‘There’s a whole chunk of our class missing’: Survivors of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre graduate high school and share harrowing memories of day 20 classmates were shot dead
Students who survived the Sandy Hook shooting graduated from high school on Wednesday without 20 of their classmates who were tragically killed 12 years ago, sharing harrowing memories of one of the deadliest school massacres in American history .
Newton High School’s class of 2024 includes approximately 60 students who were at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children between the ages of six and seven, as well as six staff members.
The shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and the fourth-worst mass shooting.
While high school graduations are usually a joyful day for teenagers, the absence of the slain students made the occasion bittersweet.
Ahead of their graduation, six former Sandy Hook students, Matt Holden, Emma Ehrens, Henry Terifay, Lily Wasilnak, Ella Seaver and Grace Fisher, spoke about their mixed feelings about the milestone as they remembered the peers they had lost.
Six former Sandy Hook students, Matt Holden, Emma Ehrens, Henry Terifay, Lily Wasilnak, Ella Seaver and Grace Fisher, spoke to ABC’s GMA about their mixed feelings about graduating as they remembered the peers they lost in the deadly shooting on a school in 2012
The teens lament how little has changed since the Sandy Hook shooting, and how the same tragic story continues to repeat itself in schools across America.
The teens look forward to prom and dinner dance, but a solemn shadow hangs over their celebrations as they remember the day of the shooting.
Lily told NBC news: ‘You’ve been waiting for this day all your life since you were in kindergarten. You just can’t wait to graduate. And it felt so far away for so long… but I think we can’t forget it [the fact] There’s a whole section of our class missing.
‘And so when we graduate, we all have very mixed emotions: we try to be excited about ourselves and this achievement that we have worked so hard for, but also about those who cannot share it with us, who should have been she added.
During their graduation ceremony on Wednesday, the names of their deceased peers were read out in a moving tribute, emphasizing that they too should receive their diplomas on stage.
‘We commemorate your twenty classmates who tragically died on December 14, 2012 and who will not walk across the stage tonight’ Director Kimberly Longobucco said.
Newtown High School class of 2024 graduates throw their caps into the air at the end of their commencement ceremony in Newtown on Wednesday. Those who survived the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting included 60 graduates. The names of the 20 murdered students were read out in a moving tribute
The survivors were between seven and eight years old when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
“We remember them for their courage, their kindness and their spirit. Let us strive to honor them today and every day.”
The graduating class consisted of 335 green ribbons with the words “Forever in our Hearts” on their gowns.
The lives of Sandy Hook survivors are indelibly marked by one of America’s deadliest mass shootings.
One survivor, Grace, spoke to ABC about how she remembers her teacher reading a story before Lanza opened fire at the school.
“Before we went to hide in the booths, the speaker came on,” she told the cameras.
Emma Ehrens says she saw her classmates and teachers die on the day of the deadly mass shooting at a school
Ella Seaver was interviewed as a child after surviving the 2012 shooting twelve years ago
Matt, a former Sandy Hook student who was present the day of the school shooting, has said he feels hopeless about America’s gun control laws.
Henry Terifay told ABC’s AGM: “I really thought Sandy Hook was going to shock people and wake everyone up… But it just keeps happening over and over again.”
“That was probably the most traumatizing part of the whole thing,” she said, recalling the school principal telling the children to hide before they heard a “popping sound.”
Lily added that she realized they were in danger “because our teachers were very keen to keep their voices down.”
“It was definitely a weird situation, between knowing something was wrong and not knowing how bad it was.”
In a separate interview with NBC News, Emma spoke about the moment Lanza burst into her classroom at Sandy Hook.
She said: “I had to watch all my friends and teachers get killed and I had to run for my life when I was six years old,” she said, before adding that she has had to grow up with “the fear and the what- if-questions’. of what could have happened if I had stayed. Because I would be next.”
The teens lament how little has changed since the Sandy Hook shooting, and how the same tragic story continues to repeat itself in schools across America.
Sandy Hook survivors attended an anti-gun violence rally in Newtown last Friday
Emma Ehrens, center, a survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, speaks as she stood with other survivors at a rally against gun violence last week
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, more than 1,600 school shootings have been recorded nationwide since 2012.
“I really thought Sandy Hook was going to shock people and wake everyone up,” Henry told ABC’s AGM. “But it just keeps happening, over and over again.”
Matt added that the situation felt “hopeless.”
“The friends, the family who got lost that day, the smiling faces that should fill the seats in your classroom, the parents who should be able to watch their children graduate, get married, the children will never be able to hug their parents again. It’s never over,” he said.
Lilly said she worries about her own future children.
“As unfortunate as it is, it will happen to someone else, and it will continue to happen to someone else until people like us have to make the change,” she said.
“We worry about the day we will have children, and I don’t want to send my children to school like our world does.”