We are thankful for heroes, but why must any hero die for going to school?

HIGHLANDS RANCH, CO - Students get off buses after being evacuated to the Recreation Center at Northridge after one student was killed and eight injured during a shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch on May 7, 2019 in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images) I hate to admit this, but I take too little comfort in the heroics of Kendrick Castillo, who took down one of the STEM shooters at the cost of his life. Castillo, a genuine hero, an only child whose father said he wished Kendrick had hidden instead of lunging at the shooter, had only three days of classes left before graduation. For his act of heroism, for his selflessness, for his wish to save others, he was shot and killed. Someone’s child. Someone’s friend. Everyone’s hero and not, apparently, the only hero at STEM. It breaks my heart, but I don’t need my heart broken. I need — we all need — something more to be done. We are grateful for people like Castillo, but we must remember, most of all, that he should never have had to die. And a STEM parent should never have had to think, as he told Indy reporter Alex Burness[1], that the shooting was “inevitable.” If it was inevitable, it shouldn’t have been. And that’s where we find ourselves. Again. Mourning a brave young man who should be alive and looking forward to a bright future. Meanwhile appearing on CNN, Nate Holley, a STEM sixth grader standing with his dad, told the story[2] of hiding in the closet with his teacher and classmates, with shooters outside the door. He said he was gripping a metal baseball bat “just in case” because “I was going to go down fighting if I was going to go down.” When asked how old he was, he

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