Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing survivors share reminiscences, plans for the long run forward of commencement

Twelve years in the past, the lives of scholars within the first-grade school rooms of Sandy Hook Elementary College have been endlessly modified when a gunman opened fireplace, killing 20 of their classmates and 6 of their lecturers and directors.

This week, the younger college students who survived the mass capturing in Newtown, Connecticut, — one of many deadliest faculty shootings in American historical past — will graduate from highschool. “Good Morning America” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos spoke with six of the scholars.

Henry Terifay was 7 years previous when he fled his classroom after listening to gunshots.

When he walks onstage to obtain his highschool diploma, he’ll have with him a continuing reminder of what occurred in his classroom on Dec. 14, 2012.

“I’ve my buddy’s identify tattooed on my shoulder so he stays with me day-after-day,” Terifay, now 18, instructed Stephanopoulos, including of all his classmates who have been killed, “I simply try to keep in mind them day-after-day.”

Emma Ehrens, now 17, was 6 years previous and studying a guide together with her classmates when the shooter, a 20-year-old who went onto kill himself, entered her classroom.

“I keep in mind being on the entrance of the classroom, and he got here in and stood proper subsequent to me. And I watched all my associates drop,” Ehrens stated. “One of many victims (who) didn’t make it, he instructed me and a pair different folks to run, and we did. We ran out of the classroom, out of the college, and on the way in which we noticed our bodies within the hallways and doorways blown off the hinges. And we simply ran and ran and ran, out of the college, out of the parking zone.”

For an additional graduating senior, Matt Holden, his reminiscence of Dec. 14, as a 6-year-old facilities on seeing his mother cry in a approach she by no means has earlier than or since.

“As soon as we lastly received out of the college, I keep in mind we have been strolling to the firehouse and my mother ran as much as me crying, and I did not know what occurred on the time,” he stated. “I did not perceive the gravity of the entire thing, however I knew if my mother was crying, my mother was so, so scared that, you realize, one thing horrible had occurred. I might by no means seen her like that earlier than and I by no means have since. I hope I by no means do.”

Ella Seaver, who was 7 on the time of the capturing, stated that at the same time as she prepares to graduate highschool and start a brand new chapter, it stays exhausting to speak about what occurred in her first-grade classroom all these years in the past.

“It is nonetheless, even over 10 years later, simply so tough to try to dig up these reminiscences due to how traumatic and painful it’s,” Seaver stated, including that it does present consolation to share reminiscences with fellow survivors. “For me personally, once I get to speak to those 5 different folks, it is comforting in a approach, as a result of you’ve this connection that is by no means gonna go away.”

Seaver stated her expertise as a Sandy Hook survivor helped her resolve the profession she plans to pursue after school.

“I’ve mainly identified that I wished to be a therapist since I used to be eight, which was actually solely a 12 months after the capturing,” Seaver stated. “I’ve been out and in of remedy virtually my complete life, particularly after the capturing, and it is actually simply helped me cope and helped me study myself, so I wish to try to pay that ahead and assist individuals who have gone by gun violence, and even individuals who have not, who’re simply struggling of their day by day life.”

Others stated they plan to pursue careers in politics and regulation.

Because the 2012 capturing at Sandy Hook, greater than 1,600 faculty shootings have taken place in the USA, in keeping with the Ok-12 College Taking pictures Database, an impartial, nonpartisan analysis challenge.

“I actually thought Sandy Hook would, you realize, shock folks and wake everyone up,” stated Terifay, including that he’s uninterested in listening to “I am sorry” from folks with none motion. “However it simply retains taking place over and over and over.”

Holden stated that over one decade after a college capturing devastated his elementary faculty, issues can really feel “hopeless” because the variety of faculty shootings continues to develop.

“The tragedy by no means ends,” stated Holden. “The chums, household who have been misplaced that day, the smiling faces that needs to be filling the seats in your classroom, the dad and mom who ought to have the ability to watch their children graduate, get married, the youngsters won’t ever have the ability to hug their dad and mom once more. It is by no means over.”

Lilly Wasilnak, who was 6 on the time of the capturing, stated the rise at school shootings since Sandy Hook make her nervous for the security of her personal future children.

“As unlucky as it’s, it is going to occur to another person, and it is going to preserve taking place to another person till folks like us must make the change,” stated Wasilnak, now 17. “We fear about someday after we’ll have children, and I do not wish to ship my children to highschool in the way in which our world is.”

On June 7, Wasilnak joined 5 of her fellow Sandy Hook survivors in touring to Washington, D.C., to fulfill with Vice President Kamala Harris for Nationwide Gun Violence Prevention Day.

Simply months earlier, in December, Wasilnak, Ehrens and a fellow classmate, Grace Fischer, had additionally been in D.C., to fulfill with legislators and attend the tenth Annual Nationwide Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence.

“After I went there it was very eye-opening to me,” Fischer stated. “We sat down with senators, representatives and their staffers, and that chance of me having the ability to go to Congress and converse to those folks in such excessive positions of energy … made me actually wish to battle for one thing that I want to change.”

The final main motion from Congress on gun legal guidelines, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, got here in June 2022, almost one month after the Robb Elementary College bloodbath in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 college students and two lecturers.

Seaver stated if she might see one change on gun reform it could be to determine “rules on AR-style assault weapons.”

“I feel one of many hardest issues is getting folks to see eye-to-eye on it,” Seaver stated. “And I feel that stops loads of rules and laws, which sadly is costing an increasing number of lives day-after-day.”