John–

On the way home from the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, my son
was driving because my car was part of the crime scene. I had to leave my
car at the school, along with all my things. When the shooting started, I
didn't have time to grab anything, just barely enough time to get my
students into the closet to hide.

We were in there for about an hour and a half. The SWAT team came to
evacuate us, with guns drawn, wearing helmets and shields. I was
instructed, along with three other adults and 18 fourth graders that were
all crowded into that closet, to run out of the building, under SWAT team
protection.

I joined a club no one wants to join that day: Survivors of gun violence,
a group that has continued to grow in the ten years since that tragedy.

But as that club has grown, we've built networks of support that have kept
us going. We've created spaces where survivors can share their experiences
with one another and collaborate on ways to channel our grief into action.

Together, we've built a movement.

[ [link removed] ]On the ten year mark of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School,
join me in honoring fellow survivors and victims of gun violence with
action. Add your name and take the pledge to help end this crisis in 2023.

This last decade has been difficult. In 2018, my close and dear friend
Diana had to use what she learned from my tragic experience to survive
another school shooting, as the librarian at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, FL. And then just this year, I watched in horror as 19
children and two teachers were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School
in Uvalde, Texas, knowing firsthand the pain and suffering that community
would be going through.

Every day, I think of the 20 children and six adults—my students and my
coworkers—who were shot and killed that day in 2012. Nothing can bring
them back; but my memory of them has fueled my commitment to this
movement, as it has for so many others.

In the ten years since that tragedy, we've banded together and created
hope. What first seemed like a lost cause to so many has become a movement
10 million supporters strong. We've shifted the culture in our country by
electing gun sense champions, flipping statehouses, passing life-saving
gun laws, and holding the gun industry accountable. We've put our
communities on the path to a future free from gun violence.

Together, we've accomplished so much in the last ten years—but as a
survivor, I know how much work we have left to do. [ [link removed] ]Take the pledge to
honor survivors and victims of gun violence with action in 2023: Add your
name.

As my son was driving me home after many, many hours in the evacuation
area at Sandy Hook, I had a very dry throat. I asked him to stop at a gas
station to get a bottle of water; something that used to be mundane.

As he got out of the car, my breath caught in my chest. I felt instant
panic. What if there was a shooter in the gas station? How could I let my
son go in there?

That is when I knew my life was going to be different. Never again could I
say definitively to my students or my own children, "don't worry, you are
safe." I thought: If an innocent and beautiful elementary school community
could be beset by such a tragedy, how could any other place ever be safe
again?

That thought has haunted me for years. But because of you, I have reason
to hope. Together, I know we'll continue to work to protect our loved ones
and to create safer communities for everyone.

Thank you for being a part of this movement.

Yvonne Cech
Everytown Survivor Network


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