Sandy Hook survivors set to graduate high school

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Some survivors of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School are expected to graduate high school Wednesday.

In December 2012, 20 children were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to CNN. Six teachers and administrators were also killed.

“It’s just going to be heartbreaking,” high school senior Grace Fischer told CNN. “I can’t imagine that 20 kids are not graduating with us and that they’re not having the opportunity to walk across the stage.”

Fischer was in a classroom down the hall from where the shootings happened, The Associated Press reported. She is going to Hamilton College in New York to pursue law and justice studies, according to CNN.

“I really want to make sure that they know I’m doing something,” she said. “Even though they’re not here anymore, there are people who survived that are really trying to push for them. Because their lives were lost so early and I went through that at such an early age, I feel like it’s my purpose to continue my life in honor of them.”

Emma Ehrens was one of the 11 children in Classroom 10 who survived the shooting, the AP reported.

“I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions,” Ehrens said, according to the AP. “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.”

Both Fischer and Ehrens are part of Junior Newton Action Alliance, where they shared their stories and advocate for gun violence prevention through campaigning, CNN reported. They have met national leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, and with other survivors and victims’ families.

The graduating class at Newtown High School will be wearing green and white ribbons on their gowns at graduation in honor of those who were killed twelve years ago, CNN reported. The ribbons also say, “Forever In Our Hearts.”

“Sending love and light to all of the graduates,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to WCBS.

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