Zero-Tolerance Policies in Schools

• Since the massacre, many schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies toward both violence and any comments that might imply a threat of violence. From time to time this has taken an absurd turn, with students suspended or even expelled for making a joking threat toward a classmate or teacher or writing a disturbing story in a school assignment. Nonetheless, school communities were reminded by the savage attack that there is a need to pay close attention to students' in-class behavior.
  
  

Copycat Shootings

• Although Columbine was by no means the first school shooting, it was at the time the worst that had ever happened. It received a great deal of media coverage and the discussion about the shootings went on for years after. The extensive attention paid to the shootings in the media may have contributed a disturbing rise in the occurrence of such shootings elsewhere. In the 10 years after the Columbine massacre, there were 60 incidents, more than double the number in the 10 years before Columbine.
  
  

School Safety Measures

• In the post-Columbine era, school administrations have become much more conscious of security and how easy it can be for a stranger or student to walk into a school building and start shooting. Lock-down drills, in which students practice locking the classroom doors and hiding from a violent intruder, are now commonplace in many schools. Schools have also turned to closed-circuit TV cameras and safety plans in an effort to better handle these incidents.
  
  

Changes in Police Response Strategies

• Before the Columbine massacre, police doctrine focused on officers "buying time" in a potentially violent situation, either to talk the shooters down or simply to hold them until a trained SWAT team could arrive and deal with them. Since Columbine, the focus has increasingly shifted to "rapid deployment," where officers with semi-automatic rifles and combat gear are trained to intervene immediately if shots are fired, in the hopes of minimizing loss of life. This approach is still confined to school shooting situations; in the event of a suspect barricading himself in a home or other setting, officers would still try to wait them out.
  
  

Debates in Popular Culture

• The Columbine massacre fed numerous debates in various media. Advocates of gun control argue that the killings might have been prevented had it been harder for the killers to get weapons. The shootings did not, however, lead to any major tightening in gun laws. There was also a major debate over so-called "Goth" culture, with students wearing trench coats often mentioned as presenting a potential threat to their classmates. More broadly, the online postings that the shooters had made, provoked intense public debate over how to deal with thoughts that once would have been confined to private journals. Such thoughts are now often posted online where others can read them and encourage the writers.