Learning the Wrong Lesson

We all have heard more than enough about the Littleton tragedy. Unfortunately, we have not heard nearly enough of the truth. The great lie about Littleton is that two satanic students walked into their small-town high school, sought out and killed religious students. For instance, the media portrayal of the event highlighted the killing of a girl supposedly killed for saying she believed in God, an event chronicled by her mother in a recent bestseller. After the authenticity of the incident was challenged, both by eyewitnesses and the formal investigation, the media took no responsibility for correcting their error.

Every great American tragedy involves a great misunderstanding. In Littleton it seemed that the tragedy was unambiguous: Two high school students killed their classmates in a library. However, the lesson learned was a misunderstanding of epic proportions, one that has surreptitiously stolen the debate away from the arena of gun-control and counseling and thrust it into the revival tent of Bible-thumping Baptists.

Instead of talking about the troubling prevalence of religion on school grounds in clear defiance of the constitutional separation of church and state, we have been reduced to debating the benefits of bestowing the title of "martyr" upon Littleton victim Cassie Bernall. In fact, the so-called martyrdom of Cassie Bernall is emblematic of the problems with the current debate surrounding religion in the schools.

The case is relatively simple. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into their high school's library and started shooting, Cassie Bernall and Emily Wyant hid under a table. Klebold slammed his hand on the desk, yelled "Peekaboo" as Cassie prayed fervently to God that she would be spared. Klebold asked if she believed in God, and when she said yes, he killed her. Or so the media refrain went.

In fact, investigators and Emily Wyant have testified to a slightly different sequence of events, one in which the cries of, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, don't let me die," came from the mouth of Wyant; she was asked both if and why she believed in God, to which she responded affirmatively, because "my parents brought me up that way." The assailant reloaded but did not fire again. Wyant survived her 34 pellet wounds to tell this rendition of the popular myth which has now become the topic of a bestselling book by Cassie Bernall's mother, entitled She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall.

The book itself has spawned Christian youth movements nationwide in response to the supposed attack on religion in public schools. The common supposition is that if Klebold and Harris could only have been as pious and God-fearing as Cassie, or at least had been pressured to be so in their schools, their homicidal tendencies would have been replaced by religious fervor. If Cassie were not killed for her belief in God, the lesson is entirely changed.

Instead, we are forced to recognize the killers for who they were, depressed and unsatisfied kids furious at the world in general, not at their God-fearing classmates in particular.

The Littleton shooting should be seen for what it has become; one great big shot in the arm for the Christian right. While the country has been drooling over our recent prosperity, the Christian right has quietly been infiltrating the school boards of the country and pushing a pro-Christian, pro-prayer, anti-evolution platform.

The advance of religion in the schools is a silent march, much like a termite invasion that slowly and secretly munches through the walls and floors until the whole building collapses in a heap to everyone's surprise and dismay.

The Kansas Board of Education which voted to include creationism in school curriculum is a fine example of this phenomenon. Five out of the ten members elected to the Board are conservative Christians elected in the fall of 1998. They were elected right under the nose of moderate Republicans preoccupied with the high-profile Republican gubernatorial primary which pitted a former Kansas Christian Coalition head against moderate Bill Graves. By moving the debate away from the abortion clinic doors (or rather, being banished from them by the FACE act) they have colored themselves as innocuous citizens merely concerned for the welfare of our school system.

But their goals are suspect--they tout abstinence programs over sex education, champion school prayer and urge the adoption of vouchers to send kids to parochial schools.

While high-profile moderate Republicans like George W. Bush Jr. may garner the majority of public attention, it is hard-line right-wingers who are setting the agenda, locally and nationally. We see evidence of their influence on the moderates in the recent presidential debates. Bush, who has spent more money as governor on abstinence programs than required by law, has said he would almost triple funding for such programs if elected President. These programs, often run by Christian Coalition devotees, teach that abortion is "killing a baby," promote the rhythm method of contraception, and provide little to no advice on how to avoid pregnancy if you choose to have sex. Such programs leave high school students--of whom 70 percent will have had sex by the time they reach 18--ignorant and unprepared to deal with the realities of sexual intercourse.

But then again, ignorance seems to be the goal of this silent storm sweeping the nation. First they want us to think that religion is under attack using the fallacious example of Cassie Bernall, then they want us to think that creationism is a legitimate alternative to evolution in science classrooms, and finally they want us to teach our kids that the only way to prevent pregnancy is not to have sex. This leaves American youth in Kansas ill-prepared to deal with a university education, in Texas ill-prepared to deal with sex, and everywhere convinced that their elders are complete morons. After all, on the Internet superhighway of information (of which, incidentally, Harris and Klebold were expert navigators) kids can find out all the information that these hijacked school boards are trying to keep from them.

There are many lessons to be learned from Littleton. We cannot let the deception of the Christian right cloud the most important of them all.

Meredith B. Osborn '02, a Crimson editor, is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House.