Reopening Columbine High
Almost four months after the deadliest school shooting in American history, Columbine High School is just over a week away from reopening its doors to 2,000 students for the fall semester, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara.
Reporters will be given a tour Friday of what students will see when they come back.
Renovations totaling $3 million have gone into Columbine to pay for new carpeting, color schemes and new security measures. Surveillance cameras and new rules and regulations are being utilized to make students and staff feel safe when they return to school.
Columbine High decided against using metal detectors because many in Littleton do not want their school to have the look and feel of a fortress, according to one school district official.
Nonetheless, because of what happened, thousands of schools across the country have added metal detectors. In suburban Dallas, the McKinney and Allen school districts have spent heavily on metal detectors.
"We believe that the 21st century learning environment is going to look different than the 20th century learning environment," said Allen, Texas School Superintendent Barbara Erwin. "Shame on the districts in this nation that do what they've always done."
Meanwhile, although the front of Columbine will look much the way it always has, the glass-walled library in back where 10 students were killed will not reopen. Instead, temporary buildings have been brought in until itÂ's decided whether to use the library ever again.
Still, despite the nightmare of last April, many are anxious to be back in class.
"So many kids have come together that never were friends before this happened and I think thatÂ's why IÂ'm excited about our senior class," said student Lindsey Neam.
Ronald Stephens, Director of the National School Safety Center, told CBS This Morning that the students should be a part of solving school crime.
"Despite all the high-tech strategies, we have to keep in mind the importance of simply knowing the students," Stephens explained. "Keep in touch with them and look for some of the early warning signs that preclude a number of these problems."
Stephens said the Safety Center estimated there were as many as 3,000 copycat bomb threats around the country since the Littleton shooting massacre.