"Ten years and two months ago, I survived the Sandy . Of the 20 children killed Friday in the Newtown, Conn., school, eight were boys and 12 were girls. Among the most memorable to appear was Sam Fuentes, then a senior at Douglas who a month earlier had been shot in the leg and struck in the face with shrapnel. This is gun violence prevention too. Fuentes stared into the teens vacant eyes, her heart aching for Tourays anguish and her own and for all the others who had been scarred by school shootings and would never entirely escape what theyd endured. Shed given so many speeches to approving crowds, lobbied in so many offices bedecked with U.S. flags and promises of American exceptionalism. Are you Zoe? Alexa Browning asked Zoe Touray, who was standing alone by the door, nervously fiddling with a cellphone wrapped in a Mickey Mouse case. Another thing Masi encourages all teachers, parents and adults to do this school year as it begins for many students is to know the warning signs that people or students can exhibit before an act of violence is carried out. We've been having these conversations, forcing folks to sit down and recognize how important this problem is and how preventable it is," Eastmond said. After the shooting, then-President Barack Obama called on Congress to enact federal gun control. And now it was nearly her turn. Afterward, Hogg sat next to her. Americans are afraid to go to school, the movies, the mall, concerts, work, church, parking lots. Nine years ago, Walczak was at school when one of his classmates opened fire at him and three of his friends. She was fighting not to pass out. Browning, a March for Our Lives policy associate, skimmed through the pages of the packet, detailing all the items they wanted Touray and the others to pitch to lawmakers: universal background checks for gun purchasers, the Protecting Our Kids Act, an assault weapons ban. Im not. Cindy Clement Carlson was in the library at the time of the shooting. Demanding that conservative lawmakers acknowledge a moral obligation to protect children from guns hadnt succeeded, Fuentes realized, so maybe that was the wrong approach. Pastor Jim Solomon told ABC News:"She ran out of the school building covered from head to toe with blood and the first thing she said to her mom was, 'Mommy, I'm OK but all my friends are dead. I thought we could change things and make it so that things like what happened at Oxford dont happen anymore. Real survivors share how their teenage years were impacted by the trauma of surviving a school shooting. Its people like you.. "I'm so grateful for all of those that survived and have the strength and fortitude to be able to share their stories, to help save the lives of someone else," Hockley added. Touray had reconnected with a fellow Oxford survivor and hung out with new friends who had lived through the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary, including Jordan Gomes, a teen whod joined her in the meeting with Blumenthal. Congresss refusal to act had shaped every aspect of her life. ", Fuentes added, "This story that I've experienced -- my life is becoming more and more of a reality for people of my age.". By Kaitlin Lewis On 12/7/22 at 11:33 PM EST. It wasnt as if I immediately knew that everything was going to work out. She and three other student survivors, as well as a school employee there that day, detailed their experience and the effects that day still has on them in an interview that aired Sunday with "This Week" co-anchor and Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz. After murdering his mother at their home, Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life. Living through a mass shooting changed all four of the students. When Nicole, who was just a girl when she survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a decade ago, first heard about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, she broke down in tears. A survivor of the 2018 Santa Fe High School mass shooting moved the American Idol judges to tears during his audition Sunday night, and inspired an . "It makes me angry, because it doesn't have to keep happening," Jacob, the Sandy Hook library clerk, told ABC News. You were meant for this.. Rallying, lobbying, demanding change and maintaining the momentum. \u201cA survivor of the Sandy Hook School mass shooting in 2012 is a student at Michigan State University: \u201cI am 21-years-old and this is the second mass shooting I\u2019ve lived through. . Cindy Clement Carlson has lived in Sandy Hook for 18 years. Educators teach peace and nonviolence. The lawmakers they had begged to listen ignored them, and the school shootings continued. More than a decade has passed since Jackie Matthews survived the Sandy Hook shooting, crouched down in her sixth grade class in a different school in the . You're never prepared for something like this. I can remember walking up to my front door, putting my hand on the doorknob and thinking, Pull yourself together, you are about to see your kids, before I turned the handle. Touray rejoined Fuentes, who put her hand on Tourays shoulder. Now a freshman at Siena College, Bisset has organized a remembrance at t *** These videos contain sensitive content related to gun violence that may be triggering for some viewers. Gun violence destroys people, families, neighborhoods, communities, schools, districts, towns, friendships, marriages, livelihoods and so much more. After the shooting, she had terrible nightmares and trouble going to sleep. "The mom told me - and I thought this was very insightful - that she was suffering from what she felt was survivor's guilt because so many of her friends no longer have their children but she has hers," Solomon said. "It sparked something in me," she says. NEWTOWN, Conn. NEWTOWN, Conn. As her eyes welled with tears, Abbey Clements held her former Sandy Hook second graders and apologized for a deadly school shooting nearly 2,000 miles away in Uvalde, Texas . You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Perhaps because my daughter knows firsthand what the love of a good teacher can do for a child. Im grateful to those who listen. Sandy Hook school shooting survivors are growing up and telling us what they've experienced. Fuentes has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. "I know our generation has not been complacent with this issue. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Sandy Hook Promise 2023 Nobody was in danger. All rights reserved. Then Touray ascended with the rest of the activists, stopping and steadying herself in the middle of the stage. On Dec. 14, Jackie Hegarty of Newtown, Connecticut, knows her phone will be "flooded" with messages, as it is each year on that day, the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. Like others who lived through the unspeakable horrors of that day, she remains scarred from the trauma she endured. Part of HuffPost Personal. I also struggled to learn, make friends, or trust my own sense of reality. 2023 Cable News Network. Alissa Parker is the mother of Emilie Parker, who was murdered in the Sandy Hook shooting. Shed gone to funeral after funeral, staring into open caskets at swollen faces that looked nothing like the kids she knew. A gunman entered the building and fatally shot 20 children and six adults before taking his own life. "Somehow, in that moment, by God's grace, [she] was able to act as she was already deceased," he said. She was a student at Sandy Hook elementary school, when 20 pupils and six staff were killed. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. It has to happen in days, not weeks.. Then it was time for them to join the others on stage. We sit in the back of the room, she remembered. I remember looking at my teacher's face, and her shock. Someone started yelling, and then people started ducking, and so we started running, because we thought somebody was trying to kill us.. In the fall, she worked with March for Our Lives lobbying senators on Capitol Hill about an assault weapons ban. As a child, she rarely paid attention to the news and was only allowed to watch PBS Kids on weekdays. Support grief this way, but not that way. Now a senior at MSU, Matthews was a student at Reed Intermediate School in Newtown, Conn., which was placed on lockdown on Dec. 14, 2012 when gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 students and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary school, which is just over the highway. Watch their stories. We can no longer be complacent.. Matthews moving message was later reposted on Twitter, by Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, where it drew thousands of retweets and comments. She imagined being shot, dying alone. We learned then that other mass shooting survivors would offer us the best glimpse of how to navigate the path we were on. All of them are speaking publicly for the first time. I wont talk too much. She didnt see any exits. "I was just thinking about all the families that are in their houses right now, telling their children that their siblings and that their friends and their classmates are gone," Maggie, another student, told Raddatz. By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB. She will never again talk to her friend Helena Ramsay about their favorite musicians or joke with Nicholas Dworet in a Shakespearean accent. Nothing about this has been easy. SCHENECTADY, NY - 14-year-old Samantha Humphrey was reported missing on November 26th. 28 Feb 2023 17:55:53 Design by Irfan Uraizee. And if I'm somewhere that has stairs or something, it's very nerve-wracking because I am stuck there.". . This story originally appeared on 12.15.21. Now Im a volunteer leader with Moms Demand Action for Gun Safety fighting to chip away at our deplorable statistics. She loved reconnecting, but what almost always brought them together was another massacre. Mary Ann Jacob, a library clerk at Sandy Hook Elementary, also detailed her experience to ABC News. Gradually the mind kicks back in and then decisions and realities came one after another. He was just one survivor from one shooting. It shouldn't run through anybody's head.". January 3, 2021 6:05pm. I know, Fuentes replied, and both of them laughed. 311,000 students have seen gun violence at school since Columbine. Photo editing by Mark Miller and Mark Gail. I just got here and theres so many people and now Im speaking, she wrote in another text, before her mom called. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking news? Weve let down generations of children by letting this continue, one user replied. Despite the challenges that he has faced over the years, Walczak -- as well as Fuentes and Eastmond -- said they want others to know that shootings are preventable. A survivor of the Sandy Hook School mass shooting in 2012 is a student at Michigan State University: "I am 21-years-old and this is the second mass shooting I've lived through. But we can no longer just provide love and prayers. He was the face of the movement shed just joined. On 14 December 2012, 20 children - aged between five and 10 - and six staff members were killed at Sandy Hook when a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle before killing himself. As Touray readied to go on stage, rehearsing the lines in her mind, Fuentes sat in the distance, beneath the shade of a white oak. This time was about rage, as one March for Our Lives staffer put it, but thats not what Fuentes and Touray were feeling. Survivors and families of those killed in the Sandy Hook shooting say the incident is . Sept. 7, 2022, at 7:03 a.m. Raised With Trauma, Sandy Hook Survivors Send Hope to Uvalde. Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, across the street from the location of Monday's Michigan State University Shooting, 21-year-old Jackie Matthews took to TikTok, with an emotional video reflection about "the second mass shooting I've lived through.". But Hogg wanted her to understand that he meant it. "I think what we know just needs to come to fruition.". The children who did not die are young adults now, and on a Wednesday morning in Washington, they gathered just before 9 inside a hotel conference room on Capitol Hill. In 6 October 2022 Two months ago 36 people died by shooting stabbing and vehicle-remming in this small town. The lone survivor of one of the two Sandy Hook Elementary School first-grade classrooms where Adam Lanza allegedly shot and killed 20 children tricked the gunman by playing dead, the girl's pastor said. The author, Amye Archer chronicles Cindy Clements Carlson, who was working in the library the morning of December 14, 2012, inside the Sandy Hook Library Media Center. Slowly the mind grasps that the dead can never be brought back, yet you cant stop that mind from churning out ways you could make it better and its all made worse by a town full of opinions. We knew it wasn't a drill," Jackie recalled. Hannah DysingerDraffenville, Kentucky 2018The bullet that killed her best friend ended up in her ribcage. For Nicole, that means anxiety. They were "trying to get the Democratic caucus to show urgency on the assault weapons ban being brought up for a vote before the end of the lame duck session," she says, referring to the last chance for Democrats to push through their legislative priorities before Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January. With this in mind, we have an easy-to-fill-outonline formthat just takes a couple of minutes to complete. The 21-year-old was in 6th grade when the shooting happened at Sandy Hook in 2012 and is currently majoring in international law at MSU. The sun rises over Newtown, Conn., Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. On some days, the constant battling of fear and anxiety left my baby girl exhausted, and she often fell asleep in school, and often in the arms of Mrs. Clements. Go back to school right away, but dont go back too soon. Dec. 14, 2018, marks six years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7, as well as six adult staff members, were killed. You need to.. December 9, 2021, 11:34 am. Americans are afraid to go to school, the movies, the mall, concerts, work, church, parking lots. Nine families and one survivor of the Sandy Hook shooting sued Remington in 2015, accusing them of marketing the AR-15 to troubled individuals even though the weapon has "little utility for . Samantha Fuentes, Parkland, FL 2018. Dec. 14, 2018, marks six years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7, as well as six adult staff members, were killed. Matthews is not the only MSU survivor faced with the aftermath of their second school massacre. Published on December 7, 2022 11:00 AM. The Newtown Bee, the local newspaper, in a front-page editorial on the five-year anniversary pointed out that, What we have learned is that not all good intentions came across as they were meant. It was an upsetting characterization of a community that has turned political points of view, hearts, schedules and philanthropic priorities inside out to support whomever needed it in the aftermath. Emma NeesRockford, Washington 2017Shot through the abdomen while running from shooter. ", He continued, "How at 6 and a half years old can you be that smart, that brave? These subsequent months and years are the more difficult phase, the fraught part two. But eerie similarities between that massacre and the Dec. 14, 2012, attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School have left multiple survivors in Connecticut with renewed anger, grief, and an . For more on Nicole Melchionno and the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this week's issue, on newsstands Friday. For more on Nicole Melchionno, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day. A few minutes later, a man with a clipboard and a headset ushered Touray toward the stage. "My hope is that people can make gun violence prevention a priority in their lives again, because people don't realize that it's folks like you and I, everyday people who went around thinking they wouldn't be affected by something like this.". Were a traumatized nation. All Rights Reserved. As a staff and individually, we navigated the push and pull of how to honor the dead, where to spend your time, how to volunteer, when to make your donations, how to manage your emotional capacity, when to care for yourself. "No one could comfort anyone else because it was pure devastation and loss. . Now Fuentes, 22, had come back for a second march, but shed long ago shed the naive hope of those early days. It was just past 1 p.m. Saturday and, combined, they had already talked to NBC, CBS, NPR and MSNBC, along with a batch of other news outlets. The Uvalde shooting that left 21 dead and 17 more wounded instantly brought Arokium back 10 years to the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, on Dec. 14, 2012. I think Im going to throw up, Touray said, rushing into a white tent nearby. Sandy Hook School Girl Plays Dead, Survives Elementary Shooting; Pastor Jim Solomon Recounts Story (VIDEO) . Speaking from a room across the road from where Anthony Dwayne McRae gunned down several MSU students just hours before, Matthews said she still suffers from a full-blown PTSD fracture in her lower back from the hours spent crouching in her classroom. Jacob said she came to realize the gravity of the situation -- and the immensity of the loss -- later, at a nearby fire station, where parents were looking to account for their children. And it will get better. She had been invited to speak at an event hosted by Moms Demand Action in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool, but she hadnt understood until she and Fuentes arrived that hundreds of people and dozens of cameras would be watching her. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates on gun violence prevention. He had 1.2 million Twitter followers. Since then, no major federal gun reform has come to pass. This time is different, Touray had heard people she admired say over and over last week, and she believed them. 'Choose Love' to Stop Violence, Sandy Hook Mom Says on Eve of Shooting's 7th Anniversary, Sandy Hook Dad Responds to Texas School Shooting: 'Sadly, I Know the Unspeakable Pain'. As Nicole kept hearing about the increasing number of school shootings that kept taking place after Sandy Hook, she decided to turn tragedy into triumph by fighting to end gun violence. The survivors here illustrate how theyve practiced healing, forgiveness and faith in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. Discovery Company. Jackie Hegarty, a survivor of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, reflected on how life has changed since the tragic day 10 years ago. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Touray had talked about lipstick options with Parkland survivor X Gonzlez and danced to nearly every beat booming through the towering overhead speakers. As students return to school this fall, Masi shared some tips to help students feel safer this school year. Now on the cusp of adulthood, the . We can no . "It's just so painfully common in this country," she says. 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