Columbine graduates celebrate after the ceremony
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May 23, 1999
Web posted at: 3:56 a.m. EDT (0756 GMT)

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GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colorado (CNN) -- The Class of 1999 of Columbine High School entered a new phase of adult life on Sunday, a day after graduating in a ceremony full of reminders of both pain and the promise of new beginnings.

With the Rocky Mountains and a phalanx of television cameras as a backdrop, 437 graduates received their diplomas at the emotion-laden ceremony at an outdoor amphitheater in Greenwood Village near Littleton.

The commencement came just a month and two days after seniors Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, went on a shooting and bombing rampage inside Columbine killing 12 students and a teacher, Dave Sanders, before the two committed suicide. Twenty-three students were wounded.

For students and parents, the ceremony finally gave them the chance to fashion a happy memory after a seemingly endless series of funerals, memorials and tears.

"I'm ready to move on and get past this," said Megan Kelley, 18. "We needed this."

Lisa Kreutz, in a wheelchair, is presented her diploma

In one of the ceremony's most moving moments, the parents of shooting victim Lauren Townsend were given her graduation robe and a plaque honoring the straight-A student as one of the class of 1999's four valedictorians.

The crowd cheered as her mother held up the blue-and-silver gown and kissed it. Later in the ceremony, her brothers and sister came up to accept her diploma.

One of the student keynote speakers at the graduation, Sara Martin, told classmates that the tragedy "will make us more complete humans."

"I have learned more in this last month than I have in all my years of schooling," she said.

Though Harris and Klebold had been set to graduate, their names went unmentioned during the ceremony.

Of the 12 students killed by the assailants, two -- Townsend and Isaiah Shoels -- were graduating seniors. Shoels' parents did not attend Saturday's ceremony. They had earlier buried him in his Columbine cap and gown.

The wounds of April 20 were evident as two seniors, still recovering from the attack, crossed the stage to receive their diplomas.

Principal Frank DeAngelis thanked the class of 1999, telling them they have been an inspiration for the way they have handled themselves during the most difficult of times.

"You are my special children, and I love each and every one of you," he said.

The 6,000 people on hand for the ceremony bowed their heads for a moment of silence for Townsend, Shoels and Sanders.

"Their lives were full of courage and hope and enthusiasm. And never forget that they loved us as much as we loved them," DeAngelis said.

"If we remember them all, then they can never leave us," senior Jennifer Wallick said in her speech to the graduates. "Never let them go. They are waiting for us in that realm of pure blue, that mysterious place where the earth meets the sky."

Yet for all the remembrances of the past during the two-hour ceremony, the central focus of the day was on the future. And at the end, just like happy seniors everywhere, members of the Columbine class of 1999 tossed their caps into the air amid a sea of smiles.

Correspondent Tony Clark, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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