Dave Sanders alerted lunchroom and then warned others before being fatally wounded

By Bill Scanlon
Scripps Howard News Service

Dave Sanders

Dave Sanders gave his all to the kids at Columbine High School.

On Tuesday, he gave his life.

Sanders, a longtime coach and teacher, put himself in the line of fire while shepherding at least 100 students to safety.

"Mr. Sanders was taking bullets for people," freshman Stephanie Lohrenz said. "He was a real hero."

The assailants gunned down Sanders, but not before he alerted hundreds of students to the impending melee and directed many of them to safety.

He was courageous, cunning and compassionate, said teachers and students who witnessed his heroism.

They said the gunmen had chosen the perfect time and perfect spot for maximum carnage. About 10 minutes into the first lunch period, one of the gunmen walked toward the door of the cafeteria. Sanders was outside the lunchroom and could have run when he saw the arsenal.

Instead, he dashed through the cafeteria door.

"He ran into the cafeteria and warned everybody," English teacher Cheryl Lucas said. "We started moving because of him."

Sanders, Lucas, teachers Judy Kelly and Monette Park and two janitors hustled to get hundreds of students out of harm's way. By the time the first gunman was inside, the cafeteria was virtually empty. By just a few seconds, they had beaten the gunmen.

"All the teachers there have done heroic things," Lucas said. "But he was the most responsible for saving a bunch of lives."

Indeed, it wasn't until Sanders burst in and started shouting that people realized the banging and popping they were hearing was more than a senior prank.

"Otherwise that boy would have come in unchallenged," Lucas said. "He conceivably could have thrown a grenade or bomb at the kids eating lunches. They would have been sitting ducks if not for Mr. Sanders."

It was a moment Kelly said she'll never forget. "His face is etched on my mind at that moment that he took charge. Dave and two janitors, Jay and John, put their lives in jeopardy for these young people."

Lucas and Kelly herded about 30 students into a classroom and lost track of Sanders.

They heard an alarm but were afraid it was a ploy by the gunmen, so they waited. When they saw a signal from other teachers that a quick dash was safe, they ordered the kids to run.

But students and others said that instead of racing out, Sanders ran to warn others. He was shot and stumbled into a class where a handful of kids were hiding.

For more than three hours, students tried to stop bleeding from the wound to the chest.

"I heard him say, 'I'm not going to make it,"' Marjorie Lindholn said. "He was saying, 'Tell my girls I love them."'

Sanders, who has two grown daughters, coached hundreds of girls. Among them is Amber Burgess, one of the state's top female athletes.

Burgess was at her grandmother's funeral during the shootings at Columbine, but she spent Wednesday talking to teachers and friends, hanging out at Clement Park near the school.

Again and again, she said, people talked about Sanders' heroism.

"People said he was just amazing, just running everywhere warning people and telling the kids where to go," Burgess said. "He had opportunities to leave, but he chose not to because he wanted to make sure everyone got out."

She gave much of the credit for her success to Sanders.

"He was an absolutely wonderful man," she said. "Gentle hearted, just awesome, a real hero."

Columbine coach and teacher Rick Bath has been one of Sanders' best friends for some 25 years. They coached basketball and softball together at Columbine for most of that time, competing against each other before then.

Bath said he wasn't surprised Sanders put the students' safety before his own.

"He was very caring, more concerned about kids than getting a victory," Bath said. "He was always looking at what they were going to gain from things, rather than what he could."

Bath spent hours Wednesday with Sanders' family.

"Everybody is trying to get through the first stage of this, and we're not even there yet," Bath said. "This is just starting. Columbine is a good place. It just wasn't a good place yesterday."