The scene outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. She's applying to college now, with plans to study public policy and maybe business. ABC News' Martha Raddatz interviews Sandy Hook school shooting survivors. Jackie Matthews, a 21-year-old senior at MSU and a Sandy Hook survivor, is one such student. "It's like the epitome of what you imagine -- the typical teenage American life, the carefree worries of what that era of your experience is. He was the face of the movement shed just joined. Im sorry that youre part of the club that none of us want to be part of, he said. to chip away at our deplorable statistics. Detroit Free Press. \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. "There were neighbors telling us all the updates -- that a class had been found in a closet, that other people were still in the firehouse," she remembered of the aftermath 10 years ago. 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. She will graduate from Newtown High School next week. Ten years ago, Nicole was only 7 and in second grade when a 20-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, two semi-automatic handguns and an endless supply of ammunition blasted his way into the cozy school through the plate-glass window next to the locked front door. Solomon said the girl's family was suffering survivor's guilt because many of their friends were not as lucky and had lost children in the tragedy. With this in mind, we have an easy-to-fill-outonline formthat just takes a couple of minutes to complete. We teach conflict resolution by talking out problems. She and her two . Now Touray and Fuentes decided to get a photo together in front of a blue background adorned in March for Our Lives logos. Subscribe to Must Reads. In the fall, she worked with March for Our Lives lobbying senators on Capitol Hill about an assault weapons ban. Maggie was in third grade at the time of the shooting. The following narratives, written by survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting, provide intimate accounts of the transformative nature of trauma. I continue to teach at another school in Newtown, trying to build a generation of empathetic problem solvers. She has wisdom beyond her years.". 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 . It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. But this year, as students return back to school, the nonprofit's leaders said it was important to open up a conversation about how school shootings impact the lives of survivors. A few months after the tragedy, I started getting involved in the gun violence prevention movement and I havent looked back. Just hours before she flew to Washington, she did an interview with ABCs Good Morning America, which she referred to only as GMA, because shed been on it so many times. Everything was fine. (including 22 children) 268. January 3, 2021 6:05pm. Its not okay. Like so many others who survived the shooting, she was also plagued with anxiety. She is returning this month with other teens to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting at the Annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence. 311,000 students have seen gun violence at school since Columbine. Alexander DworetParkland, Florida 2018Survived being shot in the head. Her husband, Bill Sherlach, is also part of Sandy Hook Promise, and has spoken out about the importance of the lawsuit he joined against an AR-15 manufacturer. And there were many experts. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. I try not to be jaded, said Fuentes, who still had shrapnel embedded in her leg and behind her right eye. 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. "I'm only here because of Nick," said Eastmond, who explained that Nick's body took the bullets that day as she hid underneath him. 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. Calm down, her mother said, again and again. ***. A Warner Bros. "It's just so painfully common in this country," she says. 1 of 3. Victoria Soto , age 27 Victoria Soto. Living through a mass shooting changed all four of the students. The next Hana. Now a freshman at Siena College, Bisset has organized a remembrance at t Sunday Morning. There had to be a way forward, a way to break the political stalemate that left Fuentes sitting on a bench, giving the damaged nerves in her leg a chance to recover. She couldnt imagine that the people in charge wouldnt listen to them, especially after 19 fourth-graders in Uvalde, Tex., were shot to death in May. Samantha Fuentes, an 18-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was shot in both legs and face, spoke at the March for Our Lives rally. A bullet remains in his heart. Touray had just started seeing a therapist, because fear had changed who she was, too. Browning opened a black folder and removed a packet of documents that on one side read, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES, and on the other, IT ENDS WITH US.. 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. 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 . On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. She is now the co-lead of the Upper Fairfield chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which includes Newtown and Sandy . 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. "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.". "Well, she saw someone who she felt was angry and someone she felt was very mad," Solomon said. Touray buried her head in her hands, until at last she looked up. Fuentes walked up first, and Gomes went behind her. Theres training for a wild animal in the school, for high wind, for an active shooter. Fuentes could imagine it, though. My daughter has many years to decide what she wants to. Suddenly, as they were walking over to it, hundreds of people rushed by the metal fence in front of them, screaming as they sprinted toward Constitution Avenue, away from the rally. It was easier when the horrified mind took control of the body. Without exception, the staff at Sandy Hook chose to be there to greet the surviving children as they returned to an unfamiliar school in a neighboring town. Sandy Hook survivors: "We're at a tipping point" on gun laws. Tear down the old school, but keep a school in Sandy Hook. Maggie lost her best friend, Daniel Barden. "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. Educators teach peace and nonviolence. 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. Put this sticker on your car, but not that one. Quotes from the interviews were used throughout the 360 work. 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. Greet victims families in the grocery store, but please leave them alone. Nine years ago, Walczak was at school when one of his classmates opened fire at him and three of his friends. Jesse O'Neill. Thank you so much for all your work, she said. So, attend every funeral for every child, but attend to your own child who was with her fourth-grade class that day. Sandy Hook Promise 2023 Matthews is not the only MSU survivor faced with the aftermath of their second school massacre. Nicole Melchionno. It's been nearly two years since a disturbed young man, Adam Lanza, opened fire . Yes, the 18-year-old answered, smiling and extending her hand. With tears and blood streaming from her eyes, she had watched two of her friends die. Sandy Hook survivor speaks out 10 years later, 17-year-old Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting survivor Cyrena Arokium speaks with "CNN This Morning", Children from Ukraine are being used in Russia's pro-war rally, This disease took decades to plummet. And for that, there are no words to truly describe the gratitude in my heart. Shed heard of Parkland, but knew almost nothing about it. 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. A vote focused on background checks, led by Sens. He spoke out against banning girls education. Touray rejoined Fuentes, who put her hand on Tourays shoulder. The other three survivors -- Andrew, Jackie and Nicole -- are now juniors at Newtown High. Of the 20 children killed Friday in the Newtown, Conn., school, eight were boys and 12 were girls. His older brother Nick was killed. 893 Words4 Pages. "The intercom was left on, so everything was amplified," she says. Many of them had been here before. 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. But we can no longer just provide love and prayers. He would have turned 18 that day. 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