this is kendrick castillo. he was an award winning member of the robotics team. in three days he would have been graduating high school. instead of celebrating his graduation, his parents will be having to plan his funeral. he bravely lunged at the shooter to save his classmates and was shot & killed doing so. even though what kendrick did was selfless and he will be remembered as a HERO. no child should ever have to be put in a situation like kendrick was, they should be able to go to school safely to learn and succeed in life not to have it be cut short by gun violence.
rest in peace kendrick. thank you for your bravery and sorry that the world has failed you.
This is 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo. He saved several of his classmates during a shooting at a STEM school outside of Denver. His father had told him he didn’t have to be a hero in a moment like this. But Kendrick Castillo felt different saying “You raised me this way. You raised me to be a good person. That’s what I’m doing,’” John Castillo quoted his slain son as saying. He was a four year member of the school robotics team, held multiple technology internships and was set to graduate on May 10th. Kendrick had promising future, but it was not destined to happen.
“Kendrick Castillo’s classmates said the 18-year-old lunged at one of the shooters at STEM School Highlands Ranch in suburban Denver on Tuesday, taking fatal gunfire — but giving others the precious moments they needed to take cover.”
As many of you know, I live in the Denver area. A few days ago, another shooting took place at a STEM school here in which one student was killed and several others injured. Two shooters: one an 18 year old male student, and a second student, a transgender boy.
Now I don’t know what media coverage will look like so I want you all to be prepared for people to use this against any of you. If you’re triggered by people being misgendered, this is not going to be particularly easy. I haven’t heard much discussion about it yet, but I want all of you to be prepared to hear some pretty disgusting things about trans people and particularly trans youth. I live in the area so I’ve seen a thing or two that describe this particular student as female and using the corresponding pronouns. I’ve already found myself getting very uncomfortable reading about it and hearing how the shooter is referred to. I want to be clear that I am in no way justifying or defending this disgusting act. There is no way to justify doing what they did.
I want you all to understand that this is never ever the answer. Think about your actions and seek help if you are struggling. No struggle is worth taking lives and causing so much pain and grief for others. I don’t want to hear anyone justifying this boys actions because of who he is and whatever motivations he may have had. That either of them had. Many of the details and motivations have yet to be public as one of the suspects is a minor and this is still very new so we can’t say for sure what actually happened or what caused it to happen.
I want to take a moment to honor the hero who stepped in front of the shooters during the attack, and allowed his fellow classmates time to hide and get away.
Kendrick Castillo was his name. He was 18 years old. Let us remember this hero who helped save lives.
Here is an article on the suspects. It is not suitable for everyone.
Alec McKinney, listed in court records as Maya McKinney, was named as the second shooting suspect in the Highlands Ranch STEM school shootin
PFC Brendan Bialy, Helped Tackle a School Shooter, Now a Marine
PFC Brendan Bialy, Helped Tackle a School Shooter, Now a Marine
We previously wrote that Brendan Bialy was one of the students who helped tackle one of the shooters at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in May of this year. He is now a United States Marine, and was promoted to Private First Class.
Brendan Bialy and two friends ran toward the sound of shooting instead of away from it. His friend Kendrick Castillo was killed. Another friend, Joshua Jones,…
In the aftermath of a shooting, it is essential that we be thoughtful about how the story gets told. Not only should you be absolutely certain that everything you are saying is true, you also need to remember that impressionable children follow these stories. Do not glorify anything you wouldn’t want your own son/little brother/boy you babysit doing.
My kids go to Stem School Highlands Ranch (High School and Elementary) and I’m glad to say are safe and still processing what happened.
I’ve already seen posts sharing innocent looking pictures of one of the shooters, and it makes me ill. We need to stop giving these people any attention, beyond basic information. Instead, we should focus on people like Kendrick Castillo, a senior who would have graduated next week, who didn’t hesitate to jump up and try to tackle one of the shooters, costing him his life, but giving his fellow students time to take cover, saving more in the process.
Or Brandon Bialy and Joshua Jones, who also rushed the gunmen. Joshua was shot in the leg, but said in an interview that he plans to be off crutches and walk across the stage at Graduation next week. Brandon came away uninjured, thankfully. Also all of the teachers, staff and first responders who kept the rest our kids safe and reunited them with us in an organized and timely manner, even if it felt like forever to us parents.
I’m thankful to every single one of them because if not for everyone who helped that day, this could have been so much worse and more of us might not be hugging our babies today.
The time will come for discussions about how to stop these tragedies, but we can start by focusing on the people who dd their part to keep as many people as possible safe. They are the people we should focus on. Making martyrs out of those who wanted to kill and hurt people doesn’t help anyone.
