Sandy Hook massacre survivors graduate high school without 20 of their classmates
Sandy Hook shooting survivors have graduated high school without 20 of their classmates.
Members of Newtown High School’s class of 2024 will leave with the same mix of bittersweet feelings and excitement as many of their peers do when graduating high school in the US.
However, 60 of the 300-plus cohort of kids in Newtown, Connecticut, who graduated on Wednesday will also carry the burden from surviving one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
They walked across the stage, knowing 20 of their classmates would not be able to join them.
On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza shot his mum, took her guns and drove to the nearby school with them.
There he murdered 20 children, all in the first grade – aged six or seven, and six adults, including four teachers and the principal.
As police arrived at the school, Lanza then killed himself.
Prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay almost a billion dollars to victims of the shooting and their families after he claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax that had been staged by gun control activists using actors.
Local residents join survivors of the shooting for a rally against gun violence this month. Pic: AP
Alex Jones was ordered to pay almost a billion dollars to the families of victims. Pic: AP
More than a decade on from the massacre, the survivors of the attack celebrated their graduation, with victims honoured during the ceremony with a moment of silence.
The school’s principal Kimberly Longobucco read out the names of the young kids who were killed as the class of 2024 looked on, wearing green-and-white ribbons in remembrance of the victims.
She said: “We remember your 20 classmates who were tragically lost on December 14, 2012, who will not walk across the stage tonight.
“We remember them for their bravery, their kindness and their spirit.
“Let us strive to honour them today and every day.”
Five of the survivors discussed their feelings about graduating before they walked across the stage.
They had all been active in Junior Newtown Action Alliance and its anti-gun violence efforts – with the national conversation around gun control reignited following the attack.
Emma Ehrens was one of 11 children from Classroom 10 to survive the attack.
She and other students were able to flee when the gunman paused to reload and another student, Jesse Lewis, yelled for everyone to run.
Jesse was one of five kids killed in the room, along with two teachers.
Ms Ehrens said: “I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions. 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.”
But she added she was looking forward to the opportunities that came with moving on, and no longer being “the Sandy Hook kid”.
Matt Holden, a survivor of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Pic: AP
Ella Seaver, a survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Pic: AP
Grace Fisher was in a classroom down the hall from the killings and said that despite efforts to have a normal childhood following the massacre, “it wasn’t totally normal”.
She added they were missing “such a big chunk of our class” for their graduation.
Many of the survivors of the shooting have said they continue to live with the trauma of the day.
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Matt Holden, 17, said: “In Sandy Hook, what happened is always kind of looming over us.”
A number of the survivors said that their experience with the attack has informed their plans going forward, and into college.
Ella Seaver said she is going to study psychology and become a therapist as a way of giving back.
Ms Seaver said: “It’s a way to feel like you’re doing something. Because we are. We’re fighting for change and we’re really not going to stop until we get it.”
Others, like Ms Ehrens and Mr Holden, want to work in politics to effect policy and laws.
A woman has been charged with attempted murder after she was accused of trying to drown a three-year-old girl in an alleged racist attack.
Witness described Elizabeth Wolf as “very intoxicated” when she allegedly tried to drown the child in a swimming pool following a row with her Palestinian mother, police said.
The 42-year-old was first arrested in May at an apartment complex pool in Euless in the US state of Texas for public intoxication.
After a police investigation, she has now been charged with attempted murder and injury to a child.
The Texas chapter of civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas) claimed that Wolf “interrogated” the child’s mother.
CAIR-Texas said the mother was wearing a hijab and speaking to her children in a foreign language when Wolf approached her.
Police said that after questioning the woman, Wolf allegedly tried to grab her six-year-old son and he was able to escape but suffered a cut to his finger.
As the woman helped her son, Wolf allegedly grabbed the woman’s three-year-old daughter and forced her underwater.
CAIR-Texas said that with the help of a nearby witness, the mother was able to pull her daughter to safety before emergency services arrived.
It has called on authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
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The group quoted the girl’s mother as saying: “We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids.
“My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here.
“My daughter is traumatised; whenever I open the apartment door, she runs away and hides, telling me she is afraid the lady will come and immerse her head in the water again.”
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Texas state representative Salman Bhojani said: “I’m shocked and appalled by this alleged racist, Islamophobic occurrence that took place in my town.
“Hate has no place in Euless, District 92, or anywhere in our great state.”
A man has been found after spending 10 days lost in a California wood.
Lukas McClish, 34, was last seen on the morning of 11 June near Big Basin Redwood State Park, around 14 miles north of Santa Cruz.
He was reported missing on 16 June, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
Pic: San Mateo County Fire Department
The sheriff’s office said it received multiple reports of witnesses hearing someone yelling for help.
The force then used several drones to determine Mr McClish’s exact location.
State Parks rangers were the first to discover him and fire crews helped bring him to safety on Friday.
Mr McClish was only going for a three-hour hike before work when he got lost, he told local media.
“I didn’t bring anything because I thought I was doing a three-hour hike to go to work,” he said.
When Mr McClish got lost, he said he had only a flashlight and folding scissors.
“So, I kind of just hiked,” he added. “Each day, I go up a canyon, down a canyon to the next waterfall, sit down by the waterfall, drink water out of my boot.”
Pic: San Mateo County Fire Department
Mr McClish said he was “comfortable the whole time I was out there” and “wasn’t worried about it”.
“I had a mountain lion that was following me, but it was cool,” he added. “It kept its distances. I think it was just somebody watching over me.”
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Mr McClish drank water from creeks, ate wild berries and slept on a bed of wet leaves while yelling for help.
He said: “I want a burrito or a taco bowl. That’s what I thought about every day when I, after the first five days, when I started to kind of realise that I might be in over my head.”
Mr McClish had no major injuries and was reunited with his family.
“This truly was a team effort with the best outcome we could have hoped for,” the sheriff’s office said.
Justin Timberlake has performed his first gig since his arrest for alleged drink-driving, telling the crowd it had been a “tough week”.
The US star is currently on his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour and performed in Chicago on Friday night after being arrested earlier this week.
He told the screaming crowd: “We’ve been together through ups and downs, lefts and rights.
“It’s been a tough week, but you’re here and I’m here, and nothing can change this moment right now.”
The singer appeared emotional as he added: “I know sometimes I’m hard to love but you keep on loving me and I love you right back.”
Timberlake was in Long Island in New York state – having reportedly had dinner with friends – when he was pulled over by police in the early hours of Tuesday.
Officers said the 43-year-old had failed to pause at a stop sign and was seen not being able to stay in his lane.
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Timberlake’s car caught on CCTV
Timberlake was held overnight and formally charged with a DWI (driving while intoxicated) misdemeanour at Sag Harbor Village Justice Court on Tuesday morning before being released.
According to a source talking to Page Six, the officer who pulled Timberlake over “was so young that he didn’t even know” who the star was.
A second source told the celebrity news outlet that during the arrest, Timberlake said: “This is going to ruin the tour.”
Timberlake’s mugshot after his arrest. Pic: Sag Harbor/Reuters
Timberlake, who rose to fame with boyband NSYNC before finding huge success as a solo artist with hits including Like I Love You, Cry Me A River, SexyBack and Mirrors, is due to perform in Chicago again on Saturday night.
Further shows are scheduled across the US, Canada and Europe between June and December.
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According to court documents filed about the star’s arrest, there was “a strong odour of an alcoholic beverage… emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardised field sobriety tests”.
Timberlake also told officers he had one martini and was following some friends home, and refused to take a breath test.
His lawyer has said he is “looking forward to vigorously defending” the singer.
Timberlake’s next court date is scheduled for 26 July.
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