Sandy Hook massacre survivors graduate high school without 20 classmates

Twenty children brutally murdered before they could finish first grade would have graduated Newton High School on Wednesday, likely cheered on by the six educators and staffers who were also killed during the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Among the 330 seniors in the 2024 graduating class, there are some 60 teens who survived one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The graduation ceremony, typically an educational milestone with cause for festive celebrations, has also brought with it an undercurrent of grief to the small Connecticut community of Newtown, even more than 10 years after the classroom carnage unfolded.

“I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions,” said 17-year-old Erin Ehrens, one of the surviving students. “I’m super excited to be, like, done with high school and moving on to the next chapter of my life. But I’m also so … mournful, I guess, to have to be walking across that stage alone. … I like to think that they’ll be there with us and walking across that stage with us.”

Grace Fischer, who was in a classroom nearby those targeted by the shooter, added: “Even though we are missing … such a big chunk of our class … we are still graduating. We want to be those regular teenagers who walk across the stage that day and feel that, like, celebratory feeling in ourselves, knowing that we’ve come this far.”

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary, and then gunned down 26 people, among them more than a dozen students no older than 7 years old. The victims also included Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, and four teachers, all of whom have since been hailed as heroes for sacrificing everything while trying protect their young students.

Following a deadly confrontation with Hochsprung and Sherlach, Lanza made his way into the building, stopping first in the kindergarten classroom of teacher Kaitlin Roig, who managed to hide her students in the bathroom. Upon finding the class empty, the gunman moved on to nearby classroom 8, where he opened fire. Substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau was killed alongside Rachel D’Avino, a behavioral therapist, as they huddled in the back of the room, shielding their 15 students, 14 of whom also died.

From there, Lanza made his way to classroom 10. He was met by first grade teacher Victoria Soto, who tried to convince him her students were in the auditorium on the other side of the building. In reality, some crouched under desks while others hid in the closet. He then shot Soto and special education teacher Anne Marie Murphy. He also killed another six students before turning the firearm on himself.

Over the course of less than five minutes, he fired off more than 154 rounds.

Ehrens was one of 11 children from Classroom 10 to survive the attack. While she feels some anxiety over leaving the Newtown community, one that has supported and protected her in the years since the deadly shooting, she’s also ready to start anew.

“It definitely feels for me that we’re kind of stuck in the same system that we’ve been stuck in for past 12 years,” she said. “For me, I feel like it’s definitely going to get better and be able to break free of that system and just be able to become my own person rather than, again, the Sandy Hook kid.”

Fischer, now 18 years old, echoed the sentiment, but added that she will never shake what happened in her elementary school so long ago.

“Sandy Hook will always be with me,” she said.

There will be a moment during the graduation ceremony to honor the 20 students killed — Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay, 7; Dylan Hockley, 6; Madeleine Hsu, 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; Ana Márquez-Greene, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; and Allison Wyatt, 6.

With News Wire Services