From everything I've read, this wasn't because they were chicken.
They were following doctrine, which reguired not directly confronting the gunmen. They thought they were facing a hostage situation, not a massacre.
Doctrine has since been changed, but it really isn't fair to blame the Columbine cops for doing what they had been taught was right, and that had frankly worked pretty well up to then.
Anymore than it is right to blame the passengers on the planes that hit the WTC for not fighting back. They were following doctrine, too. The heroes on Flight 93 had the advantage of having the time to find out that doctrine didn't work anymore and devising an alternate one.
“They were following doctrine, which reguired not directly confronting the gunmen. They thought they were facing a hostage situation, not a massacre.”
From what I read they thought they were facing a massacre but were instructed and trained to wait until they had adequate forces to handle it.
“Anymore than it is right to blame the passengers on the planes that hit the WTC for not fighting back. They were following doctrine, too”
I agree, my point was that this young lady is a hero and shows that one person can make a difference.