Then, after Oxford, Touray was invited to talk about what shed been through at a state event. After Emilie died, I remember going out to our car to say a prayer with my husband, and as we started the prayer the words came to my mind, that everything was going to be OK, and that Emilie was OK. Touray hadnt thought much about school shootings before her own. Samantha FuentesParkland, Florida 2018Bullet fragments remain in her face and legs. Paralyzed from waist down. According to a report released earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun violence is the leading cause of death for teens, which is a concern facing many students returning to school this Fall. #TheTeenageDream http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/teenagedream**. Her daughter was also in the building at the time of the shooting. In the 10 years since Sandy Hook, gun laws in the U.S. haven . Touray leaned against a chain-link fence and closed her eyes, placing a hand on her forehead. I continue to teach at another school in Newtown, trying to build a generation of empathetic problem solvers. I try not to be jaded, said Fuentes, who still had shrapnel embedded in her leg and behind her right eye. We learned then that other mass shooting survivors would offer us the best glimpse of how to navigate the path we were on. According to a pastor close to her family, the unnamed girl lay among the bodies of her 15 classmates until she thought it was safe to leave. Kim A. Snyder won a Peabody Award for her 2016 documentary, "Newtown," about the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting. Matthews moving message was later reposted on Twitter, by Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, where it drew thousands of retweets and comments. 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She had learned over the past four years that guns were central to many Americans identities, but shed also learned that lots of gun safety laws could protect those people and their children from harm without stripping them of something they cherish. She was fighting not to pass out. She and her two . "I couldn't handle it," she said. Now more than ever, its essential to know the signs.. "When we ran to our cubbies to hide, I remember thinking, you know, I should hide to the back of the classroom, to the other side, so that I don't get shot. Israel beefs up troops after unprecedented settler rampage, Ukrainian refugees in Poland will now be charged to stay in state-funded housing, This Colombian town is dimming its lights to attract more tourists to view the night sky, Kneel and apologize!: 76 years after island-wide massacre, Taiwan continues to commemorate and debate the tragedy. 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. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates on gun violence prevention. Im nervous, said Touray, who was both intimidated and inspired by the other activists. Tear down the old school, but keep a school in Sandy Hook. I want to be able to swim not in a sea of grief, she continued, before asking Congress to pass the new laws that March for Our Lives staffers had helped her work into the speech. I remember looking at my teacher's face, and her shock. "I'm now physically handicapped," said Fuentes, who suffered leg injuries due to gunshot wounds as well as smaller injuries from shrapnel. 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. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. I cant speak for you or what happened at Oxford, he told her, his tone serious. 16-year-old snowboarder lands history-making trick at world championships, Co-workers win $50K lotto jackpot together: 'I'll never forget it', The Divine Nine: The history and impact of Black Greek letter organizations, Digital Deals & Steals celebrating women-owned businesses. Touray paced behind the stage, her forehead beading with sweat. I know, Fuentes replied, and both of them laughed. After he was done singing, the 21-year-old began to tell the judges why he traveled from Santa Fe, Texas, for a chance to be on the show. Lily Altavena. She imagined being shot, dying alone. Hear how their teenage years were impacted by the trauma of surviving a school shooting. She had 18. 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. The tragic impact of a school shooting affects the loved ones of those who were killed and survivors, like those in the Teenage Dream PSA, carry mental and emotional wounds beyond the physical scars that never truly heal. Ultimately, music therapy would prove to be the most effective. "No one could comfort anyone else because it was pure devastation and loss. She asked Touray to breathe with her. We sit in the back of the room, she remembered. At the Detroit airport the day before, she began to panic over what she would do if someone drew a gun. Im freaking out, Touray said, leaning on her knees. We can no longer be complacent." What school shootings do to the kids who survive them, from Sandy Hook to Uvalde. Arm teachers, but get guns out of schools. Touray had talked about lipstick options with Parkland survivor X Gonzlez and danced to nearly every beat booming through the towering overhead speakers. Once inside, he turned left instead of right, where Nicole's classroom was located, and opened fire, killing 20 terrified first graders and 6 educators in the nation's first mass shooting at an elementary school and one of the worst in U.S. history. I think, as a collective, were all very tired, she said, between drags on a vape pen. I get a lot of the credit, but I dont deserve it. 1. "And it became evident very quickly that almost two whole classes were missing.". Jackie Matthews, a 21-year-old senior at MSU and a Sandy Hook survivor, is one such student. 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. Gomes, the Sandy Hook survivor, told . Nolan Brandy, San Bernadino, CA 2017. . Some of us were able to connect with support while others were not. Nicole Melchionno survived the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and doesn't want any other child to have to endure the nightmare she did. Gradually the mind kicks back in and then decisions and realities came one after another. "I think it's impossible outside of divine intervention. EIN: 46-1657101. Living through a mass shooting changed all four of the students. The shrapnel buried in her muscles made it hard to stand for too long. 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. As a member of Gen Z, she says, "gun violence is one of our top priorities because we really are the only generation that's had to grow up through this. 1 of 3. And for Andrew, it meant nightmares in the immediate months after. Touray smiled, gratified that her question had elicited a thoughtful response, but she was also distracted, because a belligerent man on the steps behind her was screaming about government brainwashing. But none of the people being handed the packets knew whether that was true. Sandy Hook Promise 2023 . "And the fact that we saw what happened at Sandy Hook, and we saw how many children died, and how affected the survivors were, and how the ripple effects of gun violence affect so many people," she said. Someone started yelling, and then people started ducking, and so we started running, because we thought somebody was trying to kill us.. January 3, 2021 6:05pm. Photo: Sasha Arutyunova. Ultimately, music therapy would prove to be the most effective. RT @K12ssdb: This week Katy Perry (@katyperry) and @AmericanIdol put a spotlight on one survivor's story. It is the deadliest mass murder by a single perpetrators in the history of Thailand. A bullet remains in his heart. A vote focused on background checks, led by Sens. They're not going to be able to learn.". with her life. Touray and Fuentes had just made it through security at the Hart Senate Office Building, passing inside a metal detector monitored by three armed guards, when a roller on the X-ray machine came loose, slamming against the tile floor. Now the rally was nearing its end, and Gonzlez was about to take the stage. Like the other survivors, Andrew called for gun reform -- an issue that remains intensely polarizing in Congress, where Republicans are reluctant to take up legislation they argue restricts the Second Amendment. PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402. Andrew told ABC News that the government and the nation "know the solutions" to stopping more mass violence, pointing to proposed limitations on magazines for ammunition and age restrictions for purchasing assault-style weapons. We've received your submission. It shouldn't run through anybody's head.". Sherlach, Sandy Hook Elementary's school psychologist, was with Hochsprung when they heard a "pop, pop, pop" sound around 9:30 a.m., a parent who was with both women . Touray had arrived in D.C. unsure of whether she was meant to be an activist, but by Saturday, she felt convinced of it. People who are at risk of hurting themselves or others often show warning signs before an act of violence takes place. 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. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking news? "It just really broke me to know that after 10 years of everyone giving us their thoughts and prayers, after 10 years of everyone saying, 'Enough is enough,' and, 'Never again after Sandy Hook' -- it happened again.". December 14, 2015, 5:00 AM. I just got here and theres so many people and now Im speaking, she wrote in another text, before her mom called. 17-year-old Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting survivor Cyrena Arokium speaks with "CNN This Morning" ten years after the shooting that left 20 first-graders and six adults dead. Shed just graduated from Michigans Oxford High, where four students were killed in November, including one of Tourays closest friends. Thousands of other students have the same story. Watch their stories. "I think for teachers, they are that first line of defense in the school, they really know their students," Masi said. I wont talk too much. We can no longer allow this to happen. "Ten years and two months ago, I survived the Sandy . Nothing about this has been easy. Katie Bisset was a third grader huddled in the corner of her classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. 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The teens and young adults in the video, it turns out, are survivors of some of the worst school shootings in the nation's history, who have experienced varying degrees of physical . Jackie Hegarty, a survivor of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, visits the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial in Newtown, Connecticut. Touray rejoined Fuentes, who put her hand on Tourays shoulder. Fuentes could imagine it, though. There were no Hollywood celebrities leading chants, no pop stars belting anthems. Were a traumatized nation. Aalayah Eastmond, who also survived the Parkland shooting and participated in the PSA, told "GMA" that she struggles each day with survivor's guilt after her friend, Nicholas Dworet, sacrificed his life to save hers. Seeing young new activists like Touray was both refreshing and dispiriting, because they were joining a movement that hadnt been able to end the crisis. Fuentes understood. 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. In the end, beyond family, it was the love of Mrs. Clements, a teacher, that softened my daughters heart and opened her mind. Fuentes had spent the day exchanging hugs and jokes and silly memories with friends from Parkland she hadnt seen in months. 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. And there were many experts. I am 21 years old, and this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through, Jackie Matthews said in an emotional TikTok video shared early Tuesday. 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. A gunman killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday morning. All of them are speaking publicly for the first time. Sitting toward the front of the room, she worried that if the gunman came into her classroom, that she would be one of the first to be shot. "There was glass and obviously blood and I didn't want to step on anything. Best friend killed beside her. The other three survivors -- Andrew, Jackie and Nicole -- are now juniors at Newtown High. Were going to outlive almost everybody in this building, hopefully.. It has to happen in days, not weeks.. The next Justin. Save the next Madisyn. Why is everyone running?. "I don't know that I would have the type of faith that they have if the same thing happened to me.". Sandy Hook survivors: "We're at a tipping point" on gun laws. Maggie was in third grade at the time of the shooting. "I think as well as you can expect them to," he said of how the girl's mother and father are handling the trauma. Im sorry that youre part of the club that none of us want to be part of, he said. And when she cried and told Abbey she missed Ms. Soto Mrs. Clements simply held her and said, I do too.. Sept. 7, 2022, at 7:03 a.m. Raised With Trauma, Sandy Hook Survivors Send Hope to Uvalde. More. 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. This years rally wasnt meant to be like the one in 2018. He looked her in the eyes. Demanding that conservative lawmakers acknowledge a moral obligation to protect children from guns hadnt succeeded, Fuentes realized, so maybe that was the wrong approach. In the years that followed, parents and survivors, some of whom are featured in the accounts below, have dedicated their lives to fighting for change. And it will get better. 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. Today, Sandy Hook Promise -- a nonprofit organization led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 -- released a video of survivors of school shootings reciting lyrics from Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" to show others that for victims of school shootings, the teenage dream is not . At home it felt like we tried every therapy: trauma-focused [cognitive behavioral therapy], play therapy, grief therapy, talk therapy, equine therapy, tapping, aromatherapy, MNR, and art and music therapy. Why is everyone running? Fuentes asked, voice quavering, her eyes wide and watery. 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