Nate Holley, brave beyond his 12 years.
‘I had my hand on a metal baseball bat just in case… because I was gonna go down fighting if I was gonna go down.’
That’s how the sixth-grader at STEM School Highlands Ranch described his mind-set after two shooters opened fire Tuesday at the suburban Denver school.
“It was really chaotic,” Holley said, explaining to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Wednesday how he froze when gunshots shattered a nearby window. “It was incredibly scary… most of the kids didn’t know what to do.”
Watch the full interview:
Ultimately, eight student were shot and survived, while senior Kendrick Castillo, who died lunging at one of the shooters, was the one fatality.
Holley’s recollection of his story serves as a grim reminder of the reality facing students in an era of proliferating school shootings.
Fellow student Lillian Duarte’s account serves as yet another.
The 15-year-old student told BuzzFeed News that she has participated in nearly 50 active shooter drills in the past five years — 10 a year!
She also shared some of the wrenching texts sent during the shooting:
Just weeks before the latest shooting, the STEM School Highlands Ranch was placed on lockout because of threats targeting nearby Columbine High School, where a deadly massacre had taken place 20 years ago.
Steve Holley, Nate’s dad, told CNN that Tuesday marked the third time he has had to pick up his sons from school because of shootings, though this was the first one where his child witnessed the attack.
“This community, in Colorado, we’ve been through so much recently,” he said. “Enough is enough. We need to make a change and we need to do something or else we’re just going to continue failing our kids.”
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