Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
From Columbine to Parkland, the dark road of Dave Cullen
In coming to Parkland a year ago, Dave Cullen defied every agreement he had made with his therapist and every instinct he had since his work on the book “Columbine” left him with a form of secondary PTSD capable of plunging him into debilitating darkness.
Days after the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on assignment with Vanity Fair magazine, Cullen raced from the airport in Fort Lauderdale to Pine Trails Park in Parkland in search of a meeting among the MSD students that had impressed him and his editors in TV appearances.
In his haste, Cullen suddenly looked up from his phone and found himself surrounded by a field of crosses, Stars of David, bouquets of flowers, stuff animals and weeping mourners.
“Columbine rushed back over me like a wave. I was back at Clement Park the day after Columbine. I was at the epicenter of grief,” Cullen says. “My legs collapsed. I was on the ground, on my knees, sobbing, for about 10 minutes. I said, ‘This is dangerous to me. I shouldn’t be here.’”
Cullen stayed in Parkland that night and for weeks afterward, forming relationships that show up in his new book, “Parkland” (HarperCollins).
Beginning Wednesday, at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Cullen will make his first appearances in South Florida with the book, including two that are part of the Broward Public Library Foundation’s annual Literary Feast. One will be a discussion with students at Stoneman Douglas on Friday.
In contrast to his book about the shocking details surrounding the Colorado school shooting, “Parkland” is a book about what happened next. A fly-on-awall account of a studentled gun-safety movement taking hold almost overnight, it is valuable for Cullen’s richly detailed, warts-and-all profiles in individual courage and discipline, and, sadly, as a blueprint for how young people may respond to another school shooting.
The New York Times Book Review called it a book “about the birth of something extraordinary: the birth of a movement, but also the rebirth of hope.”
An affable former second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Cullen is a prolific journalist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Politico, Slate and Salon, along with numerous TV appearances. When the Columbine shooting occurred in 1999, Cullen was covering the Matthew Shepard murder for Salon.
Cullen has four appearances scheduled in South Florida. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, he will be at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; call 305-442-4408, or visit BooksAndBooks.com. At 6 p.m. Friday, he will be at a LitLive! book signing and panel discussion at Barnes & Noble, 11820 Pines Blvd., as part of the Broward Public Library Foundation’s annual Literary Feast; call 954-357-7382 or visit BPLFoundation.org. Beginning with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Cullen will take part in a Literary Feast Literary Dinner at Wild Sea Oyster Bar & Grille, 620 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; call 954-357-7382 or visit BPLFoundation.org. Also as part of the Literary Feast, Cullen is scheduled to speak Friday morning to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.