This is what a true hero looks like (Colorado STEM school shooting)

[hlthe2b]

Kendrick Castillo, 18, was killed after lunging at one of the gunmen yesterday during the school shooting in Colorado.

Link to tweet

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kendrick-castillo-identified-as-hero-student-who-died-in-colorado-shooting_n_5cd2f5d7e4b0a7dffccff08d

“[The gunman] walked to the other side of the classroom where we also had another door,” Giasolli told the “Today” show. “And he opened the door ― he walked back as if he was going to go back to his seat and then he walked back to the door and he closed it. The next thing I know he’s pulling a gun and he’s telling nobody to move.”

Castillo went after the gunman, Giasolli said.

“That’s when Kendrick lunged at him and he shot Kendrick, giving all of us enough time to get underneath our desks, to get ourselves safe and to run across the room to escape,” Giasolli said, adding that three other students also ran toward the gunman to apprehend him.

[marble falls]

1. The way we stop it is we stop putting up with it.

[Crunchy Frog]

3. Sadly, that's not going to happen.

In this country we love guns more than anything else, except possibly, zygotes.

[malaise]

2. Children shouldn't have to be heroes

Get the guns out of the schools

[backtoblue]

6. +1000

[DeminPennswoods]

4. That is amazing that 4 kids ran toward the shooter

The definition of bravery.

Don't know if anyone heard the father and son interviewed on CNN, but the son, who is 12, told the CNN anchor that he had grabbed a metal baseball bat and if he was going to go down, he was going down swinging.

[Kurt V.]

9. oh my. i don't watch tv news. those kids were so brave. thanks

[Initech]

5. Kendrick is a hero.

Too bad that we're stuck with the zeroes known as the NRA, something tells me their members would never do anything that heroic.

[Cha]

7. ..

[KT2000]

8. just think about this -

every school age child in the US has had to consider what they would do when there is a school shooter. My generation had to think about nuclear war, but that would have affected all of us. These kids have to worry if they would be "the one" to get killed or the one to stop it. This is not acceptable.

[MontanaMama]

14. Yes. This.

My kid bucks the “no phones in middle school” or risk detention or expulsion because he feels it us his life line to me.

[KT2000]

15. agree with you son

they have to consider real solutions to this very real problem.

[MontanaMama]

19. They do.

Even in the hypothetical so they can concentrate on school. We also have conversations about whether he jumps out a window if he’s on the 2nd floor...whether it’s better to withstand an orthopedic injury or a gunshot wound. I don’t bring these things up...he does...he tells me what he and his friends talk about when they aren’t around teachers. It makes my blood run cold and I can’t not engage him because he and his friends worry. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t watch him leave the house and I don’t ask the universe to calm the hearts, minds and nerves of those around him who might seek to do damage to others because they are at the end of their rope. Every single day.

[hlthe2b]

22. wrenching... isn't it?

[Kurt V.]

10. hero.

[hlthe2b]

11. I've been absolutely heart-sick after learning he and three others charged the shooters...

What a loss. This young man, ney, I MUST say HIS name, KENDRICK CASTILLO, was just a few days away from graduating. His poor family....

[Kurt V.]

12. +1000

[DeminPennswoods]

13. Yes, but it should comfort them to know their son

died trying to save others. Today we throw around the word "hero" far too casually. What Kendrick Castillo and the other 3 students did was truly heroic. None of them were armed, yet they all chose to act in defiance of the odds against them. I can't help but contrast what Castillo and his fellow students did with the armed school cop at MSD who ran to a safe position rather than confront that shooter.

[First Speaker]

16. Let Kendrick's name be remembered...

...and let the names of these shooters--all of them, all of the too-long list--be totally forgotten. Go with God, young man...

[JI7]

17. he should be alive just like the others.

[BlueSpot]

18. This seems wrong to me

Is this some new NRA spin or something? We've gotten it in a couple recent shootings now. One person charges the shooter and gets killed, saving other potential victims. Lauded as hero.

OK, I guess that's good, if you aren't that kid's family. And I guess the family can grasp that straw as some sort of solace. But doesn't it really draw attention away from the fact that this shit shouldn't happen to begin with? No kid should have to run toward a shooter in their school. Period. Does throwing glory on that act distract away from the fact that the initial situation is bullshit?

I don't want kid heroes. I want schools where kids/teachers/staffs don't have to even think about being heroes.

What this kid did was brave and noble. But doesn't celebrating it actually perpetuate (and accept) the new normal that shooters are going to come into our schools and open fire on students because we (our supposed representatives) are too damned cowardly to do something to prevent it?

[hlthe2b]

21. Heavens! None of us WANTS these kids to give their lives, but Kendrick Castillo DID

Can you not honor his sacrifice? NOT "CELEBRATE" as you say, but HONOR!

Perhaps you are just finding it difficult to articulate the frustration you feel that we aren't doing more to control guns and the direct impact of NRA in that--something nearly all of DU certainly shares. I certainly, DO. Something polls likewise show the majority of Americans share. Yes, we will be better off when NRA and similar groups are defanged/neutralized--whether financially, with even American gun-owners getting fed up or through their own corruption. We need comprehensive gun safety and gun control and we need elected officials that aren't afraid to act.

But, I'm here today to make sure the sacrifice of this brave young man whose name I intend NOT to forget, Kendrick Castillo--whose classmates have confirmed represented the very best of all of us--be told. I'm devastated by his sacrifice, but I won't demean it. We owe him that (and a lot more).

[Glimmer of Hope]

20. I just see a baby faced teenager with a selfless heart

who should have never been in that situation. Make it stop.