The Daily Populous Thursday June 13rd, 2024 evening edition
Authored by bbc.co.uk and submitted by Foreign-Duck-4892

More than a decade after a mass shooting in a quiet Connecticut suburb, a group of survivors from Sandy Hook Elementary School are graduating from high school.

Twenty students and six staff members were killed in the shooting on 14 December 2012.

The youngest among them were six years old.

A private ceremony was held on Wednesday evening at Newtown High School, which around 60 survivors attended.

Graduating students spoke of complex emotions surrounding the milestone.

"The shooter actually came into my classroom. So I had to, like, watch all my friends and teachers get killed, and I had to run for my life at six years old," Emma Ehrens told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

"Just growing up with having the fear, and the what-ifs of what could have happened if I stayed?” she said. “Because I was, like, I was going to be next."

Another survivor, Lilly Wasilnak, said: “You wait for this day for your whole life, since you're in kindergarten. You just can't wait to graduate. And it felt so far away for such a long time… but I think we can't forget about that there is a whole chunk of our class missing.”

arminghammerbacon_ on June 13rd, 2024 at 11:14 UTC »

Horror

The surviving children were led out of Sandy Hook School. They were told to keep their eyes closed and hold hands as they were guided past the bodies, out of the school, and down the street to the firehouse. They were placed in a room and shown movies. Parents were contacted through emergency channels and told to come to the firehouse. One by one, over the course of a few hours, children were brought out to their parents. Welcomed with joyful embraces, tears and kisses, they then headed home with their families. The crowd of parents drew smaller. Finally, the moment came when the officials approached the remaining parents and announced, “There will be no more reunions today.” The screams and wails of anguish pierced the soul.

UnicornerCorn on June 13rd, 2024 at 10:48 UTC »

Accusing the victims of being crisis actors and having their trauma invalided at every turn must be a horrible disheartening reality for them…..

LoveBulge on June 13rd, 2024 at 10:34 UTC »

My coworker told me it wasn’t real, it was crisis actors and green screens. I had never head the term before. I didn’t take her seriously, she was nice just a little kooky. I thought, there goes ol’ J at it again. I thought no one’s going to say this isn’t real, who’s going to believe that! Oh, man.