It was the failure to stop and think on that fateful day, nearly 17 years ago, that Gator Collet says he regrets every time he wakes up.

Collet, aged 16 at the time, was one of three teens convicted in the fatal stabbing of a student at Dartmouth High School on April 12, 1993. Collet pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His friend, Karter K. Reed, who actually carried out the stabbing, was convicted of second degree murder and is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole; Nigel Thomas, who was tried as a juvenile, received a one year sentence.

Collet began by asking, “How many of you expect to go to prison?” When no one in the audience raised a hand, Collet went on to say that he didn’t either when he was in high school. He was a straight-A student, he says, and his parents were willing to excuse his attention-seeking behavioral problems because of his good grades.

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Collet had adopted Thomas, who had an abusive stepfather, as the little brother he never had, even letting Thomas stay in his home. When one day Thomas was beat up by a group of other boys, Collet became enraged and convinced Reed, a friend from a previous school, to arm up with knives and bats to go extract revenge.

Collet led Thomas and Reed to Dartmouth High. Outside the classroom, Collet asked his cohorts if they were ready. Thomas begged him to think twice about his actions, and Reed said he didn’t want to do what he was about to do, but that he wouldn’t abandon Collet.

Thomas ran off and hid in an empty room, but Collet and Reed entered the classroom. One student stood up – not the original target – but Collet was tackled before he could make it to him. Reed, however, made it to the student and stabbed him before being subdued.

Collet, who spent ten years in prison and was released in 2003, expressed complete repentance, saying that his one decision that day irreversibly ruined multiple lives and prematurely cut short another.

Collet, who now works at an auto dealership, asked students to remember that the decisions they make today will affect the rest of their lives.