Columbine High students were allowed to collect their belongings from a trailer behind the school

MESSAGE BOARD:

School shootings

June 16, 1999
Web posted at: 5:31 p.m. EDT (2131 GMT)

LITTLETON, Colorado (CNN) -- Students returned to Columbine High School for a second time Wednesday to collect personal belongings left behind during the April 20 massacre that left 15 people dead.

Many students were accompanied by their parents as they retrieved their belongings from a trailer behind the school. Police emptied the students' lockers during the investigation into the shootings.

Students and parents were not allowed to enter the school building, which is being extensively renovated to erase any evidence of the shooting and bombing spree by student gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

That evidence includes an estimated 900 to 1,000 bullet and shrapnel holes, shattered window panes and walls charred with smoke from pipe bomb explosions.

Construction crews are going beyond simple repairs. The school also will be renovated with new furniture, green and blue tiles, carpet and paint.

"We looked at the entire building to determine what we could do quickly," Jack Swanzy, the director of planning and design for Jefferson County School District, said Tuesday.

"At the same time, we wanted to make an impact. We wanted to do something to make sure people did know it had changed," he said.

Library to remain closed?

Students who went back to the school Wednesday expressed no apprehension about returning for the fall academic semester, which begins August 16.

"I think the school's going to look really nice," said Meghan McKee, 15, who was in the science room during the shooting.

"There will be enough changes that it will have a different kind of feel to it," she said.

The school plans to add more surveillance cameras inside and outside the building, as well as other, still undisclosed, security precautions.

The library, where 10 students died, remains off-limits until laboratory technicians complete tests on evidence taken from the room.

Some parents and students have urged that the library be permanently closed.

"Parents didn't want cosmetic changes," said Linda Mauser, whose son Daniel died in the shooting. "They wanted it (the library) moved."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.