Gina London: Columbine Report due out Thursday

Gina London is a national correspondent for CNN Newsource.

Q:Please tell us the background of this report.

LONDON: The report, of course, was brought on by the tragedy at Columbine. Colorado Governor Bill Owens commissioned it five months after the attack. The panel is comprised of 10 members, all volunteers, who reviewed thousands of tapes and documents and conducted 15 public meetings. They are planning on releasing their recommendations in the form of a 200 page report to the governor on Thursday.

Q: What can we expect from the report?

LONDON: The report itself is expected to make several recommendations on several different topics. Troy Eid is the counselor to the governor and was an ex-officio, non-voting member of this panel. He says that people around the country and around the world are going to learn for the first time what he says is a comprehensive chronology of the key events of the shooting. It will be released to the public. Eid is indicating that there will be elements of this chronology that have not yet been seen.

MESSAGE BOARD School safety

There will also be recommendations made about the way that law enforcement agencies handle these types of crises. For instance, how do many law enforcement agencies maintain a coordinated command when different agencies respond to a crisis? Remember, in Columbine, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department took the lead command. But, there was also a Federal SWAT team, the Denver police and a lot of different agencies. One of the problems was their communication at the scene of this crisis. They were not all on the same radio frequency. So, commands were being sent that not everyone was getting. That is one of the other recommendations; how the radio that the police all operate on will be on the same frequency.

Then we get into threat assessment as a topic. That is, how schools establish teams to identify potential threats. What are some practical ways to make schools safer? How do hospital systems react to a crisis like this? Troy Eid says, "We owe it to the victims to try and get some good out of this tragedy. There has been such a scar on this community and so many people have been hurting. If we can find some positive lessons and apply them quickly, we might be able to save some other lives."

Q: How do the family members of the victims and those who went to school at Columbine feel about the report?

LONDON: It is important to point out that we did not interview all of the victims’ family members. We do know that there are more than 30 lawsuits pending over the handling of this case. While the purpose of this commission was not to find fault, a lot of parents are going to be looking to this to find out if there is any suggestion that there was a problem with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

A lot of those lawsuits are pointed towards the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department. In fact, the Sheriff’s Department did not cooperate with this commission. Sheriff John Stone did not testify in front of the commission. Troy Eid says "The sheriff and his staff did not see fit to cooperate with the commission, either with the investigation or testifying before the commission in spite of repeated requests and promises from them that they would appear." Sheriff Stone decided not to testify citing the pending lawsuit. That was within his right.