The Last Day of the Rest of My Life _ Full Movie _ True Story Drama _ Survival Story
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00Hey, guys, guess who?
00:00:11That's right, I'm back.
00:00:21Maxine here, your favorite YouTuber, friend, and senior class president.
00:00:27I know a good handful of you aren't fans, and that's okay.
00:00:35My ask of each and every one of you this year, and to myself, is that we all really put ourselves
00:00:45out there.
00:00:46You never know, once we graduate, we might never see one another again.
00:01:01Be your best self this year.
00:01:04Always make your next best choice.
00:01:06We all screw up, but remember, it's not what happens, it's how we react and respond to
00:01:13what happens.
00:01:15So smile at someone you've never smiled at before, get to know your class, eat lunch
00:01:22with someone you've never talked to before.
00:01:36So if you know me, and most of you do, I'm a girl that puts a pen to paper, the pedal
00:01:42to the metal, so I'm going to be coming for you.
00:01:48From our teachers and our parents, to our new freshman class, and the person I've never
00:01:59known, be ready.
00:02:03For my senior class legacy, I'm going to jump back on my infamous YouTube channel and shoot
00:02:08a video that hopefully none of us will ever forget.
00:02:18I'm going to document the day and lives of my friends and acquaintances at good old Heritage
00:02:23High and our community that surrounds us.
00:02:27I hope you're ready.
00:02:28I am.
00:02:38You were my first.
00:02:47Thanks Martin.
00:02:48Aren't we supposed to be doing this with people we don't know?
00:02:54You don't know me.
00:02:57Yeah, I don't know you.
00:03:01So go.
00:03:02I'm rolling.
00:03:03Fine, but what do you want me to say?
00:03:05Shut up, just go.
00:03:06All right, all right, cool, but first, there's a date.
00:03:11Go.
00:03:12Oh honey, I'm not that interesting, but thank you for thinking of me.
00:03:19All right, I've been here since what seems like forever.
00:03:26I love this damn school.
00:03:27It's my home away from home.
00:03:29I work out, I play football, and girls love me.
00:03:33I'll have to admit, I post pictures of my progress.
00:03:35I'm not going to lie, my abs are lit.
00:03:39I like my abs, and 1,144 other people like the way they look too.
00:03:45We definitely fought about it at times because I didn't like the attention it brought to
00:03:49him.
00:03:51He fed off being so popular, and not just with the guys.
00:03:56I love history.
00:03:57I loved it in school, and I think when you're that passionate about something, you want
00:04:03to share it with other people.
00:04:05I felt like I'd have something extra to bring for a job of that nature.
00:04:10I hang out with my best friend, my older sister, and sometimes my parents.
00:04:17My name is Adam Harden, but dick fucks call me Hard-On.
00:04:23Get it?
00:04:24Hey, Hard-On.
00:04:25A dipshit's a dipshit, right?
00:04:29That's what my older brothers say, and it's true.
00:04:33People tell me I'm pretty happy-go-lucky.
00:04:36I'm respectful to everybody around me, and I never really cause any trouble.
00:04:40Squirrel!
00:04:41Sorry.
00:04:42Anyway, you know.
00:04:47I'm a counselor, a high school counselor, and I am paid to carry a lot of the emotional
00:04:54weight, and the students, they tell me secrets.
00:05:03I keep those secrets as long as they're not threats to themselves or to others.
00:05:10He was strict, but I didn't care.
00:05:14I just thought he had short man syndrome.
00:05:21I remember one time he called us girls all chicks.
00:05:26I stood up and told him that if he ever called us that again, he'd never work in a school
00:05:30again.
00:05:31I've never been picked on, bullied.
00:05:37I know that word is pretty watered down now, and people are pretty desensitized by it.
00:05:45But I feel like any other word would just sound too dramatic, but ...
00:05:53They tortured me, too.
00:05:54Probably more.
00:05:55I mean, after a while, you become numb to it, you know, when your parents tell you not
00:06:00to let that shit bother you, it's ... Fuck, it's easy for them to say.
00:06:05Thanks for including me.
00:06:06Can't say that I'm shocked that you got to do your videos again.
00:06:11It's bullshit what happened.
00:06:13We all know who took your camera.
00:06:15Fuck them.
00:06:17You're back in business, and all your subscribers will be stoked that you're back.
00:06:22And that Audi car payment of yours, people will be happy, too.
00:06:26There's this one kid at school.
00:06:28He's like one of the biggest dorks to ever live.
00:06:30He thinks he's some super sick DJ or something.
00:06:33He's not a mean kid.
00:06:35People at school seem to like him, okay, I guess.
00:06:37He's just a little too big for his britches, you know what I mean?
00:06:41One time, my friends dared me to poke a hole in his bike tire.
00:06:45So I did.
00:06:46I was surprised, though, because he came strolling on back to school the next day like nothing
00:06:50happened.
00:06:51So guess what I did?
00:06:52I did it again.
00:06:55Every day for a week.
00:06:57My friends told me I should cool it, though, because the rent-a-cops at our school started
00:07:00to patrol the bike racks.
00:07:03There's a ton of idiots like him at school, but they serve a purpose, I guess.
00:07:08When we're bored, they're the best entertainment at school.
00:07:11And I love what you're doing with your senior project.
00:07:14Yeah, what the world needs are a few more good eggs like you.
00:07:19Oh, and listen, don't worry.
00:07:24Don't let those girls bother you, either.
00:07:26No, no, no.
00:07:27Don't think I don't see the bullshit going on.
00:07:31I got eyes on my back.
00:07:34Don't think I don't know everything that goes on here.
00:07:37You gotta get up pretty early in the morning to catch me off guard.
00:07:40Hmm.
00:07:41Oh, oh.
00:07:42And I have to say that I am proud of the tight ship we run here.
00:07:48I love being involved in the faculty's lives, the students' lives, the students' parents'
00:07:55lives.
00:07:56I mean, what do they say?
00:07:57Oh, it takes a village?
00:07:59Well, it sure does.
00:08:00Yeah, we got a few bad seeds, but last year was going to be my final year on the team.
00:08:10Some of the girls were after Justin and wanted me out anyways.
00:08:14I just, I didn't want to be a part of that fakeness, you know?
00:08:18As a Flyer, you have to be able to trust your bases, and I couldn't.
00:08:24And they definitely dropped me a few times, and it wasn't on accident.
00:08:30But, Justin convinced me to try out again.
00:08:39Well, I'm sure you've heard this, and most folks don't think about it all that often,
00:08:44but the truth, the fact is there is no truth.
00:08:50And anybody who says that perception is the truth, that's a load of crap.
00:08:56Let me give you an example.
00:08:58Say you walk into a doctor's office, and you see this mom spanking her kid.
00:09:03You think, oh, what a horrible mom.
00:09:05How could she be doing this horrific act to her child in public?
00:09:08But what you didn't see is that prior to you walking in, the kid was playing with Legos
00:09:14on the floor, and he was throwing them at his mom's face and hitting her in the eyes.
00:09:19And, you know, she asked him to stop, not once, not twice, three times.
00:09:23And, you know, finally she was pushed beyond her limits.
00:09:26In walk, shoot.
00:09:28So, you know, there's three sides to every truth.
00:09:32There's your side, there's their side, and then there's what actually happened.
00:09:37And in this case, and mind you, I don't support violence in any way,
00:09:42and the mother's actions weren't right.
00:09:44I'm 100% against violence, but it's never the answer.
00:09:49But in this case, the child's consequences,
00:09:53even though potentially over the top, were not unwarranted.
00:09:58You know, it's safe to say there's nothing worse than the feeling of helplessness.
00:10:05Helplessness is a feeling of ultimate loss of zero control.
00:10:10None.
00:10:12I don't like that feeling.
00:10:14And I'm pretty certain there's no one out there who wouldn't avoid it at all costs.
00:10:23No brainer, right?
00:10:25I'd like to think I'm pretty special like everyone else, doing what they do.
00:10:30But I'm just an ordinary ER doctor.
00:10:35But my interest in being a doctor was a little more traumatic.
00:10:41Having lost a younger brother at a young age.
00:10:45Long story short,
00:10:48I was 12, he was 10.
00:10:52Anyone could have saved him, really.
00:10:55He choked to death.
00:10:57I didn't know the Heimlich maneuver was that simple.
00:11:03Thought he was messing with me.
00:11:07Sadly, he wasn't.
00:11:09Have you ever been taken by two kids in your 6th grade pottery class
00:11:15into a dark closet
00:11:18and shoved upside down into a narrow metallic trash can?
00:11:23Yeah, it's awesome.
00:11:26Then the coolest part is the ambulance showing up
00:11:30and making it all a much bigger deal.
00:11:33And then you gotta show up at school the next day.
00:11:37With a neck brace.
00:11:40You know, you try to learn to ignore the kind of things that you have to deal with.
00:11:46But it just wears you out.
00:11:49So hard.
00:11:51And it's an everyday kind of thing.
00:11:54Like I've had people put pieces of paper in my hair in choir
00:11:59only to find them later on the day when I go to wash my hands in the bathroom
00:12:03and I look in the mirror.
00:12:04Then there's lunch.
00:12:06And you either have someone take it from you,
00:12:09spit on it,
00:12:11or just have it smashed flat on the floor like a pancake.
00:12:14You know, it makes me feel kind of bad.
00:12:17A little homesick, too.
00:12:19Because my mom made such a nice lunch.
00:12:25You ever see that movie with that batshit crazy doctor
00:12:29who sews a person's mouth to another person's mouth?
00:12:32He sews a person's mouth to another person's asshole
00:12:35and another person's mouth to another person's asshole?
00:12:37It's fucking disgusting.
00:12:39So Keith and I were just minding our own business as usual,
00:12:42you know, and it happened I think after P.E.
00:12:45or fucking bitch P.E. teacher locked us in the locker room so no one could leave early.
00:12:50So, you know, we had some extra time in there
00:12:53so Keith and I were just battling it out on our phones, battle royale style.
00:12:59You think that would happen?
00:13:01It seemed so quick, but it was in super slow motion.
00:13:06Bags over our heads, laughing, just a bunch of laughing.
00:13:10Ripping of duct tape.
00:13:12Fucking lots of ripping.
00:13:14They wrapped my hands and eyes with duct tape so fast
00:13:17they did the same thing to Keith except they taped his head to my ass.
00:13:22Then they all just ran away laughing.
00:13:24Fucking cowards.
00:13:27I don't know who did it, but I'm pretty sure.
00:13:31Steal their lunches, hit them in the back of the head in the hallway,
00:13:35take shit out of their backpacks, kick them in the back while they're taking a piss.
00:13:39The list goes on and the laughs never stop.
00:13:42It's not our fault they were born retarded.
00:13:45There's this kid in our art class, he thinks he's so funny.
00:13:50The kid is a complete toolbox and he's a smartass too.
00:13:54Last week when the teacher left the classroom, we grabbed him,
00:13:58threw him in this little closet where all the pottery was drying.
00:13:59We turned him upside down, put him in a trash can,
00:14:02locked the door and then turned off the lights.
00:14:06Hey man, it was worth getting suspended.
00:14:09I needed a couple of days off anyway.
00:14:12I guess when he was in there, the trash can fell over
00:14:15and they thought he broke his neck or something.
00:14:17An ambulance even had to come and wheel the dork out of there.
00:14:20I heard he came to school the next day wearing a neck brace.
00:14:24Maybe he won't be such a smartass after that.
00:14:27So here we are. Our last year.
00:14:31Goes by fast, right?
00:14:34Been pretty cool.
00:14:37Got no complaints. Did our time.
00:14:40I do look forward to getting out of here though.
00:14:43Probably move, never come back.
00:14:46It's bad luck, you know.
00:14:49Living in the same place you grew up in.
00:14:52It means you never left your safe zone.
00:14:54You getting out of here, Max?
00:14:58I know.
00:15:01Dumb question.
00:15:04Can I come?
00:15:07I have to say, it is painful
00:15:10for us to hear that
00:15:13one of you kids
00:15:16who have left have gone on to get themselves in trouble.
00:15:20Because
00:15:23a good bunch of us here
00:15:26I mean the ones who really do give a damn
00:15:29not only what happens here, but what happens after you leave
00:15:32we feel responsible to some degree.
00:15:37Like the
00:15:40Jared Tezzes and Troy Tamerlains who get themselves killed.
00:15:43I mean, I'm not surprised, but
00:15:46yeah, but I am.
00:15:49I think any concern that I had in college
00:15:51definitely waned as time progressed.
00:15:55I was loving what I was doing and
00:15:58I felt like I could actually reach the students.
00:16:01You know, I was building connections with them.
00:16:04And yes, I understand that
00:16:07not everyone loves history and it can be boring,
00:16:10but I was on a mission to make it exciting.
00:16:15I've been at this job for
00:16:1811 years now
00:16:21and I'd say 10 of which were normal.
00:16:24You know, I've seen plenty of students come and go
00:16:27and face the normal teenage struggles, but
00:16:30nothing truly concerning.
00:16:33There's this one other poser.
00:16:36He was trying to place my buddy Rance's kicker next year.
00:16:39He's some soccer player, won a child for football next year, I guess.
00:16:42But he doesn't play real soccer.
00:16:45It's recreational.
00:16:48Rance is kind of a pussy too, but
00:16:51I mean, he's a decent kicker, but
00:16:54we think he's cool to hang with.
00:16:57We helped him scare Soccer Boy because we know
00:17:00he definitely couldn't have done it by himself.
00:17:03He was walking down the hall one day when we grabbed him for Rance.
00:17:06We put him in this hilarious wrestling move.
00:17:09We grabbed him again and Rance slept around some more.
00:17:12I mean, he looked like such a little girl.
00:17:15I guarantee you won't be trying out for the football team after that anymore.
00:17:18It took us a while to take off the tape
00:17:21and a few hours later our news feeds light up.
00:17:24Those fuckheads posted pictures everywhere.
00:17:27Us. Money or business. Hopeless.
00:17:30Our parents just told us to ignore it
00:17:33and the teachers just looked the other way.
00:17:41We were watching this old
00:17:4480s Charlie Bronson movie a while back
00:17:47and the main characters
00:17:49wife and daughter get murdered and raped
00:17:52and no one does anything about it.
00:17:55But Charlie does.
00:17:58Why are people so mean?
00:18:01I could never be so cruel and heartless.
00:18:04I feel bad.
00:18:07And you learn real fast that
00:18:10if you tell on them, it makes things about 100 times worse.
00:18:13And that's why I don't say anything anymore.
00:18:16Do you think bullies even know they're bullies?
00:18:21I hear it only gets worse.
00:18:24I guess I got a lot to look forward to.
00:18:27Like my mom, she tells me that
00:18:30they just do these things because they're jealous
00:18:33and they want to be more like me.
00:18:36But who would ever want to be more like me?
00:18:39You know, they call me names.
00:18:42Worthless piece of shit.
00:18:44Dipshit, faggot, fuckface.
00:18:47And that
00:18:50is what I got to look forward to
00:18:53every single day.
00:18:56You know,
00:18:59I sometimes wonder
00:19:02if they'll always be like that.
00:19:05In the future, are they going to be mean parents,
00:19:08terrible bosses,
00:19:11or future leaders of unmentionable terror?
00:19:14You know,
00:19:17I wonder
00:19:20if that guy from a long time ago with the weird short mustache
00:19:23was ever bullied.
00:19:26Or maybe even a bully.
00:19:29I always wondered if something would have happened to him.
00:19:32Made him no longer...
00:19:35Maybe not so much bad would have happened.
00:19:40I think that if you could time travel back
00:19:43to take all these unreasonable wastes of oxygen
00:19:46away,
00:19:49that the world would probably be a better place.
00:19:52I know it would be.
00:19:57High school's not easy.
00:20:00A lot of these kids have no filters.
00:20:03And the weak ones are kind of picked out by the strong ones.
00:20:06But the strong ones have a lot of insecurities.
00:20:09And in a bullying manner, making fun of those kids.
00:20:11It all stems back from home
00:20:14and branches out from there.
00:20:17A lot of the victims
00:20:20are the strong, non-filtered, insecure ones.
00:20:23Which is kind of ironic in a way.
00:20:26I'm not placing the blame
00:20:29on any one person or any other.
00:20:32But what I'm saying is that high school is tough.
00:20:35It was tough back in my day.
00:20:38There was all different types of stressors and situations.
00:20:41It can be brutal.
00:20:44And it hasn't.
00:20:47I feel guilty.
00:20:50As if I could have allowed myself to fail a couple of grades
00:20:53just to make sure I was in the same school.
00:20:58Maybe then I could have protected him.
00:21:01I'm supposed to know these things.
00:21:04But I didn't.
00:21:07I mean, sure, he was quiet.
00:21:10They just know when to speak up
00:21:13and when to observe.
00:21:16But...
00:21:19I wish now that he would have been more vocal.
00:21:28I did bring the issues to administration's attention.
00:21:31They excused it.
00:21:34And I think they just wanted to finish out the school year drama-free.
00:21:37Kept saying it would pass.
00:21:40The administration was essentially
00:21:43pressuring me.
00:21:46He was so close to having to spend another year here.
00:21:49But I'm never going to raise a student's grade
00:21:52just because the school wants to make his family happy.
00:21:55He barely showed up to class
00:21:58and was much more interested in girls and other things.
00:22:01Which, fine.
00:22:04But then when he did show up, he was often disruptive.
00:22:07His father donates a lot of money to the school.
00:22:10Honestly, he probably funds the entire football team.
00:22:13So I'm sure that led to Justin's sense of entitlement.
00:22:19Money does funny things to people.
00:22:22It's sick.
00:22:25And it's wrong when it influences
00:22:28a school district's leaders.
00:22:31I mean, what kind of an example does that set?
00:22:34I had an agree-to-disagree conversation
00:22:37with a friend and a respected colleague some years ago.
00:22:40He decided to put down the family pet
00:22:43after it got out one day and found a neighbor's cat.
00:22:46The neighbors were very upset
00:22:49and had the option of turning the dog in
00:22:52and having it put down, but didn't.
00:22:55I guess the cat was poking at a dog or something
00:22:58and the dog defended herself.
00:23:01The neighbors did a reasonable thing, I think.
00:23:04And it wasn't like the dog killed the cat
00:23:07or bit a finger off.
00:23:10Shortly after that,
00:23:13he voluntarily had the dog put down anyway.
00:23:16He was beyond upset
00:23:19at the dog and what she did.
00:23:22And he felt that he didn't want her around anymore
00:23:25and that he would look at her differently.
00:23:28He felt that he could not trust her
00:23:31and that if she did once,
00:23:34she would do it again.
00:23:37I called bullshit.
00:23:40And that is where we agreed to disagree.
00:23:43The damn dog was defending herself for God's sake.
00:23:47She was lost, helpless
00:23:50and being poked at.
00:23:53So she reacted in defense.
00:23:56Admittedly,
00:23:59other dogs in this situation
00:24:02may have handled it differently
00:24:05and some may even have just turned around
00:24:07but regardless,
00:24:10I did not feel
00:24:13that you should exercise your apartheid right
00:24:16on a single episode.
00:24:19I didn't feel that right.
00:24:22I felt that at that time.
00:24:29You ever seen that experiment
00:24:32with the plants?
00:24:35I saw it a couple of days ago
00:24:38and it made me kind of sad.
00:24:41You see, what they do is
00:24:44they take two identical plants
00:24:47and they put them each in a glass box
00:24:50with a speaker.
00:24:53And one of the plants has
00:24:56kind encouraging words said to it
00:24:59through the speaker
00:25:02and the other one has
00:25:05just a few weeks.
00:25:08You can be able to see the plants change.
00:25:11Just a few weeks.
00:25:14As I'm sure you can imagine,
00:25:17the plant with the kind encouraging words
00:25:20said to it begins to flourish
00:25:23and become beautiful and grow.
00:25:26And the plant with the mean discouraging words
00:25:29said to it
00:25:32begins to die slowly,
00:25:35Now imagine you took that
00:25:38already dying plant
00:25:41and you started to pluck the leaves off it
00:25:44one by one.
00:25:47Do you think plants have feelings?
00:25:50I think they might.
00:25:53I don't know.
00:25:56I don't want to sound like a pussy
00:25:59but I'm afraid to even go
00:26:02to the bathroom in my school
00:26:05because the school bathroom
00:26:08is a very dangerous place
00:26:11for a kid like me to go.
00:26:14Know what a swirly is?
00:26:17If you don't, consider yourself lucky.
00:26:20Because a swirly is
00:26:23exactly what opened my eyes.
00:26:26Showed me my call of duty.
00:26:29Maybe it was a duct tape incident.
00:26:32I don't know.
00:26:35I know you may not see it now
00:26:38but I'm going to be the time traveler
00:26:41who didn't need to go back in time.
00:26:44I'm going to be a hero.
00:26:47I'm sorry.
00:26:50And you're welcome.
00:26:55Charlie, uh,
00:26:58Charlie serves justice looking down the barrel
00:27:01of his new 45.
00:27:03Man, I fucking love those movies.
00:27:06You know, what was wrong was made right.
00:27:09An eye for an eye.
00:27:12I could never do it.
00:27:15I could never hurt someone.
00:27:18I'm a fucking pussy.
00:27:21I don't have the guts.
00:27:24I think I'm a bad person.
00:27:27No.
00:27:30No, I don't think I know.
00:27:33And here's why.
00:27:36Look, it's not that we mean anything by it.
00:27:39It's just fun.
00:27:42If they can't take a joke now, they're in for a very hard life.
00:27:45We look at it more as training for their future.
00:27:48Might as well get used to it now.
00:27:51Look, I'm sure if the tables were turned
00:27:54and me and my friends were the losers and the losers were us,
00:27:57I couldn't argue with them wanting to have a little fun too.
00:28:00That's all it is.
00:28:03It's just fun.
00:28:06Who's going to stop us?
00:28:09We're just having fun.
00:28:12It's not even a big deal.
00:28:15I'm going to miss a good lot of y'all.
00:28:18Be kind to each other.
00:28:21Love yourselves.
00:28:24And remember, like my dad always says,
00:28:27it's nice to be important,
00:28:30but important to be nice.
00:28:33I'm the older one, by a few years.
00:28:36He's the smarter one, for sure.
00:28:39I mean,
00:28:42I don't know.
00:28:45I don't know.
00:28:48I don't know.
00:28:51I don't know.
00:28:54I don't know.
00:28:57I don't know.
00:29:00I don't know.
00:29:03I don't know.
00:29:06I mean, Keith was a strong one.
00:29:13Best friends.
00:29:16Best friends till the end.
00:29:19Till the end.
00:29:24I can't believe he did it.
00:29:27I mean, he did it.
00:29:30He actually did it.
00:29:32macabre. I mean, while the tears sneak from my face, I'm secretly cheering inside.
00:29:41Does that make me a bad person?
00:29:45Probably. I mean, but I can live with that, I guess.
00:29:51What I can legally say is that the students involved, I did meet with them many times.
00:29:59Keith, the gunman, he was a good kid and he couldn't hurt a fly. I guess that's not really the case.
00:30:16I miss him.
00:30:31And I know that probably sounds so stupid after what I'm sure you've heard about it.
00:30:37But I knew him well.
00:30:41Our families were so close and we had grown up together.
00:30:44Our parents made sure we went to the same parties and events.
00:30:49I honestly felt like they expected we'd be together and encouraged our relationship in that direction.
00:30:58It's just, it's hard for me to think about.
00:31:03We feel responsible because maybe just, just maybe we could have paid better attention. We could have led them better.
00:31:24We feel responsible, but well, at the same time, we don't blame ourselves either.
00:31:34We all face difficult choices through different seasons of our lives. Some more than others.
00:31:45My recollection of that day was somewhat blurred.
00:31:49I had gone to bed late the night before after celebrating a friend's promotion.
00:31:58Give me a reason to celebrate and give you a reason to finish a bottle of vodka with me.
00:32:04I celebrate as small as the winds.
00:32:08Gilead's charged. My phone was blowing out that morning with news feeds of yet another shooting.
00:32:17But this one, this one was at a high school in our community and I knew what that meant.
00:32:25It was our turn at the hospital to pull it together and take out life's work and save lives.
00:32:36These things seem to happen all the time now, sadly, and when they do, the first thing I think of is what it would take
00:32:43to band together as doctors and nurses and react and respond to the situation at hand.
00:32:49It sounds impossible, but we did pretty good. We, meaning them. I choked.
00:32:59It was never really a solid concern though, although I will admit, I questioned it in college
00:33:06whether I wanted to continue on this path just knowing that it had happened time and time again.
00:33:11I suppose cops deal with that same struggling thought, just knowing that multiple times their lives could be placed in jeopardy.
00:33:22It still haunts me, but that day started like a normal day. I dropped Bella off at school about 7.30 a.m. like I do every day and then headed straight to work.
00:33:34I was on a traffic stop around 9.30 a.m. Some guy was doing 87 in a 65 off C-44.
00:33:52That's when she called me and I didn't answer the first call, but when she rang back immediately after,
00:34:00I answered. You never quite forget a call like that. A call from your kid, scared,
00:34:10trying to articulate what was unfolding around them, what sounded like gunshots, screams, fear all around her.
00:34:20I told her to stay on the phone with me,
00:34:28and in a quick blur of panic, I returned his insurance card and ID without saying a damn thing.
00:34:38Justin and I had our first period together. He would walk me to class and
00:34:45kiss me next to the door.
00:34:52He did that every day.
00:34:58And it was sweet because we were on different floors that semester,
00:35:03so I watched him as he walked down the stairs and blew me a kiss.
00:35:16Sorry, Maxine.
00:35:22The day of the shooting, you know, when that happened, I was in the library with this girl I
00:35:26liked. She liked me too, but she was too embarrassed to be my girl because all her friends thought she
00:35:31was way out of my league, but she would sit across from me and showed me she liked me by
00:35:37rubbing her foot across my leg, you know, up and down under the table. And sometimes she would tease
00:35:44me and she would plant that foot right between my legs and massage me, you know, massage me real
00:35:50hard, and I liked it. That was about the extent of our relationship. I remember I was giving a lesson
00:36:00on the civil rights movement, and all of a sudden I heard what sounded like balloons being popped.
00:36:08Pop, pop, pop.
00:36:12But right when I stepped in the hall, I knew it was gunfire.
00:36:18Hunting was actually a big part of my childhood, so that sound is really familiar.
00:36:28So I calmly closed the door and I locked it,
00:36:32and I had the students get up from their desks and go to the far side of the room away from the
00:36:38door window. And of course they were scared, but I tried to assure them that it was just a precaution.
00:36:49But obviously I heard noises that concerned me,
00:36:52and I called 911 right away and I kept them on the phone with me the entire time.
00:36:56I got back on the phone with Bella, and I asked her what classroom she was in,
00:37:02and I asked to speak with her teacher. She handed the phone to Ms. Carpenter and I let her know who
00:37:06I was, and that officers were on the way. She told me she had about 30 students in the classroom,
00:37:13and the door was locked, but there was a glass panel. They were in a far corner, out of view
00:37:20of the door. At that point, I think I was like five minutes away.
00:37:31It was the five longest minutes of my entire life.
00:37:36It just didn't make any sense it was happening here.
00:37:39Our school was normal, filled with normal kids, many coming from affluent families like Justin and
00:37:46I. Ms. Strone told us to go to the room located out the back of the classroom.
00:37:58Not all classrooms had an extra room, but given that this was an art class, we had a kiln.
00:38:06It wasn't a large room, but we fit, and the door didn't lock, but it was heavier than most due to
00:38:14the heat that the kiln produced. I was just hoping it would be enough.
00:38:23Ms. Strone opened the lid and told us all to stand behind it as a precaution, but all that I could
00:38:30think of when I was standing there was Justin, my best friend, Bella. He was downstairs in Ms.
00:38:38Nowicki's class, and she was across the hall in Ms. Carpenter's class.
00:38:44We all heard an uproar, and we heard screaming and yelling and sounds of fireworks, only it
00:38:51wasn't 4th of July. It was payback day. It was Keith. He came into the library, and we made eye
00:39:01contact, and I didn't stop him. I just winked at him, and he gave me this sideways smile that
00:39:13turned into sorrow. He just picked off a couple douchebags and left. He was a man on a mission.
00:39:32You know, there's even a support group for parents who,
00:39:37their only thing that they had in common is that they did not know that
00:39:42sending their child off to school would be the last time they saw them alive.
00:39:54Abysmal is the only word I can use to describe the still tension that we felt
00:40:01waiting for the events to unfold. It sounds dramatic,
00:40:07but you know, it was a dramatic situation to say the least.
00:40:12I didn't have enough time with him, you know, and those thoughts just
00:40:32eat away at me, and I'm pretty sure that they're never going to go away.
00:40:42I couldn't get out of bed for the first month.
00:40:48You know that feeling you get when you get the wind knocked out of you, and you can't breathe?
00:40:56That's how I felt.
00:40:59That's how I feel. I just feel like I can't breathe sometimes,
00:41:06and it's felt like an eternity, and I knew, I knew that, incidentally, I was punishing my family
00:41:17because I just couldn't be all there, but I couldn't leave the house for a few months.
00:41:29I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
00:41:30I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
00:41:37I'm going to need a minute.
00:41:39I'm sorry.
00:41:55A few months ago, I went into Keith's room for the first time since the investigators had been
00:42:03in there last. I guess I just felt like it was time, or maybe it would bring him closer to me,
00:42:18but I just sat on his bed and cried and looked at pictures.
00:42:24He just always had the biggest smile on his face, ever since he was little. He couldn't help it.
00:42:31He was just in such awe of the world around him, and you could see the imagination in his eyes,
00:42:39and he always was asking so many questions. What made the moon appear at night, or
00:42:45what made the moon appear at night, or
00:42:49what made a car move? He just wanted to take it all in. I've been looking at pictures of when we
00:42:56were little. I was that sister that had tea parties and had her little brother join in.
00:43:05I mean, he never seemed to mind. I didn't know mom was taking pictures.
00:43:16I've been looking at those this week.
00:43:21I wish we could just go back to the time of us having fun, back when we played video games
00:43:28together. I'd be in my room, he in his, with our headsets on.
00:43:37We would kick ass. It felt like we were invincible at times.
00:43:45Maybe that's how he felt when it happened.
00:43:53He was an easy kid. I had an easy pregnancy with him. It was a calm time.
00:44:03We had just bought our first home, and my husband's job was enough for both of us,
00:44:09so I was able to quit mine and stay at home with Keith and Sarah.
00:44:15One kid in daycare was fine, two was a little bit too expensive, and
00:44:21I don't regret that decision at all. Those extra moments were priceless.
00:44:32The best moments of my life.
00:44:34I'm sorry. I'm still in shock, honestly, of what he did and that he's not coming home.
00:44:52I remember getting an alert on the school district app about a lockdown, and we had gotten those
00:45:02before, but this one wasn't a drill. So I got in my car, and I drove there too,
00:45:13and it didn't take very long for me to start seeing the emergency lights, and I was crying,
00:45:20and I was just trying to drive as fast as I could, and then I couldn't go any farther,
00:45:25so I had to pull over, and I just started running, and as every boy came out,
00:45:34it wasn't dressed like Keith was. It just prolonged the fear, and all you could do is pray.
00:45:46I remember hearing over one of the officers intercom that the shooter had surrendered and
00:45:55was in custody but near death. I thought the garbage can incident was a one-time thing.
00:46:06Oh, I was furious, but he just wanted to drop it and forget the whole thing.
00:46:14He never told us about the other incidents, or that one of his teachers hurt him.
00:46:26It's hard enough to lose your son, but in those first couple weeks, we weren't even given the
00:46:32grace to mourn. It was just reporters and police officers and investigators in and out of our home,
00:46:41and all the while, I'm just asking myself, how? Why? And then they found receipts,
00:46:53and I'm thinking, how could he buy those guns? How would he know how to use them?
00:47:03Where would he keep them? We don't even own any. I just, I don't understand it,
00:47:13and the dates, the dates on the receipt were so far back.
00:47:22He had been thinking about it for so long, and then they found journals,
00:47:28just pages and pages of stories about bullying and how much pain he was in,
00:47:38asking questions of how and why he deserves such hate and cruelty.
00:47:47I do remember a time that I had to go get homework for my friend Christine, who stayed home sick.
00:47:56She lived next door, so I told him just to go ahead of me and ride his bike home.
00:48:01I mean, I wasn't expecting to catch up and see him on the ground with
00:48:09three bigger boys standing over him, mocking him.
00:48:15I rode my bike faster, skid into those assholes, and was in their faces faster than they could react,
00:48:25and mom got a call from one of those boys' parents that I was in the way.
00:48:31I was on the phone that night with some lady telling her that her son came home with a black eye.
00:48:37You know what? Mom let her have it. I was prepared to get in trouble, but instead she was proud of me,
00:48:48and nobody messed with him after that.
00:48:55That all changed when I couldn't be there anymore. School just ended at different times for us.
00:49:02My daughter just reminded me this week about a time when she was coming home from her friend's house and she was defending him.
00:49:16How could I forget about that one?
00:49:21You know, I just start realizing now what a major problem this bullying behavior is
00:49:30with this generation. How could anybody think it's okay to act like this in person, online?
00:49:40What the fuck? Honestly, those are the kids that have mental issues. Those are the ones that need help. Serious help.
00:49:52And I don't care if you are or you aren't well off. This behavior is not okay. Period.
00:50:05He was such a good kid. He did his chores. He always did his homework. He had the kindest words.
00:50:15He had the kindest words. He was always telling us how much he loved us.
00:50:22His best friend was always at our house, and I liked it that way because I always knew that they were safe.
00:50:32But you know what's crazy? After all this happened, I started to wonder if he was good for my son.
00:50:42It's amazing what your mind will do when you're living such a nightmare.
00:50:54The rumors, the news. We lost so many friends. They didn't want their kids around us. Like it's contagious.
00:51:05Like it's contagious.
00:51:09What they really need to be concerned about is whether their kids are going through the same
00:51:13shit at school or online. And maybe it's not who they're hanging out with. It could be the
00:51:20ones that they don't want to be around. And I was thinking about the families
00:51:26of the kids that hurt my son so badly and hating them.
00:51:30And then I thought, what if they're just nice, normal families like us,
00:51:37getting blamed for their son's behavior?
00:51:41And it's not just boys. It's girls too. They can be just as mean and spiteful.
00:51:49This generation seems to be entitled. And you know what? For that, I blame us as parents.
00:51:56All of us. You know, we just wanted to provide a comfortable life for our kids,
00:52:03providing them with clothes and electronics and getting them involved in competitive sports and
00:52:07just making the best life and upbringing we possibly could. And why? Why would we think
00:52:15there would be any harm in that? It came from love.
00:52:19I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and I had to do tough chores every day. And it made me strong
00:52:28and independent. Independence with these kids now means something entirely different.
00:52:37So if you have kids in school or you're just starting a family,
00:52:44if you have kids in school or you're just starting a family, and I'm hoping
00:52:52that you're listening to what I'm saying and really hearing what I'm saying.
00:53:01Be aware. Be cognizant of your kids' behavior, their balanced life. Be involved in their
00:53:09social media and their text. And talk to them as openly and honestly as you possibly can.
00:53:20Trust me. You'll thank me later.
00:53:28Jumping out of my car, I ran into the school entrance.
00:53:47In my line of work, you see and hear many things. I mean, what cop doesn't?
00:53:53To become desensitized, you have to. Nothing really bothers me.
00:54:06Fear is not an option. But this day was different.
00:54:15That day I was horrified.
00:54:16After getting through the office, I entered into a classroom that had the door wide open.
00:54:23Upon entering, I saw that there were students there that were injured.
00:54:27One of them had been shot multiple times. I called in the dispatch and confirmed the
00:54:32shooting and let them know that we had numerous injured people here that required immediate
00:54:36medical assistance and also where they were located.
00:54:40I heard more shots, so I closed the door and locked it behind me. I told them to stay away
00:54:46from the door. I looked down the hallway and I saw a trail of blood leading into the boys' bathroom.
00:54:54Upon entering, I saw a student who had been shot multiple times.
00:55:10In his late teens, lying on the ground, he had been shot five times in the chest.
00:55:22He unfortunately had no pulse.
00:55:28At that point, dispatch alerted to an officer down on the second floor.
00:55:33So I ran down the hall, passing by all these different classrooms,
00:55:37hoping all the students inside were okay. By the time I got up to the second floor,
00:55:43I found Officer Williams just leaning against a classroom door, inset from the hallway. He
00:55:51was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the leg. And I could actually hear the sounds getting closer.
00:55:57There'd be these eerie pauses followed by more shots and screams.
00:56:03I mean, it felt like I was in a horror movie.
00:56:07And I didn't know if I should go out into the hall to at least see which direction the shooter
00:56:15was coming from, or if I should do anything at all. But I knew my responsibility was
00:56:25to the kids in my class, to those 30 innocent students.
00:56:29These kids have such complicated lives, way more so than I feel it was when I was their age.
00:56:40What happened here is, what happened here is devastating. It's kind of spread like wildfire,
00:56:48and effect on everybody. Hashtag high school life, hashtag lit, that's what the kids would say.
00:56:54But, well, remember Smokey the Bear? He used to say, only you could prevent forest fires,
00:57:00and don't play with matches. Watch your campfire. Maybe he was talking about something bigger.
00:57:13Putting out fires in my business, and business is booming. There's a lot of parents, a lot of
00:57:18students affected by this. But it is bringing people together in our community.
00:57:24And there's a lot of people showing strength and supporting each other.
00:57:33McKenzie grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the rest of the students that were running.
00:57:39I'm not sure why I didn't make it outside when I made it downstairs. I just didn't want to
00:57:46run. I just stared at the blood leaving from Justin's classroom, and I started running.
00:57:57I wasn't really thinking. I just wanted to make sure that he got out, that he wasn't there.
00:58:08But he didn't.
00:58:08He was laying on the ground, bleeding everywhere. I ran to his side,
00:58:21but I already knew he was, I already knew he was gone.
00:58:25I just, I was in shock. I just held him, sobbing.
00:58:45The first time I saw the boy, he was crying.
00:58:49He didn't look like a killer to me, or a murderer.
00:58:55He had two gunshots, wounds in his right leg, one in his ankle. He was also shot in the neck,
00:59:04but I think he was just grazed there, otherwise he would have been killed instantly.
00:59:11He couldn't stop crying.
00:59:18He also was shot in the chest.
00:59:23I didn't think he was crying because he was dying. He was sobbing with regret.
00:59:29He kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I felt he was ashamed at what he had done.
00:59:40Moments of foolishness added up to a lifetime of regret. A lifetime.
00:59:48He stood there like a thoughtless machine, as if he wasn't afraid to die.
01:00:01He raised his gun toward me and I fired, hitting him in the shoulder.
01:00:05He dropped the gun and entered into the classroom. A few SWAT officers ran by me,
01:00:10a third stopped and asked me to start getting all the students out of the building.
01:00:18At that point, I felt like this burning in my hip,
01:00:23realizing that the shooter actually was able to pull this trigger.
01:00:27It was a little bit deeper than a flesh wound, but the eye needed to find Bella.
01:00:36I located her classroom within a few minutes, but was losing blood down my leg.
01:00:41The scavenger opened the door and I was able to see that all the students were unharmed,
01:00:44that everyone, not just the students, were unharmed.
01:00:51And it was my brave Bella.
01:00:57That day, 14 students and two teachers were injured. Nine students and one teacher
01:01:06would never again return home. Their family, friends,
01:01:15family. The shooter was taken to Mercy Hospital. He was still alive.
01:01:31I'm a single father. Bella is my only child.
01:01:37She's only seen me cry once, and that was back when we lost her mother to cancer a few years back.
01:01:44The fear that I could have lost my daughter that day hit me that night.
01:01:56We both broke down.
01:02:08I don't know what happened from the time that I was in school until now.
01:02:12Things are very different. Since that day, they've now mandated that you have to have
01:02:20armed security at the local schools. Chief was a huge advocate in making that happen.
01:02:34His son went to HHS as well.
01:02:42After that, I took a leave of absence. Spent a decent amount of time appreciating my daughter,
01:02:53my life.
01:03:00I'm more thankful now for the things that I have
01:03:04and put aside for the things that I don't.
01:03:11But I think for me, once I learned who the shooter was and the actual motive behind it,
01:03:20it definitely made more sense. I mean, I wish it hadn't.
01:03:25I absolutely believe that this could have been prevented. Absolutely.
01:03:32But that said, and I think what's so fascinating for me is just after everything that I've been
01:03:39through and after seeing what I've seen, I know that I can be doing more to protect the students.
01:03:46And I know that I can make more of a difference to just stay where I'm at.
01:03:54What happens from here...
01:03:58I don't want to say there's a greater purpose in all this, but what I can say is...
01:04:02This was a huge wake-up call. We live in a world where these geniuses
01:04:06are solving certain problems, but they can't solve the problems of mass shootings in schools.
01:04:14That's baffling to me.
01:04:18You know, it's not a case of if it'll happen again, it's where and when.
01:04:23It's not a case of if it'll happen again, it's where and when.
01:04:27And so I would say, you know, we're all going through this now, but love your children,
01:04:34love your family, hug them when you can, show affection, because though many of us will live
01:04:42to be old age, there are no guarantees.
01:04:50So being Keith's best friend, you know, they asked me what I knew,
01:04:54but I told them nothing because I didn't. I mean, and I didn't want to seem happy about it.
01:04:58You know, it's, I mean, it's sad. A lot of lives are affected because of such tragedy. I mean,
01:05:05I mean, it's especially sad because I'll never see my best friend again,
01:05:08you know, to tell him, to thank him.
01:05:10And I know, I mean, I know I'm different to some degree,
01:05:22but that doesn't mean that I should be taken advantage of. Okay. Please don't hate me.
01:05:28Nobody knows what happens when nobody is around. Okay. It was outright torture.
01:05:32I mean, my solace was, my solace was to dream that one day I'd be rich and famous
01:05:44and they'd all be sorry, you know, but some people just take it to a whole new level.
01:05:51Not everyone has the balls to come out and say it, but I,
01:05:54I know I'm not, I'm not the only one secretly not sad about what happened to the ones that happened
01:05:59to. Okay. Please don't hate me. I, again, I'm only human. I couldn't hear one of the officers
01:06:08that ran into the room. I couldn't hear anything. The only sound that I could hear was this
01:06:14monotone ringing. And he basically had to help me across school grounds because I was struggling to
01:06:21run. He led me to the other students and he was gone. I just stood there watching as all the
01:06:39students were running out. The students and parents panicking and crying, the flashing lights.
01:06:45One of the EMTs had to sit me down and started asking me questions. I knew I wasn't injured, but
01:06:54I had Justin's blood all over me and I couldn't talk at first, but I finally got out. Well,
01:07:03I finally got out what my name was and that I was okay.
01:07:12Before I knew it, my mother was running to me. I closed my eyes
01:07:20and we just held each other. We were both crying.
01:07:27She said she was so scared when she had found Bella and Bella hadn't seen me running out with
01:07:31the rest of my class. I later learned who the shooter was. That one was a hard one to take.
01:07:43My few short moments with this cold-blooded killer were heartbreaking. He didn't seem
01:07:50like a monster after all. You can tell pretty much instantly the good ones from the bad ones.
01:08:00And I truly hate to say this, he wasn't a bad one.
01:08:06I mean, he was a mass shooter. So bastards like him deserve the very worst.
01:08:17So I decided to save him by letting him die.
01:08:21That one split decision that you make, everything that you've worked hard all your life,
01:08:28as a doctor, as a human, comes down to this. Do I let this kid suffer for the rest of his life
01:08:38or do I put him out of his misery like a misunderstood dog who snaps
01:08:46after being poked too hard?
01:08:52So I pronounced the boy dead that day.
01:08:57I get it. Everything that I've worked hard all my life, I can give away after disclosing this
01:09:04information. But I pretty much checked out months ago.
01:09:12What kind of doctor would proactively let someone die?
01:09:20Who's the monster now?
01:09:41Hey guys, me again. I'm not sure if I'm gonna do this anymore.
01:10:02I'm pretty sure that this might be my last video.
01:10:05You got me good. I'm still in denial, but I believe in my heart that it was an accident.
01:10:22I was a friend, I think.
01:10:28We lived on the same street. Unfortunately,
01:10:32I was standing right next to what I think was one of Keith's targets.
01:10:40Damn you, Keith. You thought you were one of the good ones.
01:10:50I know it's hard to look at me, to see people, even kids, point and stare.
01:10:58It's a scar now, but the real scar is on the inside.
01:11:06It is hard to look at myself. I never thought that I was all that pretty before, but
01:11:16now I don't try on clothes at stores. The mirrors aren't that forgiving.
01:11:27What can I say?
01:11:31In a way, I'm not surprised that it happened. I'm just surprised that it happened
01:11:40right in front of me. Surprised as fuck that I survived, actually.
01:11:51There's a lot of pressure in high school, and there's a lot of fucking pressure everywhere.
01:11:58What draws a line between being halfway funny and halfway asshole crazy?
01:12:05It'll never go away, because people think it'll never happen in their universe, but it does.
01:12:14It happened to me, to other kids, and it could happen to you.
01:12:21Safe to say, nowadays, can't ever get too comfortable.
01:12:27So, wherever you are, know your escape exits, because like I said, it's not if it'll happen,
01:12:34it's where and when it'll happen next. Pretty messed up, right? It is. But it's true.
01:12:44It is. But it's true. No one is safe anymore. No one.
01:12:55I hope that this year, we can remember the good. Impossible for most of us, I know.
01:13:06But that was the point of this video in the first place.
01:13:11To remember our high school days.
01:13:16Did you make new friends?
01:13:19Did you change a life?
01:13:24Did you say goodbye to those you might never see again?
01:13:31As your senior class president, I'm hopeful that you did.
01:13:37I'm hopeful that you did.
01:13:41And don't forget, it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
01:14:07You know, I'm not mean, hateful, and definitely not violent. You know, I like comic books.
01:14:21I'm a geek in that way. I especially love the ones with the ordinary guy,
01:14:29who gets the superpowers. Because after he gets the superpowers, he's not picked on anymore.
01:14:37You know why? Because he takes out the bad guys, the villains,
01:14:44and he makes the world a safer place.
01:14:54Breaking news, a school shooting with reports of multiple fatalities.
01:14:59Those images from inside the high school showing the moments leading up to that deadly rampage.
01:15:04They were his first victims. He targeted seven locations in the rural community of Rancho Tehama.
01:15:09They included an elementary school.
01:15:11Another community is waking up in shock after a deadly school shooting.
01:15:16We begin tonight with the horror playing out near Seattle, Washington,
01:15:19the school shooting, and now we've learned the suspect.
01:15:21Deadly shooting Friday in Santa Monica.
01:15:23When a searing tragedy struck in a place, parents felt their children were safe.
01:15:29The worst grade school shooting in U.S. history, at least 27 dead.
01:15:33The developing news out of California, another of those awful bulletins about a school shooting.
01:15:39Students diving for cover in a classroom, this time at a Christian university in Oakland, California.
01:15:45They did nothing wrong. They were just going to school, what they should be doing.
01:15:49And they had to pay with it for their lives. They shouldn't have to go through that.
01:15:53Today, when those first bulletins came into the newsroom of another gunman at Virginia Tech,
01:15:57that he'd opened fire, there were immediate fears.
01:16:00The massacre of four years ago was happening all over again.
01:16:04We're putting pieces together.
01:16:05We're trying our best to make sense of something that we really can't make sense of.
01:16:09The investigation into the high school massacre is slow-moving and dangerous.
01:16:13The two gunmen who went on the rampage booby-trapped the building and even themselves.
01:16:18All day long, investigators have searched the homes of both teenage killers.
01:16:22In one of them, police say they found bomb-making materials.
01:16:26Specially trained officers searching the school today
01:16:28found close to 30 explosive devices all around the building.
01:16:32Authorities have also revised the death toll,
01:16:35now saying 15 people were killed, including the two gunmen.
01:16:38Most of the bodies are still inside the school,
01:16:41but families of the murder victims have been notified.