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True Hero

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Just 3 Days From Graduation, 18-Year-Old Student Killed in STEM School Shooting – Kendrick Castillo – Is a True Hero

Joy Moore 5/8/19

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Just three weeks ago, Colorado schools closed on a random Wednesday (April 17) – all because of fears that a deranged Columbine-infatuated teen was planning a school massacre in the Denver metro area.

Kendrick Castillo’s school, STEM School Highlands Ranch, was closed that day, too. And once the threat was put to rest, and the sun rose again the following day, kids across Colorado flocked back to school – back into their routine, Kendrick Castillo included.

Just another Thursday in Colorado.

Just another day in 2019.

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Surreal.

Unbeknownst to everyone, however, plans for another school shooting were brewing.

And when the time came, Kendrick would make an instant decision that would cost him his life.

According to witnesses and the coroner, Kendrick and another student charged and lunged at one of the shooters when he entered their classroom on Tuesday, May 7. As a result, he’s being touted a hero, having taken some of the gunfire that would have inevitably hit someone else. Kendrick was killed, but he died in the act of protecting his classmates.

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“I wish he had gone and hid,” Kendrick’s father, John Castillo, told The Denver Post. “But that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”

Kendrick Castillo, Courtesy of LinkedIn

A lover of science, robotics, and the great outdoors, Kendrick was just three days away from being done with his high school coursework. The seniors’ last day was scheduled to be Friday, May 10, with commencement exercises planned for May 20, according to the school’s website. Kendrick was also scheduled to compete in a “Rods and Robots” event this weekend. Instead, that event has been canceled, as have classes at the school for the rest of this week.

Kendrick planned to study mechanical or electrical engineering at Arapahoe Community College in the fall.

He was also an only child.

“My wife and I are in a haze,” John Castillo said. “He was everything to us.” Read more…

In addition to Kendrick’s heroic act, another student and aspiring marine Brendan Bialy also jumped into action and rushed the gunman that entered his classroom, helping to subdue him. The United States Marine Corps called his courage “admirable and inspiring” in a statement. A current poolee in the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program (DEP), Bialy is scheduled to start his training this summer.

Brendan Bialy, Courtesy of Bialy family

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