I was the principal at Colorado’s Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. I remained principal for fifteen more years.

Virtually every day at the school, I heard variations of How can you do this? How can you go back? How can you walk those same halls? How can you stand to be reminded every day?

Many friends and colleagues urged me to move on. I refused to seek or accept a transfer to another school or move to the Jeffco Public Schools central administration. I needed to be at Columbine. I wanted to be there. I couldn’t walk away–not from the kids, not from the high school, and not from that community. I wanted to make sure that those who were murdered that terrible day were never forgotten. Beyond that, I wanted Columbine to become a story of courage, love, heart, resilience, and recovery. I wanted to lead the way to that healing.