Remembering the Sandy Hook Shooting

Alli Lamm, Guest Writer

Freshman Alli Lamm wrote the following piece as a personal reflection in English class. In light of last week’s walk, her thoughts are especially timely.

It started off like any other day; I woke up, ate breakfast, and went to school. Around 10 o’clock that morning everything changed. I heard whispers floating around the school. “Did you hear about the shooting?” “Did you hear about all those kids that died?” I was very confused and didn’t know whom to trust, so I asked a teacher. She told me that there was a school shooting in Connecticut. At this time in my life, there had been very few devastations like this. I couldn’t believe that there was someone in the world that would intentionally want to harm children. Looking back, I realize how naive that must have sounded, thinking that there wasn’t evil in the world.

I  remember my school had a little prayer service. It was nice that my school was coming together in a time of tragedy. Though most of us didn’t know anyone that was affected, we still felt the need to mourn for others and recognize how blessed we are. One of the saddest parts of the devastation was hearing the stories afterward. Most of the people killed were around my younger brother’s age, and some of them were around my parents’ age. That really put things into perspective. You start to wonder how it would affect your life if it was your family that was taken from you.

It is sad to see how much of a reality school shootings have become since Sandy Hook. You see them on the news as much as you see a sports update. There are even some tragedies that don’t get to the news because we have become immune to hearing them. This limited exposure to important issues isn’t just a problem for gun violence, but for animal cruelty, child abuse, human trafficking, etc. I feel as if there has been a ripple effect of violence starting with 9/11, then the Sandy Hook Shooting, after that the Boston Bombing, and it just keeps going on and on.

The way Sandy Hook affected me personally is that I now know that those of us who are fortunate need to help, protect, and fight for those who aren’t.