Columbine survivors find purpose 15 years later

LITTLETON, Colo. -- Fifteen years after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stalked the halls of Columbine High School in a murderous rampage, memories of that fateful day still echo across Colorado and the country.

Schools have tightened security, with more deploying metal detectors or armed guards. Police officers flood into shooting situations, rather than hanging back. School psychologists are trained to intervene more decisively when they encounter students with mental health challenges.

But while the killings that day prompted changes, the school itself continues to shape the minds of kids, none of whom were even there when the tragedy occurred on April 20, 1999.

Armed with guns and bombs, Harris and Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, Dave Sanders, before committing suicide.

As he has every year since the shooting, Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis today will read the victims' names in the school to mark the moment everything changed. This will be the last time DeAngelis reads the names as principal. He's retiring in June.

Though he struggled with survivor's guilt, DeAngelis says his priest told him he was spared for a reason.

"If I would've left, I would've struggled," DeAngelis says. "I needed this place ... and they allowed me to fulfill something that needed to fulfilled, and that was to build this community back up."

In the years that followed, DeAngelis has been called upon to aid shooting survivors at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech, sharing his experience and explaining how both big and little things can re-traumatize victims. At Columbine, administrators changed the fire alarm sound and stopped serving Chinese food in the cafeteria to avoid invoking the smells and sounds of that day.

"I always get asked is when do things get back to normal," DeAngelis says. "Well, you will have to redefine what normal is."