Kyle Clark marks seven years since STEM School shooting, honors Kendrick Castillo

Kyle Clark marked seven years since the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting with a video remembrance of Kendrick Castillo, the Highlands Ranch student remembered for giving his life to save classmates. In Douglas County, the anniversary now lands in a community shaped not only by grief, but by memorials, court proceedings and lingering questions about what was promised after 2019.

The shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch happened on May 7, 2019, inside a K-12 charter school that had about 1,850 students at the time. One student, Kendrick Castillo, was killed and eight others were injured. Authorities said two students carried out the attack. The school did not have a police officer assigned then and relied on private security instead.

The attack occurred just a few miles from Columbine High School and came about two weeks after the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, a timing that made the tragedy resonate far beyond Highlands Ranch. In the years that followed, both students later were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, closing one chapter of the criminal case while leaving the community to absorb the larger damage.

Public memory around Kendrick Castillo has only grown more visible. On Nov. 14, 2025, community members, local leaders and the Castillo family gathered at Civic Green Park in Highlands Ranch to unveil the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Monument. The fundraising goal for the memorial was reached quickly, a sign that the effort drew deep support across Douglas County. The monument gave the family and the community a permanent place to mark the student who became the face of the school shooting’s worst moment.

The legal fight has continued as well. The Castillo family filed a civil claim against STEM School Highlands Ranch and the Douglas County School District, alleging the school failed to adequately protect Kendrick and other students. A Colorado appeals-court ruling in November 2025 said a civil trial would not be required if STEM School agreed to pay the maximum damages available without admitting liability. That ruling left the district facing a costly choice even as the school and the county continue to reckon with what happened inside the building seven years ago.

Each May, the anniversary pulls Highlands Ranch back to the same names, the same place and the same loss. Kendrick Castillo’s memory remains central to how Douglas County tells the story of the shooting, not as an abstract tragedy, but as a local event with lasting consequences for families, schools and public trust.