Columbine dad praises Bailey effort
Brian Rohrbough says deputies did 'really good job' in 'lousy situation'
Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
Published September 29, 2006 at midnight
The leading critic of how Jefferson County handled the Columbine High School shooting had nothing but praise Thursday for the reaction to a gunman at Platte Canyon High School.
Brian Rohrbough credited authorities with evacuating Platte Canyon, isolating the gunman and saving five of six hostages.
"Given the lousy situation, I think they did a really good job," he said.
Rohrbough said he is aware that some of the same deputies who responded to Columbine on April 20, 1999, were instrumental in assisting Park County deputies on Wednesday at Platte Canyon.
"God, I wish no one would have died or been hurt, but I think in this case they did a really good job," he said.
Rohrbough's son, Dan, was one of 12 students who died at Columbine.
In Columbine's aftermath, Jefferson County authorities, including the sheriff, district attorney and school principal, were criticized on a number of fronts.
The sheriff's department was blasted for failing to storm the school.
Rohrbough, his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Isaac, 5, and Rachael, 4, spent about five hours Thursday at Platte Canyon Community Church, where grieving residents of Bailey gathered.
The couple has belonged to the church for years.
"We went up to offer what support we could," he said. "People wanted to talk."
For Rohrbough, some of Wednesday's events were an eerie reminder of Columbine, especially students running to buses and then connecting with terrified parents.
But in Columbine, the shooters were two high school seniors, while the gunman in Bailey was an outsider with no apparent connection to Platte Canyon.
The gunman killed 16-year-old Emily Keyes before killing himself.
"This guy is just flat evil," Rohrbough said. "Tragically, an innocent girl is dead."
He said he doesn't know Emily's family, but he knows all too well their "immense sense of loss."
He is not alone.
Cindy Sanders' father, Dave Sanders, was a teacher at Columbine who died trying to save students.
"My heart goes out to the community of Bailey," she wrote in a Rocky Mountain News blog.
"Tragedies are going to happen, no matter how prepared we think we are.
"God bless, and live every day to the fullest, because you never know if it will be your last!!"
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