Richard Castaldo was shot and paralyzed at Columbine. Now he's trying to make the world a better place.
Former Columbine High School student Richard Castaldo did not look well when he arrived at the summit for victims of gun violence in downtown Los Angeles last September.
Baxter is one of a handful of women who have looked after Castaldo, visiting him in the hospital and the convalescent home over the last five months. They bring him food or take him out for meals, and they work the phones trying to find a place for him to live. Columbine was not the first school shooting. But it provided horrifying proof that there are no safe places, that firearms are everywhere, that we can’t protect our children, let alone anyone else.
The day I met him, he held his head in his hands, rubbed his weary eyes, and took his time answering questions. He’s a handsome young guy with spools of dark hair, and there is something compelling in his eyes — an arresting blend of anger, independence, humility. He wants no one’s pity.
But two of the properties went into foreclosure, and the plan didn’t work out. Ultimately, Castaldo also lost the condo he was living in after moving to Los Angeles more than a decade ago. He then moved into a series of apartments, but lost those, too, and then got sick.Michalik said she has helped pay her son’s bills for years, and offered Castaldo a home she owns in Nevada.
Castaldo met Sanders at a campaign rally in California and is hoping to get out of the convalescent home in time to go to Nevada for the primary there, possibly with his fellow activist and friend Carlos Marroquin, who runs a local Bernie Brigade.
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