Children Who Survived a School Shooting and Chose to Teach: The Case of Columbine, Navigating Shared Trauma, and the Ethics of Care

Written from the first-person perspective of a Columbine shooting survivor, this book documents the experiences of a group of school shooting survivors who went on to become teachers.

More than 25 years after the shooting on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, the policies and practices in place to prevent school shootings do not seem to be working. In fact, school shootings have increased since 1999 and continue to increase. Through a phenomenological study of the author’s own experiences, as well as 11 other Columbine survivors who went on to become teachers, this book examines how surviving a school shooting has impacted every aspect of their personal and professional lives. The participants offer ideas and suggestions on how to decrease school shootings, sharing candid stories about bullying at Columbine, as well as the ways that teachers helped save their lives on the day of the shooting, and their views on the idea of arming teachers. The book concludes with recommendations for survivor-informed best practices for US schools, adding an essential and often overlooked perspective to the debate around making teachers responsible for preventing school shootings.

A forward-looking and unique addition to the conversation about school shootings, this book is an essential resource for researchers, faculty, scholars, and post-graduate students with interests in education, criminology, school shootings, restorative justice, trauma studies, suicide prevention, and bullying.

Michelle Markert-Porter completed her doctorate in education in curriculum and instruction in 2023 at Texas A&M University, USA. She is now a Secondary Spanish and ESOL Teacher at St Patrick’s College in Wellington, New Zealand.