#Sam Granillo

[racheljoyscotts]

“The Smoke in the Room” - Columbine High School’s 1999 Spring Play. (April 2nd & 3rd, 1999)

[rachelscottblog]

Sam Granillo was one of 17 people at Columbine High School barricaded in an office near the school's cafeteria, where much of the massacre took place. The students quickly noticed that there was no lock on the office door, so Granillo shoved his toes into the bottom of the door and laid on the ground to use his body weight to wedge it shut.

"A couple minutes later the doorknob turns," Granillo recalled. "And it's just like in a horror movie almost, when you're trying to be quiet and the doorknob starts to turn and you know what's on the other side. And everyone in my room, which was a tiny office, started pushing on my knees and shoulders trying to brace me. We were fighting the door shut against the shooters." He cannot be sure who was on the other side of the door, but assumes it was Klebold and Harris. Sam was later rescued by the SWAT team.

Officials began to let Granillo and other students still leaving the school run up a nearby hill to safety. "I run up the hill and I look down and there's a girl who had been killed laying on her back -- which was my friend Rachel. I didn't know that at the time -- and I almost tripped over her," Granillo said, referring to Rachel Scott, a 17-year-old student who was shot to death on the lawn along the west entrance to the school while eating lunch with friend Richard Castaldo who Sam was supposed to join to eat lunch with both of them that day.

Today Sam is working on a documentary called Columbine: Wounded Minds and still feels survivors guilt to this day.

[ruleof3entertainment]

Columbine: 15 Years Later

A friend of Rule of 3, Sam Granillo: a Columbine HS shooting survivor, journeyed across America to visit other school shooting sites. With a camera, and production crew in tow to document it.

Along with Dateline NBC, Sam chronicles his journey. We can’t wait to see the whole story on Sunday, 15 years later.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/columbine-15-years-later/columbine-survivors-trip-virginia-tech-n82396

[racheljoyscotts]

Sam Granillo (2012)

[racheljoyscotts]

If anyone wants to watch the Columbine episode of Dateline that aired on the 15th anniversary in 2014 - you can watch it here. (If for some reason you aren’t able to watch it on Vimeo, please feel free to message me and ill send you a download link.) 

“Sam Granillo, a survivor of the Columbine High School massacre, tries to come to terms with the tragedy by meeting with students, parents and teachers who have also been impacted by school shootings.”

[racheljoyscotts]

Sam Granillo (Columbine Survivor) visits with two teachers who survived the 1998 Westside Middle School shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. (Dateline, 2014)

[racheljoyscotts]

On April 20th, 1999, Sam Granillo was a 17 year old Junior at Columbine High School. He was supposed to have lunch with his good friend Rachel Scott. But decided to study inside the cafeteria with another friend named Sarah Slater, who was his prom date just 3 days prior to the shootings. After being alerted by the heroic, quick thinking teacher, Dave Sanders. Sam and Sarah ran and hid in a small back office in the cafeteria with 16 other people. Only to be freed by the SWAT team about 3 hours later. 

By that time: 15 people were dead. Including Rachel Scott, the friend and classmate he was supposed to have lunch with.

[racheljoyscotts]

While I was searching for a download of Sam Granillo’s Dateline episode a few days ago, I came across his adorable engagement video from last September. He’s engaged to fellow Columbine survivor, & another one of Rachel’s good friends - Sarah Bay. And the wedding is tomorrow! Congrats to the both of them. I’m sure Rachel will be there in spirit. <3

[racheljoyscotts]

Dateline takes a look back at the tragedy with Sam Granillo in a special called “The Road Home.” Granillo, now 32, travels with NBC’s Lester Holt meeting students, parents and teachers who have been victims of other school shootings. The road trip brings the pair from Jonesboro, Arkansas to Red Lake, Minnesota to Dekalb, Illinois, to Virginia Tech. The journey concludes as Granillo returns to Columbine, confronting many long-held fears.

“Sam was one of 17 people at Columbine High School barricaded in an office near the school’s cafeteria, where much of the massacre took place. The students quickly noticed that there was no lock on the office door, so Granillo shoved his toes into the bottom of the door and laid on the ground to use his body weight to wedge it shut.

“A couple minutes later the doorknob turns,” Granillo recalled. “And it’s just like in a horror movie almost, when you’re trying to be quiet and the doorknob starts to turn and you know what’s on the other side. And everyone in my room, which was a tiny office, started pushing on my knees and shoulders trying to brace me. We were fighting the door shut against the shooters.” He cannot be sure who was on the other side of the door, but assumes it was Klebold and Harris. Sam was later rescued by the SWAT team.

Officials began to let Granillo and other students still leaving the school run up a nearby hill to safety. “I run up the hill and I look down and there’s a girl who had been killed laying on her back – which was my friend Rachel. I didn’t know that at the time – and I almost tripped over her,” Granillo said, referring to Rachel Scott, a 17-year-old student who was shot to death on the lawn along the west entrance to the school while eating lunch with friend Richard Castaldo who Sam was supposed to join to eat lunch with both of them that day.

Today Sam is working on a documentary called Columbine: Wounded Minds and still feels survivors guilt to this day. “