Once upon a time, the most that kids had to worry about at school was a looming test or a deadline for a paper. No more. After the carnage that left 15 dead and 23 wounded at Columbine High in the affluent Denver suburb of Littleton, there can be few youngsters anywhere who feel totally confident that they won't one day encounter a fellow student with a gun in his hand and madness in his eyes. Although …showed first 75 words of 383 total…

…showed last 75 words of 383 total…children well-though Littleton's sheriff wondered aloud on TV how Harris's folks could have ignored the sawed-off shotgun barrel on their son's dresser. There were questions for the police, too, like why it took so long to reach Dave Sanders, 47, the only teacher victim, who heroically herded students to safety before bleeding to death. Thus, Littleton joined the growing list of all-American towns that firmly believed irrational violence could never touch them-until one day, it did.