyone knows that harassed enough, anyone can flip.  And when
people flip out, bad things happen.