Cindy Maudsley was just 15 when two students opened fire at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999
NEED TO KNOW
- Cindy Maudsley was just 15 and a freshman when the Columbine shooting happened
- 27 years later, she unpacked her backpack from that day in a TikTok that has now been viewed more than 12 million times
- In an interview with PEOPLE, she reflects on that day and why she unboxed the “time capsule” for her audience
It’s been just over 27 years since two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 13 people and wounding 24. It was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, later joined by the massacres at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
On April 20, 1999, Cindy Maudsley was just 15 — a freshman at Columbine.
“I always remember truly having a great time giggling with my friends and even having our teacher ask us to be quiet,” Maudsley, now 42, shares with PEOPLE of her fourth-period science class just before the shooting started. “It was such an innocent time. I was so excited to finish that class and go to PE, and then I would have lunch; for some reason, I was really excited for my Lunchable. So I just wanted to [hurry] along the day.”…