COMMEMORATION, MEMORIALIZATION, AND MASS SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: AN ANALYSIS OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND POWER STRUCTURES By Crystal LaCount, B.A. A thesis submittEd to the GraduatE Council of TExas StatE University in partial fulfillmEnt of the requiremEnts for the degreE of MastEr of Arts with a Major in History December 2020 CommittEE MEmbers: Nancy Berlage, Chair Angela Murphy Dan UtlEy COPYRIGHT by Crystal LaCount 2020 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protEctEd by the Copyright Laws of the UnitEd StatEs (Public Law 94-553, sEction 107). ConsistEnt with fair usE as defined in the Copyright Laws, briEf quotations from this matErial are allowEd with proper acknowlEdgmEnt. UsE of this matErial for financial gain without the author’s express writtEn permission is not allowEd. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work, I, Crystal LaCount, authorizE duplication of this work, in wholE or part, for educational and scholarly purposEs only. DEDICATION To all my formEr students who feared for their lives on a daily basis in class, and to every victim and survivor of gun violEncE. Together wE can and will End it— The young peoplE will win. ACKNOWLEDGMEMNTS I couldn’t have complEtEd this thesis without the invaluablE assistancE of Dr. Nancy K. Berlage, my committEE chair. Thank you for helping mE transform my initial thoughts into beautifully phrasEd works of art and for introducing mE to the world of public history and mEmory. Our long discussions are somE of the best mEmoriEs I have of my timE spent in the program. My thesis would not be what it is without your continuous guidancE and support. To committEE mEmber Dan UtlEy, thank you for tEaching mE the necEssary skills neEded to conduct a solid oral history intErviEw and for always pushing mE past my comfort zones. Your faith in mE mEans a lot; I hope I made you proud. CommittEE mEmber Dr. Angela Murphy, thank you for tEaching mE the value of precision. It is becausE of your guidancE that I was ablE to craft a solid argumEnt. LEonard Schwartz, thank you for wElcoming mE into your homE and fearlEssly discussing your lived experiEncE of August 1, 1966 with mE. It is my hope that your oral history will help to placE survivors’ mEmoriEs at the forefront of the UT TowEr shooting’s narrative. ChaptEr two would not be what it is without the inclusion of your mEmoriEs, thank you. To my one and only fur baby Gaga “Gu” Couture, thank you for sticking by my side from beginning to end and providing mE with the Emotional support neEded to complEtE this thesis. You always knew when I was in neEd of a snugglE or fetch break. I v couldn’t have writtEn this without your love and companionship. You are much more than a dog, you are my best friEnd. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................ ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Background .................................................................................................3 MEthods of ResEarch ................................................................................. 11 DEfinition of KEy TErms ...........................................................................12 Summary ...................................................................................................15 II. THE 1966 UT TOWER MASS SCHOOL SHOOTING .................................17 UT’s 2016 MEmorial Rededication Ceremony .........................................18 MEmorialization and CommEmoration; A BriEf History ...............20 UT’s Early TowEr Shooting MEmorialization AttEmpts ...............21 A Living MEmorial for the UT TowEr Shooting ..........................24 A NEw PErmanent MEmorial; A Collaborative Approach ............25 The UT TowEr; Tourism ...........................................................................28 Dark Tourism as a Tool; Prosthetic MEmory ...............................30 What Happened That Day; Individual and CollEctive MEmory ...............32 MEdia ResponsE and Mythologizing of the UT TowEr ShootEr ...............40 EntErtainmEnt Industry; Historical Narratives and CollEctive MEmory ...................................................................................42 GovernmEnt ResponsE and MEdia CreatEd Myths ....................................45 Policing Before and AftEr the UT TowEr Shooting ......................48 FEderal Public Policy DEbatE; Gun LEgislation and the NRA ......51 StatE Public Policy DEbatE ............................................................54 Bridging the Divide in TExas’ Gun Policy DEbatE ........................57 III. THE 1999 COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL MASS SHOOTING ..................60 Columbine RemEmbrancE Ceremony .......................................................63 Grassroots MEmorialization and Evangelical Christianity at Columbine ........................................................................................64 vii Grassroots MEmorialization from an Outsider’s PErspective ........69 PErmanent MEmorial .....................................................................73 What Happened That Day; CollEctive and Individual MEmory ...............80 Media ResponsE .........................................................................................85 Emotion as a MEmory Constructing Tool .....................................87 Youth Culture, Anti-tEEn SEntimEnt, and Bullying .......................89 GriEf as a MEmory Constructing Tool ..........................................90 Religion and Mythologizing as MEmory Constructing Tools .......92 Copycat Attacks and School ShootEr StEreotypes ........................93 No NotoriEty; Victims and Survivors at the Forefront .................95 GovernmEnt ResponsE; The Columbine ReviEw Commission .................96 The EntErtainmEnt and Video GamE IndustriEs as Forms of ViolEnt Youth Culture ...............................................................97 Religion as a Tool of Division and Public Policy DEbatE .............99 Gun LEgislation, the NRA, and ConstructEd MEmory ................102 School Safety, Policing, and SurveillancE ...................................105 Policing During and AftEr the Columbine Mass School Shooting .................................................................................106 Clinton’s ResponsE to the Columbine Shooting ..........................109 Clinton’s Actions on School Safety and Gun LEgislation prior to 1999 .....................................................................................110 IV. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................114 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................122 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Page 1. UT TurtlE Pond .............................................................................................................23 2. 2007 BronzE Plaque TowEr MEmorial ..........................................................................24 3. 2016 PErmanent TowEr MEmorial ................................................................................27 4. UT Campus Map- 1966 ................................................................................................36 5. Visitor at a Columbine MEmorial SitE ..........................................................................65 6. A Portrait of JEsus at a MEmorial in ClEmEnt Park ...................................................... 67 7. Student Signs Cross ......................................................................................................71 8. OutEr Wall of HEaling ...................................................................................................75 9. PEoplE Visit the Columbine MEmorial ..........................................................................76 10. PEoplE Visit the Columbine MEmorial .......................................................................76 11. Youth Group Cast Shadows at Columbine MEmorial ................................................77 ix I. INTRODUCTION Gun violEncE is on the risE in AmErica. As many as 39,773 AmEricans losE their lives to gun violEncE annually according to a study recEntly published by the CentErs for DisEasE Control and Prevention.1 In 2019, a total of 418 mass shootings occurred in AmErica. Of thosE, twEnty-nine occurred in TExas. As past mass shootings demonstratE, no location is off limits. PlacEs of worship, schools, workplacEs, moviE theatErs, retail stores, homEs, and even streEts have all beEn locations of mass shootings in TExas alone. In fact, somE of the deadliEst mass shootings in AmErica have occurred on TExas soil. Although it is apparent that the problEm of mass shootings reaches far beyond schools, I have chosEn to focus solEly on mass school shootings for the purposE of my resEarch. This thesis Examines the commEmoration procEssEs of the 1966 University of TExas (UT) TowEr and 1999 Columbine High School (Colorado) mass school shootings in order to show stakeholders’ ability to creatE falsE historical narratives and embed them into sociEty’s collEctive mEmory. This, paired with each shooting’s larger historical contExt, shaped how sociEty talked about and remEmbered each tragedy. The creation