We’re still trying to figure out what happened yesterday when a gunman took six students hostage in Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, CO. Details are still coming in, but the most tragic is the shooting death of 16-year-old Emily Keyes. My heart and prayers go out to her family.

In local coverage, I read about a young man I consider a hero, although you might not hear about him. When the gunman entered the classroom, he approached each male student and told him to get out. Cassidy Grigg said, “No, I want to stay with the girls.” At that point the gunman forced him out at gunpoint.

I don’t know anything more about Cassidy or his family, but it seems to me that most people would run for their lives when ordered out of an area by a deranged gunman. Cassidy evidently put the safety of others above his own in trying to stay and protect his female classmates.

That makes him a hero in my book.

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