Survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting graduated high school without 20 of their classmates.
Members of Newtown High School’s Class of 2024 will leave with the same mix of bittersweet feelings and excitement as many of their peers upon graduating from high school in the U.S.
But 60 of the more than 300 children from Newtown, Connecticut, who graduated Wednesday will also carry the burden of surviving one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
They crossed the stage, knowing that 20 of their classmates would not be able to join them.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot his mother, took their guns, and drove with them to the nearby school.
There he murdered 20 children, all first graders, aged six or seven, and six adults, including four teachers and the principal.
When the police arrived at the school, Lanza committed suicide.
Prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was sentenced to pay almost a billion dollars to shooting victims and their families after he claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax organized by gun control activists using actors.
Alex Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to victims’ families. Photo: AP
More than a decade after the massacre, survivors of the attack celebrated their graduation and the victims were honored during the ceremony with a moment of silence.
School Principal Kimberly Longobucco read the names of the young children who were killed as the class of 2024 looked on, wearing green and white ribbons in remembrance of the victims.
She said: “We remember his 20 classmates who were tragically lost on December 14, 2012 and who will not walk across the stage tonight.
“We remember them for their bravery, their kindness and their spirit.
“Let us strive to honor them today and every day.”
Five of the survivors spoke about their feelings about graduating before walking across the stage.
All had been active in the Junior Newtown Action Alliance and its anti-gun violence efforts, and the national debate over gun control was reignited after the attack.
Emma Ehrens was one of the 11 children from Classroom 10 who survived the attack.
She and other students were able to flee when the gunman stopped to reload and another student, Jesse Lewis, yelled for everyone to run.
Jesse was one of five children killed in the room, along with two teachers.
Ms. Ehrens said: “I’m definitely going to feel a lot of mixed emotions. I’m very excited to be finished high school and moving on to the next chapter of my life.
“But I’m also so… sad, I guess, that I have to walk across that stage alone… I like to think that they’ll be there with us and walk across that stage with us.”
But he added that he was looking forward to the opportunities that came from moving on and no longer being “the kid from Sandy Hook.”
Matt Holden, survivor of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Photo: AP
Ella Seaver, survivor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Photo: AP
Grace Fisher was in a classroom down the hall from where the killings occurred and said that despite efforts to have a normal childhood after the massacre, “it wasn’t totally normal.”
He added that they were “a big part of our class” missing from graduation.
Many of the survivors of the shooting have said they continue to live with the trauma of the day.
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Matt Holden, 17, said: “At Sandy Hook, what happened always looms over us.”
Several of the survivors said their experience with the attack influenced their plans for the future and for college.
Ella Seaver said she will study psychology and become a therapist as a way to give back.
Said Seaver: “It’s a way to feel like you’re doing something. Because we’re doing it. We’re fighting for change and we’re really not going to stop until we get there.”
Others, like Ehrens and Holden, want to work in politics to implement policies and laws.
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