Much has been written and said about school shootings in America. It’s an absolutely tragic and needless situation. Nobody trying to get an education should fear for their lives. And yet, students in America increasingly do have to worry about someone with a gun entering their school and opening fire.
Just 19 weeks into 2019, the U.S. has seen 15 school shootings so far this year. No level of education has been spared, either, from elementary up to colleges.
Things have gotten bad enough that school shootings don’t always make national headlines anymore.
Things have also gotten bad enough that kids have been through so many drills, they can teach their parents what to do in the event of an active shooter.
It’s gotten bad enough that kids will even rehearse those drills when they’re at home.
It’s gotten bad enough that two kids with bright futures had to be heroes in one week.
On April 30, the last day of classes at UNC-Charlotte, a former student armed with a pistol entered a classroom and started shooting.
Class was in session, but fortunately only about 30 of the 100 students enrolled in the class were there that day. One of them was Riley Howell.
Riley, a 21-year-old, was just about finished his first year at UNCC.
He was putting himself through school working for a landscaping company and was in the school’s ROTC program. And, while the other students were ducking or running away, Riley ran towards the shooter.
The shooter hit Riley point blank, but Riley’s charge managed to knock him down.
While the shooter was down, an officer entered the classroom, disarmed him, and arrested him. One other student, 19-year-old Reed Parlier, was also killed, and four others were wounded in the shooting. But according to police, if not for Riley, it could have been worse.
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“He took the fight to the assailant,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said . “Unfortunately he had to give his life to do so, but he saved lives doing so.”
One week later, 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo was forced to be a hero, too.
On May 7, two students at Colorado STEM School Highlands Ranch, each with a handgun, entered the school through an entrance without a metal detector, went to a classroom and opened fire.
Again, students ducked for cover.
However, Kendrick and at least one of his classmates, Brendan Bialy, who is in the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program, rushed the shooters.
Kendrick, who was due to graduate at the end of the year, was shot and killed in the attempt.
Kendrick’s father said that wasn’t out of character for the young robotics aficionado.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” he told The Denver Post . “He cared enough about people that he would do something like that, even though it’s against my better judgment. I wish he had gone and hid, but that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”
Kendrick’s classmates know it.
Kendrick’s actions gave “all of us enough time to get underneath our desks, to get ourselves safe, and to run across the room to escape,” Nui Giasolli told Today . She said that he and those who rushed the shooters “were brave enough to bring him down so that all of us could escape and all of us could be reunited with our families. I can’t thank them enough.”
Two heroes who shouldn’t have had to be heroes, in one week.
h/t CNN , The Denver Post
