On April 20, 1999, the most deadly act of school violence in United States history occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. Two students killed 12 students and 1 teacher and wounded 21 others before killing themselves. The media coverage was graphic and pervasive. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) provides a unique opportunity to study the effect of Columbine on students’ fear of victimization and avoidance behavior. Data were collected between January and June 1999 from a nationally representative sample of 12- to 18-year-old United States students. The questions specifically asked students about their fear and avoidance behaviors at school. The design was enhanced by the availability of 2 years of data. The results showed that fear at school did increase after Columbine, but it was a small change, both in terms of the population affected and the change in frequency. The vast majority (over 77 percent) of students were not fearful at school. Less than 4 percent of students were more fearful after Columbine than before the incident. Those students experienced only slight increases in frequency of fear, as they were three times more likely to report being almost never afraid as opposed to afraid sometimes or most of the time. The increase in fear after Columbine was driven by changes from never being afraid to almost never being afraid. Student concerns seemed directed at school, where Columbine occurred, as no change was observed in fear while traveling to and from school. Student avoidance behaviors did not change after Columbine. These findings are particularly powerful due to reliance on an unusually strong design including randomized experimental data from respondents allocated to pre- and post-Columbine groups as well as two waves of data. 3 tables, 11 footnotes, appendix, 44 references