Mom of Sandy Hook victim: ‘Choose Love’
Nurturing. Healing. Love. Scarlett Lewis, lost her son Jesse in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. As she was grieving the loss of her 6-year-old, she found three words he had written on a chalkboard in her home: nurturing, healing and love.
“I knew immediately if Adam Lanza (the shooter) had received nurturing, healing, love, this never would have happened,” Lewis said to an audience Monday at Germantown Performing Arts Center.
As Lanza loaded his gun, Jesse told kids in his class to run. Nine children lived although Jesse lost his life. His mother said that if that courage from her son was displayed, she can share the three words that display “compassion across all cultures.”
Although each day is still “painful,” she created the Choose Love Movement. She takes her message across the nation and says courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion are the equation for choosing love.
“Anger never happens in a vacuum,” Lewis said. “If you understand what you’re feeling, you can manage your emotions.”
Lewis said she felt compassion for Lanza. She said there were issues not addressed that built up to the devastation at Sandy Hook, where he fatally shot 20 children and six staff members.
“We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose how to respond,” Lewis said. “We can always choose love.”
As she sees more school shootings on the news, Lewis said she believes the solution has been there all along. Soon after she found the words her son wrote, she was told about social emotional learning, which teaches people to manage their emotions and manage conflict.
“It’s a proactive, preventative approach that reduces suffering before it starts,” she said. “I’m trying to be part of the solution. We are responsible for our children. We are.”
Her movement does not look at reducing the effects, but looks to the cause of why these tragedies happen.
Since Lewis has started the movement, it has been shared in all 50 states and content from the website has been downloaded in 65 countries. She said she has seen “rock star results.”
Hamilton Middle School in South Memphis is adopting the Choose Love Movement and will implement it later this year, teaching students how to use the four components to help them love others.
Audrey Johnson, Hamilton Middle principal, said implementing the movement was the next step for the school.
“We started the kindness challenge last year,” she said. “It’s the natural next step. Kindness naturally flows into love. Students are learning to be intentionally kind. Kids are learning that loving a person doesn’t necessarily mean you love what they did.”
At the school, teachers train students to take home what they learn, and Johnson said parents had contacted her after Lewis shared her story there Tuesday. “I know it made an impact,” she said. Students engaged Lewis and asked her tough questions, Johnson said.
This year Hamilton is focusing on the words “learn,” “love,” “lead” and “legacy.”
“When (Lewis) talked about the legacy her son left, our kids were able to tie that to the theme,” Johnson said.