Category: Uncategorized

Sue Klebold at Breaking the Cycle 5th Annual Community Training

About this Event

Thursday, April 9, 2020
8:30 AM – 12:30 PM
The Maryland Theater
Hagerstown, Maryland
Tickets $39

Featured Speakers

Sue Klebold (Colorado) is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two gunmen responsible for the Columbine High School shootings of April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Ms. Klebold remained out of the public eye while struggling with devastating grief and humiliation. Her search for understanding would span over fifteen years during which she volunteered for suicide prevention organizations, questioned experts, talked with fellow survivors of loss and examined the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence. As a result of her exploration, Sue emerged a passionate advocate, dedicated to the advancement of mental health awareness and intervention.

Dr. Amelia Franck Meyer (Minnesota) is the founder and CEO of Alia, innovations for people and systems impacted by childhood trauma. Alia is building a Proof of Concept that public child welfare agencies can serve as primary prevention agencies with a newly redesigned purpose of keeping children safe with, not from, their families. Ameila and her team believe that what all children need most is uninterrupted sense of belonging that only their family can provide. Most recently, Amelia was named one of People Magazine’s “25 Women Changing the World” in 2018. In 2015, Amelia was named as a Bush Foundation Fellow and an Ashoka Fellow. Amelia and Team Alia are leading a national movement to bring together child welfare innovators and those with lived experience to build a better way, together!

Family Panel Facilitators

Corey B. Best (Florida) is first a dedicated father. Originally from D.C., he currently calls Florida home. This is where Corey began his transformation into adaptive leadership training, community organizing, authentic family engagement, race equity, primary prevention and highlighting “good enough parenting”. Using his personal parenting and leadership journey to help others led Corey to be recognized with the 2016 Casey Family Programs Excellence for Children national award.

Julia Jean-Francois, LCSW, PhD (New York), oversees Center for Family Life’s (CFL) family counseling and foster care programs, community resource center, employment services and cooperative business development. She has extensive experience in child welfare and mental health services and she teaches research methods and ethno-cultural methods in social work practice at the New York University School of Social Work and Rutgers School of Social Work. She received her MSW from New York University and PhD from Columbia University School of Social Work.

Exclusive Screening

Broken Places by film maker Roger Weisberg

Why are some children permanently damaged by early adversity while others are able to thrive? To help answer this question, filmmaker Roger Weisberg dug into his extensive film archives to update a few of the stories of the abused and neglected children he filmed decades ago. Viewers are given a unique time-lapse perspective on how the trauma that these children experienced shaped their lives as adults. BROKEN PLACES interweaves these longitudinal narratives with commentary from a few nationally renowned experts in neurobiology and early childhood development in order to illuminate the devastating impact of childhood adversity as well as the factors that can foster resilience.

Additional Information:

* Group rates available when registering 10 or more people! To register a group, please contact Kerry Fair at 240-513-6370 or kfair@sanmarhome.org.

* To pay by check or invoice, please contact Kerry Fair at 240-513-6370 or kfair@sanmarhome.org.

* Three Cat I CEU’s are available from the MD Board of Social Workers. Please work with your licensing board for CEU acceptance.

* Light morning refreshments will be available.

* Parking: two parking garages are within walking distance as well as parking lots. For locations and information, please visit https://www.hagerstownmd.org/283/Parking-Locations-Map

* Refunds are not available for this event. If you are unable to attend, you may transfer your ticket to another person by notifying Kerry Fair at 240-513-6370 or kfair@sanmarhome.org

Tickets $39

The case for Brooks as the mystery Blackjack Interviewer

Brooks Brown interviewing Dylan Klebold “the little sound guy they used to have” at Columbine.

[audio credit: spishakwax]

The voice interviewing clearly is Brooks Brown and that is most definitely Dylan relaying an amusing theatre anecdote in his usual hesitantly-stilted, shy, soft-spoken manner…the slam dunk is his distinct “pfff” in response and “hehe” sneaky laugh.

Given that we can hear a airplane in the backdrop, it’s most likely that the interview took place outside (and so couldn’t logically be part of the Frankenstein Roast story-telling inside the theater that Dylan partook in along side Zack and Brooks though this interview was likely related to it like perhaps an introduction to it). This does, in fact, support the claim that Brooks may indeed had interviewed Dylan behind Blackjack. For many years now, we’ve only had snippets of Dylan being filmed – by a mystery cameraman in question – behind Blackjack sans the audio. Dylan is just gesturing and verbally articulating without a peep. I am much more convinced with this audio clip airing publicly that Brooks was the potential interviewer – now, we just need the full audio including this snippet, as part of the Blackjack video, to support the case for it (I’m about 75% on board) Then again? it could just as easily be Brooks interviewing Dylan anywhere outside. But, well, Brooks (or someone else?) will have to just release the entire shabang to make a true believer out of us all. 😉 Hehe.

Brooks introduces “This is Dylan Klebold the little sound guy we used to have. What is the stupidest thing Mrs. C has ever done?”

Dylan laughs. “Uh, pfff, I’d have to say that would be a combination of stupid and funny. During one of the performances, the musical, I think it was the Music Man, uh Zack was on lights, I was doing sound and we had little headsets and uh, we got her to successfully bitch out the entire cast in the, uh, dressing rooms cause we kept uh..(unintelligible)”

https://youtu.be/CHq2epxs8Es

More to come.. I have a feeling. 😉


Strike a Pose

“We’d spent that year begging Dylan to get a haircut, to no avail, but I convinced him to tie his hair back into a ponytail with one of my own elastics for the prom. He put his prescription glasses in his pocket and donned a pair of small-framed sunglasses. We thought he looked very handsome.

Alison, our renter, came over and offered to take a picture of the three of us. In the picture, Dylan is clowning around, hamming it up like a professional model, Zoolander-style. The sharp lines of his formal wear stand in stark contrast to the faded flannel shirts and worn blue jeans Tom and I are wearing.

He kept his sunglasses on as he posed with us; he wore dark glasses often during the last weeks of his life. I believe now he was hiding behind them.”

— Sue Klebold, A Mother’s Reckoning 4.17.1999

crossposted: https://everlasting-contrast.newtumbl.com/

‘American Tragedy’ Examines What A Mother Of A Columbine Shooter Has Learned 20 Years Later

September 19, 2019Updated Sep 21, 2019 3:53 PM

Audio Interview

Twenty years ago, on April 20, 1999, two high school seniors barraged into their high school, Columbine High, and killed 13 people.

The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both died by suicide.

Columbine was the beginning of a rapid rise in school shootings and there were many questions after the massacre, some of which fell on the parents of the shooters. How could those parents miss that their children were plotting the attack?

The documentary, “American Tragedy,” which premieres at the Boston Film Festival, tries to answer some of those questions.

It profiles Sue Klebold, Dylan Klebold’s mother, and examines what lessons Americans should take away from the tragedy.

“American Tragedy” premieres at the Boston Film Festival on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing discussed the documentary with both Sue Klebold and Josh Sabey.

Guests

Josh Sabey, Boston-based film director.

Sue Klebold, mother and activist.

Resources: You can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and the Samaritans Statewide Hotline at 1-877-870-HOPE (4673).

Interview Highlights

Sue Klebold on accusations and blame

In those early months, I was so bewildered and so heart broken, I didn’t really have any blame because I was simply trying to understand what had happened, how my son came to be there, because I was really in a lot of denial about his being there. Because the Dylan I knew and loved would not do something like this. He was kind and he was funny. I wasn’t experiencing blame, I was just experiencing heart break, and humiliation, and terror because of all the hatred being leveled against us.

About six months after the tragedy, the sheriff’s department released a report. And I remember when I went to this report. I had a notebook with me and it had all these questions, about “How did Dylan get to be there?” “Who convinced him to do this?” and what I learned from that shocking report was that this had been planned, that he had been a willing participant, that their goal was to kill everyone – kill everyone in the school – and I just remember at that meeting I being almost physically ill. I remember at one point standing up and trying to decide if I needed to run out of the room or not. It was really… it put me into a flight mode. I just could hardly bear what I was hearing. So it was a shock and it really caused me to tear down everything that I’d been clinging to and really start the grief process all over. Because people had been calling my son a monster, and for the first time I think I really understood how monstrous it was.

Sue Klebold on reflection and lessons from Columbine

I think over 20 years, there are probably more lessons than I can count. One of the very important lessons I hope we have learned or that we are beginning to learn, after the Columbine tragedy it was the beginning of 24/7 news coverage. Without knowing it, that launched and kind of cemented Columbine into our consciousness as a symbolic gesture of good and evil, and really this is not the case when something like this happens. It is about many things that converge. And certainly I have learned over the years that to understand how a tragedy such as this happens, we can never say it’s because of one thing. It is not because bullying, of videogames, of psychiatric medications. It’s never one thing. We don’t have to be able to predict who is going to commit some kind of a violent act, but we can certainly prevent – for example we have learned that school shooters very often are suicidal – and my own son, I learned after his death, had been suicidal and was writing about it. If we could have addressed his suicidality, I truly believe we might have prevented at least his involvement in the tragedy.

Josh Sabey on reflections and lessons from Columbine

I think Sue’s story is particularly interesting on this point, because she was completely surprised. She was as surprised as the rest of us. She’s gone through her past, she’s talked about going through every possible interaction she remembers, trying to find something and she has discovered some things. She discovered her son was depressed – she didn’t know that. She discovered that he was deeply suicidal – she didn’t know that. Maybe what’s so surprising is that there wasn’t something obvious, there weren’t these obvious signs that she should have spotted. So the question of the documentary becomes how do you stop something that’s so invisible so often?

Josh Sabey on mental health

I think we came into it interested about this topic. I don’t think we knew the answers we would get. Lots of people are scared their child might be a school shooter, that’s a very small possibility. And it’s even a small possibility you kids will be in a school shooting. But it’s a very large possibility that they’ll deal with something like depression and anxiety.

These are things we can actually do things about and often prevent if we start early enough. Right now all of our resources are going into treatment – we have a treatment-focused model. Someone might develop almost invisibly – like Dylan – a mental illness, and we don’t even start treating it until it’s entrenched. But if we start beforehand and we start teaching mental health skills, we can have a much better outcome. We can have targeted campaigns that teach parents how to teach skills how to deal with anxiety – breathing skills, mindfulness skills – skills that can make a huge difference in their life and are proven to prevent anxiety and depression in our children.

Sue Klebold on mental wellness advocacy

When I learned that Dylan had written in a journal two years prior to his death that he was in agony and wanted to die and was cutting himself, I was so shocked to hear that… I couldn’t believe that while I was experiencing what seemed like a normal and fulfilling life, he was suffering so greatly. What we have to be careful of is that not everyone who experiences depression is suicidal and not everyone who is suicidal is depressed, it is far more complicated than that.

We want to be careful before we even start the discussion… we don’t yet know enough about these boundaries that get crossed when someone is on a path towards self-destruction, so we must be very careful about pinning all the blame on mental illness when we talk about tragedies such as this.

Josh Sabey on the pressure on parents

I think it’s much more stressful to be sitting as a parent, wondering I hope I love my kids enough, I hope I’m being a good parent in this abstract idea… it’s much more reassuring to feel empowered with things that are proven to help kids avoid common problems, like depression, like anxiety, and to know that there are things that can be taught.

Josh Sabey on the film not discussing gun control

We do mention it [in the documentary] that we should address it. It’s not the approach that we’re talking about in this documentary. I think what’s a tragedy is that these issues have been split up as “either or” instead of “both and” particularly because they inform and speak to each other. By far, the most number of gun-related deaths are suicides. So if we’re going to prevent gun-related deaths, we should be thinking about the mental health aspects of it. These issues are interrelated, they’re connected, and politically they’ve been separated and that’s really too bad.

Sue Klebold’s message to families

I believe the message that I have taken away from this and that I share with people is the subtitle of the movie and that is love is not enough. I think we believe that when we hug our children and tell them we love them that we are connecting with them, but I hope people will realize that someone’s internal experience on the receiving end of that love might be very different from what we thinking it should be and what we project it to be.

…and I advise people all the time: stop talking and just allow our loved ones to feel what they feel, express what they are feeling, and help them deal with those feelings. I don’t think most of us do a very good job with that.

Derek J. Anderson adapted this story for the web. 

This segment aired on September 19, 2019.
[Source]

An Evening with Sue Klebold

Date And Time
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Wunderley Gymnasium
Penn State Greater Allegheny
4000 University Drive
McKeesport, PA 15132

Registration is free
Staunton Farm Foundation

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two gunmen responsible for the Columbine High School shootings of April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. Dylan and his friend killed twelve students and a teacher, and wounded more than twenty others before taking their own lives.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Ms. Klebold remained out of the public eye while struggling with devastating grief and humiliation. Her search for understanding would span over fifteen years during which she volunteered for suicide prevention organizations, questioned experts, talked with fellow survivors of loss, and examined the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence. As a result of her exploration, Sue emerged a passionate advocate, dedicated to the advancement of mental health awareness and intervention.

From her memoir, A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy (Crown, 2016), Sue is donating all author profits to organizations that promote mental wellness, brain research and suicide prevention. She is a member of the National Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Consumer-Survivor Subcommittee. She has participated in presentations, co-chaired conferences at the state and national levels, and written about the experience of surviving a loved one’s murder-suicide. Sue has a Master of Arts degree in Education from Cardinal Stritch College. She was an instructor and administrator in the Colorado Community College System for over twenty years.


Sue Klebold Keynote Speaker at EO XCentric 2019 – Dallas, TX

16-19 September 2019 
Dallas, Texas

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two gunmen responsible for the Columbine High School shootings of April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado. Dylan and his friend killed twelve students and a teacher and wounded more than twenty others before taking their own lives.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Ms. Klebold remained out of the public eye while struggling with devastating grief and humiliation. Her search for understanding would span over fifteen years during which she volunteered for suicide prevention organizations, questioned experts, talked with fellow survivors of loss, and examined the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence. As a result of her exploration, Sue emerged a passionate advocate, dedicated to the advancement of mental health awareness and intervention.

From her memoir, A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy (Crown, 2016), Sue is donating all author profits to organizations that promote mental wellness, brain research and suicide prevention. She is a member of the National Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Consumer-Survivor Subcommittee. She has participated in presentations, co-chaired conferences at the state and national levels, and written about the experience of surviving a loved one’s murder-suicide. Sue has a Master of Arts degree in Education from Cardinal Stritch College. She was an instructor and administrator in the Colorado Community College System for over twenty years. [Bio]

This is a member only event and Registration is now closed.

Grief Out Loud Podcast

Ep. 65: A Mother’s Story – Sue Klebold

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters at Columbine High School who, in 1999, killed twelve students and a teacher, and wounded more than 20 others before taking their own lives. In our conversation with we explore how current day mass tragedies continue to affect her. We also look at how tragedies like Columbine occur – and how someone’s thinking can become suicidal and homicidal.

“I will love you all my life.”

[Listen to Podcast]

Just a Day

I seem to remember our fishing trips well. They were always preempted, never extemporaneously brought out by my father the night before his intended day of relaxation. How could one look forward to a trip if they did not know about it? Go to bed early, we have to get up at 5! Under normal circumstances, this would bring out a barrage of arguments & pouting, but going fishing was not an everyday thing. This was a good thing, as opposed to getting up for school or some other bulls*St.

‘A certain halcyon hibernating within‘ as together, two brothers (Byron & Dylan), fish in separate universes

I would wake up to black skies & coffee bean aromas making their way around the house. I never liked coffee, but I loved the smell. I would dine on fancy breakfast cuisine, otherwise know as Cocoa Puffs. My brother would already be up, trying to impress our father by forcing down the coffee he hadn’t grown to like yet. I always remember my brother trying to impress everyone, and myself thinking what a waste of time that would be. I would go to the garage & get my fishing tackle together, & throw it in the back of our ’74 Ram. By then my brother & father would have all the food and coolers ready, & they would be packing, ready to go. The drives up to the mountains were always peaceful, a certain halcyon hibernating within the tall peaks & the armies of pine trees. It seemed back then that when the world changed, these mountains would never move. They would remain at peace with themselves, and with anyone who would respect them. We arrived at the lake, but I don’t remember what the name of it is. The lake is almost vacant, except for a few repulsive, suburbanite a$$holes. I never liked those kind of people, they always seemed to ruin the serenity of the lake. I loved the water. I never went swimming, but the water was an escape in itself. Every so often, the waves would form a small pattern, & change current in an odd shape. I would always cast into those spots, thinking that the fish were more attracted to these parts of the water. Time to bait. I never liked salmon eggs, too much gooey crap that gets on your fingers. Instead, I went with a lour, even though this was a lake. I knew I would have to use eggs if I wanted any fish, but that didn’t matter at the time. Cast, Reel, etc. countless times, and my mind would wander to wherever it would want to go. Time seemed to stop when I was fishing. The lake, the mountains, the trees, all of the wildlife s$*t that people seemed to take for granted, was here. Now. It was if their presence was necessary for me to be content. Time to go!. Done. Back to society. No regrets, though. Nature shared the secret serenity with someone who was actually observant enough to notice.
Sucks for everyone else.

–Dylan Bennet Klebold

Decoding Just a Day

Father & Son

Father & Son
Getting ready for the prom aka “the best night of his life”. It would be the last time Dylan washed his hair, no doubt – damp hair and wet curls framing his face. A half annoyed half amused expression for his momma proudly, gleefully, snapping candid shots of her ‘handsome boy’ while dad wrestles with the bow tie and buttons all business-like. *sigh*
I think he’d be pretty dang mortified by his mom releasing this full-length photo revealing his boxers and bare legs. Oh well.. the cat was out of the bag long ago when his private writings were made very public. Nothing is sacred when you have chosen such a path – all is fodder for a mother’s 20/20 hindsight musing and dissective scrutiny.

“He stood patiently while Tom awkwardly twisted tiny pieces of metal and plastic through the many buttonholes. The bow tie stumped Tom, and Dylan wrestled it away to try it himself; together, the two consummate problem-solvers figured it out. I sat on the bed to keep them company and told Dylan he looked like Lee Marvin getting outfitted in Western finery in Cat Ballou, one of our family’s favorites. Both he and Tom laughed.

I had the camera, and Dylan tolerated a few shots before becoming self-conscious and
annoyed as usual. I tried to catch one of his reflection in the mirror without him noticing, but he grabbed a towel and flicked it to block the shot. I developed the roll a few months after his death, using an assumed name so the press wouldn’t get ahold of the pictures. In that photo, only a fragment of his face is visible behind the towel—a mischievous grin under tired eyes.

We’d spent that year begging Dylan to get a haircut, to no avail, but I convinced him to tie his hair back into a ponytail with one of my own elastics for the prom. He put his prescription glasses in his pocket and donned a pair of small-framed sunglasses. We thought he looked very handsome.”

— Sue Klebold, A Mother’s Reckoning

Sue Klebold, June 11, 2019 Rochester, MN

Power of the Purse is a community fundraising event presented by United Way of Olmsted County’s Women United – a giving circle of women leadership contributors whose collective, caring power is building a healthier, stronger community. This very popular event returns for its 14th year to once again improve lives of children and youth in Olmsted County on Tuesday, June 11, 2019! 

This year’s keynote speaker features Sue Klebold, Author of the New York Times bestseller A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy, and advocate for mental health. Sue Klebold became a passionate advocate for mental health awareness, brain research and intervention following a national tragedy. Her son, Dylan Klebold, was one of the two gunmen responsible for the Columbine High School shootings of April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado.

Please join us for a delicious luncheon and impressive purse auction, and help in the efforts to fight for the education, health, and financial stability of every person in our community. United Way works collaboratively with programs and opportunities to ensure that children and youth in our community reach their potential in school and the community. Proceeds benefit United Way programs that help children and youth with community connections, positive learning environments and positive role models which all contribute toward good mental health. [Source]

AMERICAN TRAGEDY

is the feature length documentary film about our country’s crisis in mental health, mental illness, suicide, violence, and the scientific studies that may help society’s foundation: the family. From the producers of Going Sane, this film uniquely follows the story of various survivors of unthinkable tragedies, researchers, journalists, parents, advocates, and focuses on our nation’s efforts to solve the issues of mental health. In collaboration with Parents to Parents and BOLDRUSH!, this documentary film has been in production for nearly two years and will premiere this April, 2019 in Denver Colorado, followed by various other locations around the country. The film is in final stages of post-production, and the producers are excited to secure distribution and reach audiences around the world with this timely message. The production and post-production of film have been entirely self-funded by a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educate families. You are invited to join the cause and help this film reach a wider audience by donating here: https://goingsane.org/donate

Wondering if that is a trail that Dylan used to walk with his mom and dad…

Sue Klebold, Keynote – July 30-31 2019

2019 Summer Institute for Educators of Behavior Disorder Students

Sue Klebold, Keynote

July 30 – 31, 2019, Grand Prairie, TX
$120 per registrants [ED311]

Working with troubled students is challenging. Learn from and connect with educators and professionals that will share practical and relevant skills for helping emotionally-troubled students succeed. This 2-day conference will bring you a selection of breakout sessions taught by frontline staff FOR frontline staff. Expect inspiration, hands-on tools, and easy-to-apply techniques you can use on the first day of school. 

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two gunmen responsible for the Columbine High School shootings of April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. Dylan and his friend killed twelve students and a teacher, and wounded more than twenty others before taking their own lives. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Ms. Klebold remained out of the public eye while struggling with devastating grief and humiliation.  Her search for understanding would span over fifteen years during which she volunteered for suicide prevention organizations, questioned experts, talked with fellow survivors of loss, and examined the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence.  As a result of her exploration, Sue emerged a passionate advocate, dedicated to the advancement of mental health awareness and intervention. From her memoir, A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy (Crown, 2016), Sue is donating all author profits to organizations that promote mental wellness, brain research and suicide prevention. She is a member of the National Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Consumer-Survivor Subcommittee.  She has participated in presentations, co-chaired conferences at the state and national levels, and written about the experience of surviving a loved one’s murder-suicide. Sue has a Master of Arts degree in Education from Cardinal Stritch College. She was an instructor and administrator in the Colorado Community College System for over twenty years.

Centofanti Symposium presents A Panel Discussion on “Survival and Moving Forward”

Youngstown State University Streamed live on Apr 11, 2019
On April 11 the YSU Centofanti Symposium presented: “A Panel Discussion on Survival and Moving Forward.” It was the first time all five of these people had met each other and all were unsure as to how it would go. They met in the afternoon and it worked. They bonded in their grief and determination that they wanted no one else have to go through what they have.
Panelists include: Sue Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold, the Columbine high school shooter; Fred Guttenberg, Father of Jaime Guttenberg who was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting; Kaitlin Roig, former Sandy Hook teacher; Angel Colon, survivor of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting; Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed by a white supremacist in Charlottesville.

Youngstown State University’s Centofanti Symposium was a panel discussion on “Survival and Moving Forward” held at 7 p.m. April 11 at Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave., Youngstown, Ohio.