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A mother's suicide adds to a community's suffering
I THINK WE'LL ALL RECOVER," ANNE Marie Hochhalter said at a "Courage Walk" held two weeks ago to raise money for wounded survivors of the Columbine High shootings. Shot in the spine and partly paralyzed, Anne Marie recently moved her toes for the first time. Last Friday, she and her dad went to a local elementary school to say thanks to students who had raised thousands of dollars for the victims of April shooting by selling root-beer floats and toy Columbine bears, the school mascot. At about the same time, Anne Marie's mother, Carla, walked into the Alpha Pawn Shop and asked to see a .38 revolver. She loaded it with bullets from her purse and, while the clerk turned away, fatally shot herself in the head. Friends say that Carla, a shy, religious woman, was simply overwhelmed.
Carla Hochhalter was instantly dubbed "the 14th victim" of the Columbine shootings, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of victims, and they continue to suffer--from wounds, from grief, from depression and from each other's jealousy and wrath. Fearful of another massacre, school administrators and police have imposed a policy of "zero...