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Last night a vigil took place for the STEM students at Highlands Ranch High School. When the vigil took a distinctly political gun control turn, the STEM students had enough and walked out.
Students at a vigil for the STEM School shooting in Highlands Ranch reportedly walked out of the event after Democrat politicians Jason Crow and Michael Bennet made remarks and students said the tragedy was being politicized.
Outside, students chanted: "Mental health!" pic.twitter.com/sQpTfAUWCs
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 9, 2019
Who planned this vigil? Team Enough. Who is Team Enough? The student group affiliated with the Brady Group and March for Our Lives. No wonder the event went political and anti-gun from the start!
Again, the STEM students chanted ‘mental health!’ as they walked out in protest. They get it. It’s already known that the two shooters, specifically the unnamed juvenile, have serious mental health problems.
How is the media reporting this? Denver Post last night.
“The tone changed during the second vigil at Highlands Ranch High School, as STEM School Highlands Ranch students burst into a spontaneous demonstration, protesting politics and the media.
The protest, in the form of a walkout with chants, happened after Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democratic presidential hopeful, and Congressman Jason Crow, spoke to the crowd.
Students, several hundred strong, chanted “Mental health” and complained about the media in derogatory terms.”
Was their protest about the media? No it wasn’t. It was about the complete politicization of both the vigil and of what happened at their school.
Moms Demand Action’s Laura Reeves gun control diatribe, which starts about 3 minutes in was the last straw for the STEM students.
The speakers, including Congressman Jason Crow and Senator Michael Bennett, made the vigil about their political agenda. And got schooled by the very students they were supposedly there to support.
I am speaking to a student right now on the phone who was at the STEM School shooting vigil in Highlands Ranch and he says that the students became furious after listening to a woman from the far-left gun control group Moms Demand Action, who was heavily politicizing the tragedy: https://t.co/Md1p9ZkJ49
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 9, 2019
Frustrated, crying and angry, #STEMschool shooting victims hold an impromptu vigil in the rain Wednesday after leaving a gun-control vigil they felt inappropriately politicized their trauma. (They asked that I not photograph their faces close up, and I respected their wishes.) pic.twitter.com/cksRXGtYQA
— Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) May 9, 2019
I don’t blame those kids for being angry at what happened in that gym. I don’t blame them for being frustrated. Keep in mind, not a single STEM student was going to be allowed to speak.
With egg on their face, Team Enough and Brady organizers scrambled to fix things.
Once the STEM students were given the microphone, this is what they had to say.
“”This was not a vigil, this was merely a political stunt. This is not what we wanted for Kendrick. We didn’t want Kendrick to be a prop, we wanted Kendrick to be mourned,” One male student said. “We all walked out, we were not kicked out despite what you have heard, now we’re back to tell you that we love Kendrick and we love all of the survivors.”
“I came here for my close friend Kendrick,” One female student said, “I just wanted to talk about him a little bit and everybody has been here talking about gun violence and avoiding the fact that he died.””
Those students got it exactly right. The evening SHOULD have been about Kendrick. It SHOULD have been about the students who were injured by the shooters. It SHOULD have been about caring for all the STEM students and faculty affected by the shooting.
Instead it was about politics and gun control. The Brady Group realized, belatedly, that they had overstepped and issued a half-assed apology.
Gun control org @bradybuzz apologizes for #STEMshooting vigil. Students walked out saying their grief was being politicized. "We are deeply sorry any part of this vigil did not provide the support, caring & sense of community we sought to foster and facilitate" #9NEWS #copolitics pic.twitter.com/NHD6EaekXg
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) May 9, 2019
Until the STEM students handed a clue bat to the organizers, the ENTIRE event was nothing but a Rah! Rah! Guns BAD! circus.
This is what a few other STEM students had to say last night to all there.
““We wanted Kendrick to be mourned. We wanted all of you to join us in that mourning, but that was not allowed here,” he said. “We all walked out. We were not kicked out, despite what you have heard. We are back now to tell you that we love Kendrick, and we love all of the survivors.”
~Snip
“I think I speak for STEM when I say we do thank Highlands Ranch High School for hosting this,” STEM School senior Logan Griffith told the Herald. “However, this was for Kendrick Castillo. Not for our senator, not for anyone else.”” [Emphasis Added]
The STEM students are refusing to be politicized in the aftermath of a major tragedy. They are refusing to be victims and refusing to be victimized by politics.
““What has happened at STEM is awful, but it’s not a statistic,” one student said. “We can’t be used for a reason for gun control. We are people, not a statement.””
I couldn’t agree more.
On a night when it should’ve been about honoring the victims, the survivors, and remembering Kendrick Castillo, it was politics and gun control as usual until the STEM students took back the narrative.
Feature Photo Credit: YouTube screen shot of 9News STEM report, cropped and modified
Scott says: Good on those kids! and shame on Bennet and the other leftist politicians, and anti-gun ghouls wanting to dance in the blood of a hero like Kendrick Costillo!
I think it bears pointing out that this is a STEM school.. where they focus on real world facts and truths, not fluffy “feelz”… I think this is a large part of why these kids get it, when you see others like hogg… These kids understand how to think critically, and even in a situation as tragic as this, they continue to do so.
Once again, bravo to those who refused to be used as pawns, and even bigger kudos to those who took responsibility for their own safety and that of their fellow students, stepped up, and stopped the shooters, even at the expense of their own safety or life. May their names be long remembered, and those of the shooters forgotten for eternity.
Mike-in -Keller says: STEM students — very bright and serious people, not brainwashed.
Dave S. says: Kids who are studying the scientific method and it’s application are too smart to be taken in by pleas to emotion . Good for them.
Did anyone else note that they are the SPARTANS? They obviously have been taught what “molon labe” means!
GWB says: “We are deeply sorry any part of this vigil did not provide the support, caring & sense of community we sought to foster and facilitate”
No, you’re not. You’re not sorry at all. You might be sorry when a plurality of the citizenry finally sees you as the enemy of the Constitution that you truly are. Might.
Kudos to you ladies and gentlemen for standing up for your heroic classmate and for refusing to become ‘Camera’ Hoggs.
And, once again, BZ to Kendrick.
Hate_me says: Yes. BZ to Kendrick. Anything short of or beyond that is either superfluous or biased. The truth is that good men stood against evil. Good sacrificed, but came out ahead. I’m pretty drunk, right now, and this isn’t the first toast I’m making to these brave young men, but I’ll find room for another round. Cheers to these men, they the battle make!
zenman says: They are only deeply sorry that their transparent ploy was countered, quite effectively and publicly.
No Hogg, No Gonzalez to bleat canned propaganda in front of the press.
Instead, you have real, true heroes who stepped up and did what needed done.
That’s the story, not “survivors” who weren’t anywhere near the shooters seeking national exposure.
Ryan says: They are merely sorry they got caught and noticed.
GWB says: Sadly, true.
SFC D says: A fine young man died, selflessly saving his friends. “Team Enough” selfishly uses this as an opportunity to promote their political agenda. They don’t care one whit about Kendrick Castillo, the other students at the school, or even the shooters. They care only for the political power they can glean from a tragedy. Their apology is worthless and meaningless. They’ve shown their true colors and should be loudly and publicly shamed. These students were absolutely correct in walking out. Now if we could get the adults to show that kind of courage, commitment, and wisdom.
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