Our heroes — Joanne Jacobs

Our heroes — Joanne Jacobs

The Brave Young Men of Highlands Ranch and Charlotte

• Kendrick Castillo

18, a member of the STEM School Highlands Ranch robotics team and a “total nerd,”  wanted to be an electrical engineer. 
He died, three days before he would have graduated from his Colorado school, tackling a shooter in his British literature class.
Castillo, who’d planned to start at a community college in the fall, worked part-time at a manufacturing company.
Classmates said he saved their lives.

• Joshua Jones

Joshua Jones, 18, who also helped bring down the shooter, took two bullets but survived. 
A family friend said he’s involved in his church, participated in Boy Scouts and holds an after-school job.

• Brendan Bialy

18, a future Marine, also charged the shooter. 
He escaped without injury.
“I don’t like the idea of running and hiding,” Bialy told a news conference Wednesday afternoon, reports Sam Tabachnik in the Denver Post.
When the gunman entered the classrom, Castillo lunged “like a bowling ball,” Bialy told reporters. Despite his “absolute fear,” Bialy moved to help his friend. 
They knocked the gun out of the shooter’s hand.

• Riley Howell

Last week, Riley Howell, 21, was shot three times tackling a shooter at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. 
An Army ROTC cadet, he was buried with full military honors.
Howell grew up on a farm in the Great Smoky Mountains, a natural athlete and a risk taker, his family told the New York Times. 
He worked at a landscaping company and was fascinated by horticulture.

Instead of giving school shooters the notoriety they seek, let’s honor our heroes.
Survivors of the STEM School shooting walked out of a vigil for Kendrick Castillo to protest speeches by politicians and gun-control advocates, reports KUSA.
Students chanted “mental health” and vilified the media, reported the Denver Post. Later, “the students returned, and some of them took the microphone, saying their grief was being used for political purposes.”