LITTLETON - Nearly 19 years ago, coach and teacher Dave Sanders rushed a couple of hundred students at Columbine High School to safety before being shot. His daughter, Angela, never saw him again.
“These children now are now adults and they get to have their lives and have their children and keep their families going. And I don’t think he would have wanted anything less than how it turned out. Because those were his kids,” said Angela. “I guess that’s what I want him to be remembered for. Is just someone who didn’t think and just reacted and I am proud of him for that.”
Plenty of mass school shootings have happened since Columbine but for Angela, the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday looked “like the same day in a different school.” Crying kids run out with their hands in the air. Heavily armed police officers direct the kids to safety.
But there’s one storyline and one victim in Parkland that really brought her back to 1999. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School assistant football coach Aaron Feis also did everything he could to protect students. Feis shielded students from oncoming bullets and died.
“Just like my dad would have done and did. Just similar good souls who just genuinely care about kids,” said Angela who saw the news and knew she had to get a hold of his family. “I have never had the urge to contact anybody from any of these shootings. And for some reason, I was not going to give up on this one.”
She says she got a hold of Aaron’s grandfather on Thursday night and had a brief conversation. She simply wants the family to know that when the crime scene disappears when the news cycle moves on when it seems like nobody remembers, Feis’ family is not alone.
“It’s the worst possible place to ever want to be. But it’s the greatest place you could be if you don’t have a choice,” said Angela. “We all understand each other. And I’ve made some amazing new friends that I never would have met. And unfortunately, we are in the same stinking club now. But we’re bonded and we probably always will be.”
