CASSIE BERNALL
1982-1999

STUDENT, VICTIM

Troubled Youth

Earlier in her life, Cassie Bernall, a seventeen-year-old student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, had experimented with drugs and alcohol and had once even discussed killing her parents. She had, however, converted to Christianity at an evangelical summer camp and had abandoned her flirtations with witchcraft for youth-oriented Bible studies and a "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do) bracelet. When on 20 April 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered the Columbine High School library during a shooting rampage that would leave twelve students, a teacher, and the gunmen dead, Bernall hid under a table. Reportedly, one of the gunmen stood over her and asked if she believed in God. She answered, "Yes, I believe in God." The gunman asked, "Why?" but before she could respond, he shot her to death.

Unlikely Martyr

Bernall's parents, Misty and Brad, were evangelical Christians and were concerned that their son and daughter follow in their faith. When Cassie was an eighth and ninth grader she rebelled against her parents and their religious and social values, telling her mother that she had "given her soul to Satan." She started sniffing glue, smoking marijuana, and drinking. She experimented with occult practices and discussed having another boy kill her parents. When her parents became aware of their daughter's problems, they separated her from her friends, put her in a Christian academy, and limited her social outlets to church youth-group activities. Cassie responded to her parents' "tough love" approach, converted to Christianity, and as a high school student identified herself with other evangelical Christians. Klebold and Harris targeted Christians, as well as Jews, blacks, and athletes, during their shooting rampage.

"She Said Yes."

Almost immediately after the story of Bernall's last words, she was marked as a hero and martyr to her faith, particularly among evangelical Christians. Reverend George Kirsten, her pastor, assured the two thousand mourners who attended her funeral, "she went to the martyrs' hall of fame." The phrase, "Yes, I believe," started to appear on lapel buttons and T-shirts. Christian youth rallies and concerts appealed to her memory. Michael W. Smith, a popular Christian musician and performer, recorded a song based on her story. Her mother wrote a biography of her daughter, She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall (1999).

Who Said What?

The story of Bernail's martyrdom became more muddled, however, in September 1999, when an article in the on-line magazine Salon challenged several of the widely reported—and believed—reports about the Columbine massacre, including her conversation with Harris and Klebold. According to the story by Dave Cullen, "an alternate scenario is far more likely: The killers asked another girl, Valeen Schnurr, a similar question, then shot her, and she lived to tell about it. Schnurr's story was then apparently misattributed to Cassie." While some witnesses, in the confusion and terror of the moment, were uncertain whether the words attributed to Bernall were spoken by her, by Schnurr, or both, others insist that they heard the killer's question and Bernail's response.