Gun violence destroys people, families, neighborhoods, communities, schools, districts, towns, friendships, marriages, livelihoods and so much more. "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. When law enforcement arrived, Nicole and her classmates and teacher ran to a nearby firehouse, where she was later reunited with her family. 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. The mission of Sandy Hook Promise is to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. You need to.. The school shooting survivors had come from all over the country, each of them hoping that this time would be different. Nicole Melchionno who was a second grader at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012 testified Thursday at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on gun violence about her experience . Noah Orona still had not cried. It wasnt as if I immediately knew that everything was going to work out. I know, Fuentes replied, and both of them laughed. "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,'" Pastor Jim Solomon told ABC News' Lara Spencer this weekend. Sept. 7, 2022, at 7:03 a.m. Raised With Trauma, Sandy Hook Survivors Send Hope to Uvalde. Look under the hood, and take a behind the scenes look at how longform journalism is made. Days later, her jacket was found along the banks of the Mohawk River. Daycare center Uthai Sawan subdistrict, At this place 26 people died. 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. Story editing by Lynda Robinson. Alexander DworetParkland, Florida 2018Survived being shot in the head. I dont think the same thing is necessarily going to work, Fuentes said afterward, sitting on a stone bench outside Murphys office as Touray listened. They were scheduled for a joint interview on CNN the next morning, but she was nearly as nervous about speaking with him as she was about appearing on live TV for the first time. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Youre okay, Gomes said. "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. 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. Then, after Oxford, Touray was invited to talk about what shed been through at a state event. I try not to be jaded, said Fuentes, who still had shrapnel embedded in her leg and behind her right eye. Within hours of surviving one of the worst mass shootings this country has ever seen, we had no choice but to put aside our own grief and trauma to take care of those around us. Since then, she has spoken publicly at news conferences in Connecticut and at rallies in D.C. She's also traveled several times to the nation's capital, including in July to celebrate the historic June 24 signing of the Bipartisan Gun Bill on the White House lawn. I continue to teach at another school in Newtown, trying to build a generation of empathetic problem solvers. Were a traumatized nation. On Wednesday, police pulled a body from that river, and on Monday, the Schenectady police confirmed the body to be that of Humphrey. Survivors of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting boarded a bus in the parking lot of Newtown High School at 5 a.m. Saturday for the drive down to Washington, D.C., to join in the March . Thousands of people were packed onto the hill behind them leading up to the Washington Monument, and a layer of gray clouds lingered overhead, but the rain had stopped. She will graduate from Newtown High School next week. 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. Samantha Fuentes, Parkland, FL 2018. Everything about these gatherings left her conflicted. 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. The school district floated the idea of bringing in substitute teachers if we were not up to returning, but not one staff member thought the kids should return to a school full of strangers. Subscribe to Must Reads. Solomon went on to say to ABC News: "What did she see in there? The next Hana. 1 of 3. We can no longer be complacent." The House was just hours away from voting for sweeping new gun legislation that many believed had no chance of passing in the Senate. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. "And there was no action after that.". Unfortunately, so far Ive been wrong.. Imagine being 6 years old, sitting in your classroom in an idyllic small town, when you start hearing gunshots. 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 cant imagine the courage it will take for her to walk in that school and teach and breathe life into children. Americans are afraid to go to school, the movies, the mall, concerts, work, church, parking lots. I really need you to hype me up this rally is huge, she texted her mother from behind a tall black sign that read, DONT LOOK AWAY.. Some of the earliest help offered was from surviving staff members from Columbine who wanted to come and support us. November 29th was the last good day, she said. Her daughter was also in the building at the time of the shooting. No person should ever endure what you have endured, even once, another wrote. She took part in March for Our Lives, a student-led mass demonstration in March 2018 in Washington, D.C., to push for gun control legislation. Despite the trauma that students, teachers and families have experienced from past mass shootings at schools across the country, folks at Sandy Hook Promise and survivors like Fuentes, Eastmond and Walczk, are hopeful that change will happen. A teenager named Ashley who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012 when 20 students and six adults perished in a horrific, brutal act of violence spoke . Jesse O'Neill. Accepting that bad things were inevitable made them easier for her to manage, and Fuentes knew that made her sound like a pessimist sometimes, but she rejected that label. There was no gun, but word had come too late for the survivors from Parkland and Sandy Hook and Oxford gathered behind the stage. 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. After the shooting, then-President Barack Obama called on Congress to enact federal gun control. It's been nearly two years since a disturbed young man, Adam Lanza, opened fire . I feel like I cannot breathe right now.. 6-Year-Old Shot Va. Maggie was in third grade at the time of the shooting. Quotes from the interviews were used throughout the 360 work. Alissa is the co-founder of. Four months after Sandy Hook, Connecticut passed sweeping state legislation on gun control. And that was why, as the summer heat climbed above 80, she refused to take off the black sweatshirt that listed each of their names: Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre, Justin Shilling. NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) The survivors who were able to walk out of Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly a decade ago want to share a message of hope with the children of Uvalde, Texas: You will learn how to live with your trauma, pain and grief. Nolan Brandy, San Bernadino, CA 2017. . On May 24, a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at . She was fighting not to pass out. I thought we could change things and make it so that things like what happened at Oxford dont happen anymore. With the reality of school shootings, Masi said it's important to have open conversations with students about their concerns. She has wisdom beyond her years, for sure.". 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. She refuses to let it move on. Out of respect for their privacy, ABC News is not using the survivors' last names. September 7, 2022. And there were many experts. A bullet remains in his heart. A few months after the tragedy, I started getting involved in the gun violence prevention movement and I havent looked back. 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. People gather at the scene of a mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012. survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. to chip away at our deplorable statistics. I think Im going to throw up, Touray said, rushing into a white tent nearby. In between her activism, she is a regular teenager, spending time with her friends, going to the movies and hitting the local Starbucks. Gomes, the Sandy Hook survivor, told Touray she would stand next to her. But this year, she has decided she wants to be a teacher at Sandy Hook School. 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. Obama Says He Felt 'Not Just Sorrow, But Anger' After Sandy Hook Shooting as 10-Year Anniversary Approaches, Sandy Hook 10 Years Later: Remembering the 89 Students Killed in School Shootings From that Day Until Now, Barack Obama Addresses Uvalde Shooting Nearly 10 Years After Sandy Hook: 'Our Country Is Paralyzed', Mich. State Mass Shooting Survivor Also Lived Through Sandy Hook Massacre: 'We Need Action', President Joe Biden Addresses Shooting at Texas Elementary School: 'I Am Sick and Tired of It', Mich. State Students Recount Horror of Campus Shooting that Killed 3: 'I Thought I Was Going to Die', Suspect in Mich. State Mass Shooting ID'd, Caller's Tip Led Police to Him, Victims of Michigan State Mass Shooting Identified: 'We Are Grieving Together', Barack Obama Reflects on 'Single Darkest Day of My Presidency' on 10-Year Anniversary of Sandy Hook Shooting, Uvalde Mom Files Lawsuit Against Gun Manufacturer, Police and Others Over Daughter's Murder, Uvalde School Police Chief: I 'Contained' Shooter in Classroom to Protect Kids Outside. Gradually the mind kicks back in and then decisions and realities came one after another. Now, at the hotel, Fuentes headed off to change into her blue March for Our Lives T-shirt, her black folder of talking points still unopened, and Touray found a quiet space on the other side of the room where she could study all of them, hoping to come up with a question that would somehow make a difference. Experiencing the trauma of one school shooting is one too many. She started trembling. She imagined being shot, dying alone. December 14, 2015, 5:00 AM. Like |. She was too shaken to say anything more. But at the same time, it felt almost impossible for that to actually happen. The survivors here illustrate how theyve practiced healing, forgiveness and faith in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. I cant imagine the courage it will take for her to walk in that school and teach and breathe life into children. "And it became evident very quickly that almost two whole classes were missing.". In 2018, when she was in eighth grade, she started to become involved in gun violence prevention. 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. 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. 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. '", "It was very traumatic for me, because there was no comfort whatsoever," she said. Nicole was in the second grade when a gunman shot and killed 26 people at her school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. SURVIVING SANDY HOOK: 'I can't give you proof except for my trauma' Ashley survived the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 26 people d. This is gun violence prevention too. 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 . More. Fuentes had spent the day exchanging hugs and jokes and silly memories with friends from Parkland she hadnt seen in months. On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and shot 26 people, including 20 children. Victoria Soto , age 27 Victoria Soto. She used to, until she taught herself to brace for the triggers before they came. But the fact that it was the exact same thing completely re-triggered me and my anxiety.". You were meant for this.. "Ten years and two months ago, I survived the Sandy . with her life. So she ignored her dread and got on the plane. Gomes, the Sandy Hook survivor, told . 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. "I couldn't close my eyes without reliving it.". "The truth is that gun violence is in everybody's backyard across the nation," Fuentes said. 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