Sandy Hook survivors plan D.C. gun-violence prevention summit

NEWTOWN — The helplessness Abbey Clements and Jordan Gomes felt as the sound of gunfire shattered the safety of Sandy Hook School adds to the trauma of the 2012 tragedy.

But the empowerment they said they feel by raising their voices for change gives them hope the deaths of 20 classmates and six educators was not in vain.

Gomes, a Newtown High School student who was in fourth grade on the day of the shootings, and Clements, who was teaching second grade at Sandy Hook that day, are organizing a mid-October, gunviolence prevention summit in Washington, D.C., with the goal of producing a student bill of rights.

Gomes and 21 other teens nationwide are the major players planning the Student Gun Violence Summit, Oct. 19-21. Clements and three other educators are supporting the student-led effort as advisers.

“A lot of the time I feel like we hear these inspirational people speak and what they say is magnificent and true, but when they’re done I feel like, ‘What do we do now?’ ” said Gomes, 15, a member of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance. “So we are going to create a student bill of rights that can be used not just by us but by people across the country to reduce gun violence in their towns.”

The summit is the inspiration of teenagers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 students and staff on Valentine’s Day. Students from the same high school launched March for Our Lives — the gun-violence awareness campaign and voter registration movement — that has galvanized youth across the country, leading to the November midterm elections.

At the same time, student activists in Newtown have raised their profiles by participating with Parkland students at a march on Washington in the spring, and at a mid-August rally in Newtown to mark the end of a high-profile summer road tour.

Clements said the gunviolence summit is the latest result of that collaboration.

“We have all been impressed by the Parkland students and how they have ignited the passion of students around the country and have encouraged the activism of our students in Newtown,” said Clements, who teaches fourth grade at Sandy Hook School. “I cannot wait to watch these students come up with a bill of rights demanding safety in our schools.”

Clements said she is especially proud of Gomes, whom she taught in second grade.

“I am so excited that she is going and that she is so passionate and that she is doing something about this,” Clements said.

In addition to the student advisory panel, the summit will include 100 students who will hear speeches and be involved in workshop, with the goal of producing an action plan.