Article is from the Washington Post so it will be behind a paywall for some readers.
Before and after Sandy Hook: 40 years of elementary school shooting survivorsOn the 10th anniversary of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., four survivors of elementary school shootings, ages 52 to 10, talk about what it’s done to them
Ten years ago, on Dec. 14, 2012, a man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary and opened fire, killing 20 first-graders and six adults in what many people thought to be a singular event: a school shooting so horrific that nothing like it could ever happen again.
That massacre, of course, was not the last one at an elementary school — but it also wasn’t the first. Most Americans know what happened on that day in Newtown, Conn., and then again a decade later in Uvalde, Tex., where 19 kids and two teachers died in May. What far fewer know is that for more than 40 years, people with guns have been killing this country’s youngest children in the places they go to learn and grow.
Gun violence at elementary schools remains rare, but thousands of American kids have experienced it. To capture what that’s done to them in the days, years and decades afterward, The Washington Post interviewed four survivors who endured shootings before any of them reached fifth grade.
Each has been shaped by what they saw and heard and lost: the 52-year-old from California who has spent more than half his life pleading with parole boards not to release the woman who shot him when he was in fourth grade; the 40-year-old from South Carolina who waited three decades to talk about the day her first-grade teacher was wounded in front of her; the 19-year-old from Connecticut who doesn’t always know what to say when strangers ask if she saw the dead bodies at Sandy Hook; the 10-year-old from Texas who hid under a table earlier this year as his best friends at Robb Elementary were killed in front of him.
Their interviews have been edited for length, clarity and continuity.
Cam Miller, Cleveland Elementary
Now 52, Miller was 9 years old when Brenda Spencer opened fire outside his school in San Diego in 1979, killing two staff members and wounding eight children and a police officer. Spencer, who was 16 when she shot Miller in the back, remains incarcerated.The first time that she came up for parole [in 1993], I was a little surprised, because I didn’t understand back when she was sentenced to 25 years to life. I just thought she was going away for life.
During her trial, I remember walking in and seeing Brenda Spencer sitting there. It was very scary as a 10-year-old to see somebody that almost killed you, and who had no remorse.
She was just like a monster. She wasn’t a real person to me. She was just a demon. It was like you could see almost through her. She had this, just, blank stare.
Growing up, after the shooting, my mom would walk me around the house in the middle of the night, because I would wake up scared that [the shooter] would be in my house. And I’d have to turn on all the lights.
I never slept through the night for years.
Each time a parole hearing comes up, it does bring back a lot of memories. It triggers everything that happened. It’s like, “How could you do this? After you shot eight kids, a cop, killed two people, and you think you’re okay to get out?” You know, it builds anger.
I denied it for a long time, that I was shot. Because I had a hole in me. You know, I had a scar, and I didn’t like that my body was now scarred because of this.
When I first started going to these [hearings], I had an expectation of, “Hey, I’m gonna receive an apology today.” That never happened. I don’t understand why she doesn’t look at me. But she’s never looked at me and said, “Hey, I’m really sorry.” None of that.
When I do hear about her coming up for parole, it kind of numbs me. It’s a sleepless night before, but I’m used to it. I know that that’s normal, and it’s the way it’s gonna be.
To get ready for it, I go through my speech. It’s on the computer. I want it to be succinct, and I don’t want my meaning lost in a bunch of words. Over time, you know, as I’ve grown up and aged, I’ve learned to pare down.
It gives a little backstory on me getting dropped off. My mom dropped me off right in the path, basically right across from [the shooter’s] house. She waited for the car to pull away. And that’s when she shot me. It went in my back and out the front, about an inch away from my heart. So it went clear through me.
The feeling when the bullet entered my body was like an electrical shock. Bad electrical shock. I never lost consciousness. I just kind of blacked out for a moment. I could see everything in black and white.
And then I move forward to, you know, basically, “You have the audacity to want to be released? You killed two people. And then you think you deserve a second chance? Why?” There is no remorse.
The principal and custodian do not have a voice any longer. That’s what really motivates me to go, because these two people that were killed, they didn’t get to see their kids graduate, marry, any of that stuff. And that’s what keeps me going. Because if that were me, and my family, I would want somebody to speak for me.
There’s not a lot of people that attend because it is a time commitment. It’s putting your face out there in the news again, and some people want to suppress it. Some people just want to be like, “That was back then. I’m not going to relive it. I’m just gonna move forward.”
I do not find this as a burden at all. I will continue to do this until she’s no longer with us, or I can no longer do it.
I want my community to be safe. I want my kids to be safe. So I’m going to do what I can to keep somebody that did this, that started all these school shootings, in a place that I know she can’t hurt innocent people. And hopefully my speech is persuasive enough to keep her in there.
Shannon Hill, Oakland Elementary
Hill, 40, was in first grade in 1988 when a 19-year-old walked into her school in Greenwood, S.C., and opened fire. Two 8-year-old girls were killed, and several other children and adults were wounded. The shooter was sentenced to death.
Rest of article here:
Before and after Sandy Hook: 40 years of elementary school shooting survivors
