One year later: the life and legacy of Kendrick Castillo
On May 7th, 2019 at about 1:53 pm, two students of STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, CO were in their British literature class watching The Princess Bride when they pulled out guns, told everyone not to move, and started shooting. Immediately, Joshua Jones, Brendan Bialy, and Kendrick Castillo, all seniors, jumped up from their desks and lunged at one of the attackers, slamming him against the wall. The gunman fired several shots in the process, killing Castillo and shooting Jones. Bialy eventually wrestled the gun away from the shooter and escaped unscathed.
As a society, we seldom have the opportunity to highlight the courageous, selfless qualities of our nation’s youth. As such, the focus of this will be not on the shooting itself, but rather the life and legacy of Kendrick.
With his courageous decision to save those he had shared classrooms with for years, Kendrick gave up much more than just his life. He chose his school family over graduation, over a future of engineering, over days driving in his beloved green Jeep Cherokee, over the many adventures he had yet to have.
Kendrick was born on March 14, 2001 to John and Maria Castillo. He grew up speaking English and Spanish in suburban Denver and first attended Catholic school. He loved the outdoors and adventure, especially fishing, hunting, camping, and off-roading. He especially enjoyed partaking in these with his late grandfather, who was a former Marine. “He loved the patriotism,” his father said in an interview with CNN. “We are Hispanic by nature but we love America to the core.” He also said that Kendrick always put others before himself and strived to emulate his grandfather’s service, which was corroborated by many of his classmates. At his funeral, a quote Castillo used as his email signature was featured on the front of the program:
A ship is always safe on the shore, but that’s not what ships are for.
Kendrick was an 18 year old with his whole life ahead of him and was mere days away from graduating. After doing so, he planned to attend Arapahoe Community College, hoping to pursue mechanical or electrical engineering after four years of participation on his FIRST Robotics Competition team, 4418, also called STEM IMPULSE, of which his father was a coach.
Castillo was also an active member of his Technology Student Association chapter, which is why this shooting hit so close to home for me and many others. TSA has many conferences and events throughout the year where students compete against each other, network, and learn leadership skills. Naturally, because of this, there is an incredibly strong sense of community. When something big happens to one of us, a lot of the time many of us feel it, regardless of if we have a personal connection with that person. In this case, I remember hearing the “STEM” in STEM School Highlands Ranch and immediately checking the list of clubs on their website to see if they had TSA, which they did. I was instantly terrified of the possibility that we lost one of our own. The next day, I went on Instagram and saw this post everywhere.
This confirmed my worst fear. I was immediately heartbroken, angry, and ready to take action — as I am after every shooting — but these feelings of grief hit differently.
In hindsight, I’d like to think that a lot of TSA members would do the same thing that Castillo, Bialy, Jones, and so many others have done. We’ve all learned a lot of leadership skills that we tend to show in our daily lives and I know this is something that could come from that. But the truth of the matter is, although no one knows what they would actually do in that situation, plenty of people wouldn’t. Kendrick Castillo died a hero and saved countless lives by sacrificing himself. We can’t forget that.
At a candlelight vigil the day after the shooting, hundreds of grieving community members packed into a nearby school’s gymnasium. But when advocates and local politicians started talking about gun control, they left and held their own memorial outside — wanting only to remember Kendrick and leave politics out of it. May 15th, the day of Kendrick’s funeral — which was accompanied by a procession of Jeeps and full police escort — was also deemed Kendrick Castillo Day by Colorado governor Jared Polis.
Regardless of political affiliation, death cannot become the standard in America. If this story moved, angered, horrified, or inspired you, you’re not alone and I urge you to get off the sidelines and take action. Learn more about the gun violence prevention movement. Make your voice heard. Talk to your legislators. Share this on social media. Advocacy looks different right now because of the coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean gun violence stops, so we don’t either. You can get involved remotely with organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety, March For Our Lives, and Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence and I highly encourage you to do so. You can also donate to the official Kendrick Castillo Memorial Fund by visiting any Wells Fargo branch and asking to do so. Lastly, FIRST Robotics Competition has created a fundraising campaign for Team 4418 “directed towards the immediate and long-term needs stemming from this tragedy related to grieving, recovering, and memorializing Kendrick.” You can make a donation to that fund here.
Never forget Kendrick Castillo. Don’t let him become just another person senselessly slaughtered by gun violence. Another statistic. He refused to become a victim and took action showing so— remember him as such.
The views expressed above do not necessarily reflect those of any organizations mentioned.
