Analysis: Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Joy Scott — a student killed in the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado — did make this speech during testimony on May 27, 1999 before the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee. It was the first of many similar talks he has delivered on the subject.
Spurred on in part by writings in the notebooks and diaries left behind by his daughter, Mr. Scott — the son of an Episcopalian minister, though he himself is adamantly non-denominational — quit his job, set up a non-profit organization called The Columbine Redemption, and embarked on a grueling schedule of speaking engagements all across the
United States
to spread his message.
Was Scott's testimony inadequately covered by the press, as most versions of this forwarded email suggest? Opinions will differ. There wasn't a great deal of major news coverage — you aren't likely to have seen it on television, for example — but there was coverage. (The same goes for the testimony given by several other of the parents of the Columbine victims who appeared before the same committee, some of whom expressed opinions which differed considerably from Mr. Scott's.) Darrell Scott's speech was covered nationally by the Scripps Howard and Associated Press wire services, not to mention in daily newspapers across the U.S., such as the Denver Rocky Mountain News, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Washington Times, the Boston Globe, the Arizona Republic, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Chicago Sun-Times... well, you get the idea.
PM
