HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — Tuesday marked five years since two students opened fire inside STEM School Highlands Ranch, killing Kendrick Castillo.
Eight were hurt inside the school that day. High School senior Kendrick Castillo died saving his classmates when he lunged at one of the shooters.
"I think Maria and me both woke up this morning reliving our worst nightmare about what May 7th was like 5 years ago," John Castillo, Kendrick's dad, said when asked about how he and his wife Maria Castillo were feeling on Tuesday. "Maria said it best you know. She didn’t send Kendrick to school to be a hero."
John Castillo and his wife visited Kendrick at the Seven Stones Cemetery on Tuesday. The couple said they visit the site every day to be closer to their son. John Castillo said its where he feels the most connected to him.
"It’s hard, you know. We come here but we can’t take him with us," he said. "We come and we visit and we feel warmth and comfort momentarily, and then we walk away knowing that we wish we could have him with us. You know, it's crushing. It takes the breath out of you. You know we're not the same people."
A lot of the kids that remembered that day are grown up. Some stopped by to visit the Castillo family at the cemetery on Tuesday. Time may have moved on, but so many of these students have not. A message that reads, 'Thank you Kendrick,' can be seen on a pole near Kendrick's grave.
"Reading some of the letters [the kids] leave here," John Castillo said. "Some of them its taken years before they can come out and visit with Kendrick and express their emotions, their gratitude for him saving their lives."
Shortly after the shooting, the Center for Strength opened across the street from the school. On Tuesday, the center held a day of commemoration to honor Kendrick by painting rocks in his memory.
Last week, the Center for Strength announced it will close its doors for good at the end of the month. They will hold a farewell celebration that day.
John Castillo said he hopes there are still resources available for those that need it.
"It makes us sad that that resource that provided so much to the children of that school is going away and we worry about that because we worry about the mental health needs of those kids," John Castillo explained. "They serviced the kids who were impacted by this and they helped them. They gave them a place to go and reflect and get the help they need through this tragedy."
In the years that followed the shooting people have done what they can to remember Kendrick. A memorial in his honor is being planned at the Civic Green Park in Highlands Ranch and a bench at the cemetery was built in his memory.
"You know losing Kendrick will be, for the rest of our lives, the hardest thing that has ever happened to us and we think about it often," John Castillo said. "Having memorials for the community to come to and things like this bench and a lot of ways those are going to outlive my wife and I and it’s nice to know that out of the tragedy that there’s going to be something there that reminds everybody about Kendrick."
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