Sep 21, 2007 2:58 pm US/Central
Columbine Memorial Set To Be Dedicated
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The Columbine Memorial will be dedicated Friday, more than eight years after student gunmen killed 13 people, and themselves. (File)
CBS
Nearly 8 1/2 years after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, a permanent memorial will be dedicated Friday in honor of those killed.
The memorial originally was a $2.5 million project but was scaled back and delayed while the Columbine community focused first on rebuilding the school library, where many victims were shot.
The $1.5 million memorial will sit in a park next to the school, where two student gunmen killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves April 20, 1999.
An inner Ring of Remembrance will include 13 stations for each slain victim, with messages from their families etched into the ring's stone walls.
Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was killed at Columbine, said he hoped people curious about the massacre would stop by the memorial instead going to the school from now on. He said it would help them reflect on the victims and how the community responded to the massacre, rather than on the gunmen.
"It shifts that focus to something more appropriate," Mauser said of the memorial.
He plans to wear Daniel's tennis shoes to the dedication, something he has only done about 10 times since his death to stretch their wear. Mauser said the shoes, which his son was wearing when he was killed, fit him perfectly.
None of the families of victims have disclosed what their inscriptions will read but the text written by Brian Rohrbough, whose son Daniel was killed, did cause a controversy on the memorial committee.
The committee earlier this year asked Rohrbough to change his wording "to give it a softer tone." Rohrbough refused and the committee later agreed to allow the text as written.
An outer Ring of Healing will be engraved with words of Columbine victims, students, teachers, staff and community members.
Fundraising lagged amid a softening economy and tragedies such as the 2001 terrorist attacks, the southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
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