ORIGIN: In 1994, a student (belonging to a group of computer gamers and loners who were often bullied by
popular and athletic students of the school) -- attending Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, USA -- was given a black duster (trench coat) as a gift from his mother, and wore it to school. Soon after, the student's friend started wearing a black trench coat as well, because he liked the style. And it wasn'
t long before the others followed suit. They wore the
long coats even when weather was warm outside. It also wasn'
t long before jocks in the school started to ridicule the group by calling them "a trench coat mafia". After this, the group of friends took on the name and wore it like a badge, adopting the name for themselves, "The Trench Coat Mafia" (TCM) for
short.
They wore all black and in attempts to fight back against the
popular athletes and jocks in the school, the Trench Coat Mafia ridiculed the jocks right back, attempting to stand up against bullies in the school.
On April 20, 1999, two students who dressed like members in the TCM and were also bullied outcasts in the school, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold (who had friends who were members of the TCM), planted two home made propane
time bombs in the school's cafeteria, and went on a killing spree in the school, carrying one Hi-Point 995 carbine rifle, a sawed-off Savage Springfield pump-action
shotgun, a sawed-off 12-gauge double barreled
shotgun, and a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistol, along with numerous pipe bombs, grenades, smoke bombs, and knives. They killed twelve students and one teacher, and injured 24 other students, before committing simultaneous suicide.
After the shooting, often termed as the Columbine High School Massacre, the Trench Coat Mafia became an infamous icon against jocks and bullies, and catalyzed a movement of outcast students sending a message in schools across the USA (and spreading to
Canada and the UK): "if you mess with us, we might just come to school one
day, and kill everyone in it."
DEFINITION: A group of students in a school who are social outcasts (usually the target of bullying and called geeks, nerds, loners), who wear all black and often black trench coats, and express a disdain for jocks.
