Sue Klebold has dedicated herself to exploring the intersection of mental health and violence, prompted by profound personal tragedy. She has spent years meticulously examining her family life, seeking to understand the critical links between mental health challenges and violent acts. Rather than succumbing to grief and remorse, she has emerged as a fervent advocate, tirelessly working to advance mental health awareness and intervention. Her work focuses on understanding the roots of violence and promoting proactive approaches to mental well-being.
In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives. For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently? These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother's Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts. Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother's Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent. All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues.
„Am 20. April 1999 betraten Dylan Klebold und Eric Harris ausgerüstet mit Gewehren und Sprengstoff die Columbine Highschool. Dort töteten sie zwölf Schüler und einen Lehrer, verletzten vierundzwanzig weitere Menschen und nahmen sich dann selbst das Leben. Es war der schlimmste Schul-Amoklauf der Geschichte. Dylan Klebold war mein Sohn.“ 16 Jahre nach dem Amoklauf ihres Sohnes Dylan erzählt Sue Klebold von ihrem Ringen mit der Frage, ob sie die Tat hätte verhindern können, wenn sie nur aufmerksamer, liebevoller gewesen wäre. Sue Klebold ist durch die Hölle gegangen, aber an der Tat ihres Sohnes nicht zerbrochen. Sie hat einen Weg gefunden weiterzuleben und hofft, anderen Eltern zu helfen, das zu verhindern, was sie selbst nicht aufhalten konnte. Von einem ist sie fest überzeugt: Elterliche Liebe allein reicht nicht aus, um Kinder und Jugendliche vor den Folgen unerkannter psychischer Erkrankungen zu schützen. Ein starkes Memoir einer Mutter, der das Unvorstellbare passiert ist. Sue Klebold spendet alle Einnahmen an Forschung und Hilfsorganisationen für Opfer und Angehörige psychisch Kranker.