Touray rejoined Fuentes, who put her hand on Tourays shoulder. For Jackie and Maggie, trouble with loud noises. We talk, we text, we call, we cry. The Daily Mail saidthe girl was the first student to run out of the Sandy Hook Elementary School following the mass shooting, which left 20 children and 6 adults dead. And angry at the same time, because, you know, the world watched what happened to Sandy Hook," Jacob said. Now a young woman holding a sign that said Pro-Life Is Gun Laws walked up to her and stared. "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. Quotes from the interviews were used throughout the 360 work. 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. Living through two is utterly incomprehensible. Sunday Morning. 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. Then it was time for them to join the others on stage. Touray, who plans to study anthropology at North Carolina A&T State University, considered herself a courier of a message that her schoolmates would never get the chance to deliver. "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. The sun rises over Newtown, Conn., Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. She imagined being shot, dying alone. So, attend every funeral for every child, but attend to your own child who was with her fourth-grade class that day. Now the rally was nearing its end, and Gonzlez was about to take the stage. Matthews is not the only MSU survivor faced with the aftermath of their second school massacre. Support grief this way, but not that way. *** These videos contain sensitive content related to gun violence that may be triggering for some viewers. I just got here and theres so many people and now Im speaking, she wrote in another text, before her mom called. The scene outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Someone started yelling, and then people started ducking, and so we started running, because we thought somebody was trying to kill us.. How One Sandy Hook Survivor Is Moving Forward 3 Years Later. And for that, there are no words to truly describe the gratitude in my heart. 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. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., did not pass the Senate -- one in a string of largely unsuccessful efforts at new gun laws in Congress in recent decades. 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 . In between her activism, she is a regular teenager, spending time with her friends, going to the movies and hitting the local Starbucks. Theres no training for navigating the aftermath of a shooting. Watch their stories. ", Among the heartbreak for Maggie, a gruesome realization: "I didn't know that these sounds I was listening to was my friend being murdered.". She has learned to manage her anxiety, which has lessened over the years. Fuentes had spent the day exchanging hugs and jokes and silly memories with friends from Parkland she hadnt seen in months. I feel like I cannot breathe right now.. Touray chewed on her bottom lip. On stage, a speaker announced that people needed to stop running. The World is a public radio program that crosses borders and time zones to bring home the stories that matter. "I thought I was never going to see my family again," she says. Real survivors share how their teenage years were impacted by the trauma of surviving a school shooting. The next morning, her chance to ask it came at the base of the U.S. Capitol steps during a meeting with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democratic congresswoman from Massachusetts. I need help, Touray told her, tears trickling down the side of her nose. For more on Nicole Melchionno, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day. After the shooting, then-President Barack Obama called on Congress to enact federal gun control. He spoke out against banning girls education. 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 just started seeing a therapist, because fear had changed who she was, too. By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB. 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. In 2018, Samantha Fuentes survived a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Thats somehow part of why Im here. with her life. Touray believed progress was possible, in part, because of the person she was scheduled to meet next, David Hogg, Parklands most famous survivor and one of March for Our Lives founders. In the fall, she worked with March for Our Lives lobbying senators on Capitol Hill about an assault weapons ban. December 9, 2021, 11:34 am. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. ''I have to navigate every single day -- while also struggling and dealing with survivor's guilt -- which is the biggest hurdle to try and overcome in this process. Thank you so much for all your work, she said. The other three survivors -- Andrew, Jackie and Nicole -- are now juniors at Newtown High. Days later, her jacket was found along the banks of the Mohawk River. But I work two full-time jobs to try to change that. We can no longer be complacent.. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking news? THE most traumatic day of Kaitlin's life left 28 people dead, including children. EIN: 46-1657101. But none of the people being handed the packets knew whether that was true. . It's been 10 years since 20 children and six adults were killed in a tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, per CNN.. Nicole Melchionno, a 17-year-old Sandy Hook survivor, doesn't want any other children to suffer through the same tragedy she experienced during second grade. 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 previous years, Sandy Hook Promise released PSAs teaching people about gun violence prevention and how school shootings are preventable. Best friend killed beside her. Fuentes has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Two Connecticut State police officers accompany a class of students, and two adults, out of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Dec. 14, 2012. 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. Published on December 7, 2022 11:00 AM. Now I want to remember, because Im at the age of action and responsibility. \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. "I know our generation has not been complacent with this issue. Re: Photo of sole survivor, Samantha Hatcher - Sandy Hook. Shed just graduated from Michigans Oxford High, where four students were killed in November, including one of Tourays closest friends. The following narratives, written by survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting and excerpted from the book. Six months ago, she was grief-stricken and adrift, struggling to sleep, despite the melatonin and Benadryl. Her mother encouraged her to speak up, so she did. 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 . A college student who survived the deadly shooting that killed three students and critically wounded five others Monday night at Michigan State University also lived through the horrific Sandy Hook massacre over 10 years ago. Alissa Parker is the mother of Emilie Parker, who was murdered in the Sandy Hook shooting. Noah Orona still had not cried. It shouldn't run through anybody's head.". September 7, 2022. A vote focused on background checks, led by Sens. David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland, Fla. high school shooting and Craig Nason, a survivor of the 1999 Columbine massacre, . The Uvalde tragedy has opened painful memories for survivors of past shootings, including Cyrena Arokium. Part of HuffPost Personal. "And if our kids are feeling anxious, worried, sad and depressed, which we know that they are at an increased level at this point. By Pamela Rosenthal. His older brother Nick was killed. Their classmates witnessed these murders. They're not going to be able to learn.". 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. What Touray didnt say: Theyd escaped through a window and ran. Since then, no major federal gun reform has come to pass. Some of the earliest help offered was from surviving staff members from Columbine who wanted to come and support us. Were a traumatized nation. "Kids shouldn't have to worry when they go to school," says Nicole, now 17 and a gun violence prevention advocate who spoke to PEOPLE ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting. 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. Are you Zoe? 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