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Portion of Colorado highway will be renamed in honor of teacher killed at Columbine

A portion of C-470 will now be named in honor of Dave Sanders, the teacher who was killed at Columbine High School in 1999.

LITTLETON, Colo. — An eight-mile stretch of C-470 will soon be named for a hero.

On Thursday, lawmakers passed a resolution to rename the stretch of highway between exit 7 and exit 15 the David Sanders Memorial Highway, in honor of the Columbine teacher and coach.  

Sanders was killed at Columbine High School 20 years ago. He was a teacher and a coach who, by all accounts, could have escaped that day. Instead, he saved his students. 

"He ran into the cafeteria, jumped up on tables yelling 'hurry up, get down, move out,'" said his daughter, Coni Sanders. "And he was jumping from table to table. And then he ran up the stairs. And that's where he was confronted by the shooters and then was running and was shot in the back. But he had saved hundreds of kids."

RELATED: Columbine 20 years later: The evolution of tragedy

"I don't think it ever crossed his mind to anything but what he did," said another daughter, Angela Sanders. "And obviously that's my opinion." 

"I agree," said Coni. 

The sisters chose that stretch of highway because it's where they grew up near Columbine High School.

"We have generations of people from our community that are going to get to drive on his highway," said Coni. "Plus, I think we probably caused some trouble on that highway in his car, so this is how we pay it back to dad." 

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