Greg Mees is often asked two questions when people learn he went to Columbine High School.
“‘Were you there?’ is the first question,” Mees said.
He was not. He was in second grade and graduated a decade after the shooting.
“So, then, the next question is, ‘What was it like going to Columbine?”’ Mees said.
It’s a difficult question for him to ponder, and not one that people ask in a thoughtful way, he said.
“It’s not so much that they want to deeply know what it was like and what the experience was like 10 years after,” Mees said. “It’s kind of this haunting place for people to talk about.”
Mees is a senior assistant managing editor at the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis.
It was at his alma mater that Mees was inspired to become a journalist.
“I actually wanted to be a teacher for a very long time and then in high school, that’s where I got into journalism,” Mees said. “I was the editor of the yearbook at Columbine and fell in love with storytelling.”
As a professional storyteller, Mees said he wishes more people would ask him about his experience at the high school.
“It’s still such an amazing school and I have a lot of respect for the staff and the faculty and the administration there,” Mees said. “It resonates, and you still feel this pull and connection to the school.”
Mees grew up in Denver and transferred to Jefferson County Public Schools just before high school.
He said when he arrived at Columbine High School, the community was already strong, galvanized to support each other.
“The Columbine community is still such a huge family. I think that being there about six years after the shooting, you could just feel this connection and this closeness,” Mees said.
Many of the faculty when he went there had been in the school the day of the shooting. And those teachers, and the staff, left a lasting influence on his life.
One influence was the leadership he witnessed from “Mr. De,” also known as Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of the school.
“I think that the leadership that Frank DeAngelis showed was such a model for the way that somebody wants to live their life and I think that a lot of my leadership in my job and in my life has really been reflective of his leadership and of his caring,” Mees said.
Mees said he tries to follow Mr. De’s example in his own role as an editor in his newsroom.
Mees believes the Columbine shooting had a major impact on the news media and set a precedent for how the industry covers similar incidents.
He is familiar with criticisms about how news organizations covered the aftermath of the shooting, but also said “it was the first time that anybody had seen something on this scale.”
“Even today in my newsroom, and just conversations, people often say that was one of the first major news events that they remember covering,” Mees said. “For a lot of people, I think that Columbine was that first major news event in their life that maybe shaped the way breaking news coverage happens.”
As a media professional now, Mees said it’s become more common to cover events similar to the shooting.
“In some ways, it feels routine,” Mees said. “I think during the direct aftermath of Columbine there was a lot of learning that was done about how to be sensitive to these types of stories.”
Mees thinks the overall coverage and reflection of what happened 25 years ago has been done well, but said it’s important to remember that there are those who are connected to the school who weren’t there that day, and they have their own experiences.
“I would love to have more people ask more about what my time was like at the school and not be so focused on the shooting,” Mees said.
He feels a narrative was created that paints the school as a “hard place to go to every day.”
“It just was not that at all,” Mees said. “You don’t feel that when you’re there. It’s not something in your day-to-day routine that comes up. It’s just a high school and you’re a high schooler going to high school working through the crazy teenage years and finding your way.”
Mees will never “take for granted” the connection and bond “the Columbine family” shares.
“I think that community is something that stays with you for a very long time,” Mees said.