Yearbook of the Fallen, That Memorializes Students Who Were Murdered in School Shootings Last Year

Yearbook of

the Fallen

IN MEMORY OF STUDENTS KILLED BY GUN VIOLENCE IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN 2018 Table of Contents

Thank You...... 3 Foreword...... 4 Marshall County High School...... 5 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School...... 6 Huffman High School...... 7 Great Mills High School...... 8 Santa Fe High School...... 9 Butler High School...... 10 Central High School...... 11 Letters of Support...... 12 Impact of Gun Violence...... 17 Legislative Solutions...... 23 Who to Contact...... 29 Our Daily Losses...... 32 Healing Prayers ...... 33 About Us...... 35

צער - Sorrow תודה רבה

Our sincerest thanks and profound appreciation to:

Our parents, who lovingly raised us in the Jewish tradition and taught us that it is our obligation to pursue justice, and to speak-out against wrong-doing.

Our confirmation class teachers, Rabbi Warren Stone, Rabbi Mark Levine, and Cantor Lindsay Kanter, who taught us to see the world through Jewish eyes.

Kathy Magenheim, Temple Emanuel Religious School Administrator, who worked tirelessly to make sure the yearbook was accurate, widely publicized, and that our advocacy efforts were well organized.

Senators Benjamin Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and Congressman Jamie Raskin, our inspiring representatives in Congress, whose letters of support gave us the confidence that our voices matter.

Dr. Daniel Webster, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, who contributed the analysis of the effects of gun violence on youth. His sobering research is a compelling call-to-action.

Rick Sauers, Chairman and CEO, The Sauers Group, Inc., of Stone Mountain, Georgia, whose generosity brought the yearbook into print and allowed us to distribute it more widely than we had originally hoped. (www.sauersgroup.com)

Ross E. Heller and Anne Daly Heller, owners of CustomNEWS, Inc. and USAE weekly newspaper, of Bethesda, Maryland, whose generous financial support and emotional encouragement enabled us to fully realize our vision for this project.

Foreward

We are students in the confirmation class of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland. As Jews, we have many values. One of the most crucial values is lo ta'amod al dam re’echa, which means, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” At the moment, we feel it is our duty to intervene on the issue of gun violence in our schools. School is a place where we spend much of our time, but unfortunately, we feel scared and unsafe when we’re there. Rather than sit back passively, we’ve decided to do something about the problem. We are creating a yearbook, called Yearbook of the Fallen, that memorializes students who were murdered in school shootings last year. We have sent copies to you and your colleagues in Congress, with hopes that it will inspire you to take action in passing federal laws on gun trafficking, removing restrictions on the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), implementing universal background checks, and banning high capacity magazines. We greatly appreciate your support throughout this process and invite you to follow our campaign on Instagram at @yearbookofthefallen, and on Twitter at @yearbookof.

Thank You, Temple Emanuel Confirmation Class, 2018-2019

יזכור - Remember

Marshall County High School Benton, KY

Bailey Holt, 15 Preston Ryan Cope, 15

“Every single one of these parents have said all they want is change. We can’t continue to watch these massacres occur day after day and sit idly by while no one intervenes to save the lives of our current and future students and teachers."

-Sheila Hiestand, lawyer for the family of Bailey Holt

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Parkland, FL

Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 Martin Duque, 14 Nicholas Dworet, 17 Jaime Guttenberg, 14

Luke Hoyer, 15 Cara Loughran, 14 Gina Montalto, 14

Joaquin Oliver, 17 Alaina Petty, 14 Meadow Pollack, 18

Helena Ramsay, 17 Alex Schachter, 14 Carmen Schentrup, 16 Peter Wang, 15

Great Mills High School Lexington, MD

Jaelynn Willey, 16

Student: “There’s been a shooting here. Please come now.” 911: "What is the problem?" Student: “There’s a school shooting. Please...” 911: “Where? Where?” Student: “Here at Great Mills High School."

- St. Mary’s County sheriff’s office, phone call recording

Huffman High School Birmingham, AL

Courtlin Arrington, 17

"Our hearts are heavy."

- Randall Woodfin, Mayor of Birmingham

Santa Fe High School Santa Fe, TX

Jared Conard Black, 17 Shana Fisher, 16 Aaron Kyle McLeod, 15

Angelique Ramirez, 15 Christian Riley Garcia, 15 Sabika Sheikh, 17

Christopher Stone, 17 Kimberly Vaughan, 14

Butler High School Matthews, NC

Bobby McKeithen, 16

"Anytime there is a loss of a child, we have a moral obligation to step up to the plate and make a change."

-Tera Long, Community Advocate

Central High School Providence, RI

William Parsons, 15

"He was quiet in his own way, but he had a joking manner about him. He was a great, loving kid. I just cut the kid’s hair on Monday, complimenting him about how good he looks, his wave, and him being 15 years old and how he dresses so well and takes care of himself. And this happens to him two days into the school year. It’s sad."

- William's uncle, Treze Parsons

Letters of Support

Cardin

Representative Raskin

On February 14th, 2018, my daughter Jaime and sixteen others were murdered in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a teenage boy with an AR 15. Because of what happened to my daughter, I have dedicated my life to fighting for sensible gun safety. I have been joined by parents from Parkland, Florida and throughout this country who have suffered the worst kind of loss but who have not stopped fighting for safety and security. We have seen our amazing kids rise up and fight for their lives. In their effort to live free from gun violence, they created a national movement, March for Our Lives, that harnesses the power of young people across the country to fight for sensible gun violence prevention policies.

I started Orange Ribbons for Jaime to honor my daughter’s life and to deal with the reasons it was cut short. I am determined to make the orange ribbon the symbol of the gun safety movement. We now see politicians across the country, and in the current presidential campaign, wearing orange ribbons and talking seriously about gun safety.

Thank you for memorializing the high school students who were killed by gun violence last year. The Yearbook of the Fallen will ensure they will never be forgotten. My daughter will forever be fourteen. She will not graduate from high school, learn to drive, go to a prom, look at colleges, or have a first boyfriend. Your work to make sure that she will not be forgotten is something that I will always remember.

Fred Guttenberg, father of Jamie Guttenberg, who was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting

Impact of Gun Violence on America’s Youth

Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH Bloomberg Professor of American Health in Violence Prevention Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore, MD

This book honors teens who lost their lives in shootings at their schools during 2018. Every student should be safe from gun violence in their schools. But, if we view gun violence as only keeping youth safe from shootings at their school, we will have missed the big picture of how gun violence impacts the safety and well-being of our youth. Compared with our homes and communities, schools are a safe-haven from gun violence. Of all fatal shootings of school-age children, just over 1 percent occurred on school grounds.

In 2017, there were 2,220 high-school age (14-18 years) youth in the United States killed by gunfire, 10.6 deaths for every 100,000 teens in that age group. By comparison, law enforcement officers were shot and killed in the line of duty at a rate of 4.4 per 100,000 officers in 2017 (Figure 1). Gunfire was the leading cause of death for high-school age youth in 2017, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle crashes and drug overdoses.2 Deaths to teens from motor vehicle crashes have declined dramatically since 2002. In contrast, the number of teens killed in shootings has risen sharply in recent years (Figure 2). Firearm-related deaths among high-school age youth have been increasing for suicides as well as for homicides underscoring the growing confluence of troubled teen’s access to firearms (Figure 3).

In addition to fatal shootings, there were an estimated 10,685 youth ages 14-18 years in the U.S. who were treated in hospitals for nonfatal gunshot wounds. Yet firearm violence impacts many more youths than those who are shot. A 2008 national survey found that 22 percent of U.S. teens ages 14-17 reported that they had witnessed a shooting at some point in their life. In neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence, gun violence is not a one-time horrific event, but a tragic fact that permeates everyday life, robbing youth of a sense of a future.

The high rate of firearm-related mortality among youth in the U.S. is extremely unusual among high-income Western democracies that make up the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Firearm-related mortality among youth in the 5-14 and 15-24 year-old age groups was 14 and 22 times higher, respectively, in the U.S. than the average rate in other high-income OECD nations. No other high-income nation experiences, even remotely, similar firearm-related death rates in their youth population. It is noteworthy that, among youth ages 15-24 years, homicide and suicide rates by means other than firearms in the U.S. are much like that of their peer nations. In comparison to other OECD nations, firearm-related deaths rates for ages 15-24 in the U.S. were 18 times higher for homicides, 11 times higher for suicide, and 12 times higher for unintentional shootings (Figure 4).6

These data provide useful context to understanding the crisis of gun violence in the United States and its impacts on youth. There are ways to protect youth from gun violence. Most firearms used in school shootings come directly from the homes of students or their relatives.1 Safely storing firearms so that they are inaccessible to underage youth saves lives., Requiring firearm purchasers to be licensed protects against firearm misuse, including homicides,, and suicides. There are community interventions targeting high-risk youth that effectively promote social norms that eschew gun violence as an appropriate response to conflicts and provocations and reduce shootings. School- based programs that provide needed services to troubled youth and their families can reduce violence in schools.

Legislative Solutions

Judaism demands that we intervene when we see our “neighbor’s blood being shed” (Leviticus 19:16). This verse is a cornerstone of social activism, obligating us to act in the face of violence to others. It resonated loudly in the hearts of the students in the confirmation class. It spurred them to create this yearbook, with hopes that it will touch the hearts of lawmakers in our country.

The next verse, Leviticus 19:17, also touched them. It teaches, “You shall surely reprove your fellow….” This commandment requires us to be social critics when we see society or individuals making terrible mistakes. It is an important value that motivates public policy advocacy and lobbying, especially when it is felt that the government is making a major mistake on a particular issue with ethical implications.

The confirmation class understands that memorializing student victims of gun violence is not enough. In fulfillment of the Jewish value to be a social critic, they advocate these five common sense policy positions that will reduce gun violence: fund gun violence research, eliminate restrictions on the ATF, ban high capacity magazines, disarm domestic abusers, and pass legislation to end gun trafficking.

Rabbi Mark H. Levine, Director of Congregational Learning, Temple Emanuel

Fund Gun Violence Research

Every year, more than 36,000 people are killed with guns in the United States and many more are shot and injured. America’s gun death rate is 11 times higher than that of other high-income countries. In a recent national poll, 58 percent of American adults reported that they or someone they care for has experienced gun violence in their lifetime.

Despite this uniquely American epidemic, Congress has knowingly restricted gun violence research and, as a result, lives are put at risk every day. It is time for federal and state governments to recognize gun violence as a public health crisis and support a robust research agenda to study its causes and effects.

(excerpted from Why Funding Gun Violence Research Matters, Everytown for Gun Safety)

Eliminate Restrictions on the ATF

The gun industry has operated with little meaningful oversight for far too long. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the federal agency with jurisdiction to regulate the gun industry, has been operating with one hand tied behind its back--unable to even digitize records of gun sales--or require gun dealers to conduct annual inventory checks to make sure they aren't missing any guns. ATF needs to become a modern agency, one capable of keeping receipts, and efficiently regulating this massive industry.

excerpted from How We Save Lives, https://marchforourlives.com/policy/

Ban High Capacity Magazines

Large capacity ammunition magazines are a common thread in many high-profile mass shootings in the United States. Because shooters with such magazines can fire at large numbers of people without taking the time to reload, those in the line of fire do not have a chance to escape, law enforcement does not have the chance to intervene, and the number of lives shattered by senseless acts of gun violence increases dramatically. The features of a high capacity magazine ban listed below are intended to provide a framework from which policy options may be considered:

Definition of “large capacity ammunition magazine” includes magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Ban applies to large capacity ammunition magazines for use with all firearms. Prohibited activities include possession, sale, purchase, transfer, loan, pledge, transportation, distribution, importation, and manufacture of large capacity ammunition magazines. “Conversion” or “repair” kits that can be used to build large capacity ammunition magazines from spare parts are prohibited. excerpted from Large Capacity Magazine, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/

Disarm All Domestic Abusers

More than half of all women murdered in the United States are killed by an intimate partner with a gun, and the chance of being murdered by an abusive partner increases five-fold when there is a gun in the home. Even when a weapon is not discharged, abusers often use the mere presence of a gun to coerce, threaten and terrorize their victims, inflicting enormous psychological damage. Despite the clear risk domestic violence presents, state and federal laws still make it far too easy for abusers to obtain firearms. While federal law prohibits purchase and possession of firearms by those subject to domestic violence restraining orders, it does not prohibit purchase or possession by those subject to temporary domestic violence restraining orders. Additionally, federal law does not currently outline a process for abusers to surrender guns they already own. Instead, states establish their own surrender processes. Not all states have mandated surrender of firearms, leaving numerous opportunities for abusers to keep their guns. excerpted from Disarming Domestic Abusers, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, https://www.csgv.org/issues/disarming-domestic- violence/

Pass Anti-Trafficking Legislation

Guns move far too easily from states with weak gun laws into states with strong gun laws due to inconsistent regulation that varies widely from state to state. Gun trafficking is the process by which guns enter the black market where they often end up used in crimes that threaten the lives of people across the country. There is currently no federal anti-trafficking law, making it all too easy for criminals to exploit weaknesses in the system and flood communities with illegal guns.

excerpted from Trafficking and Straw Purchasing, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun- laws/policy-areas/crime-guns/

Who to Contact: Senate (from http://www.senate.gov)

Who to Contact: House (from http://www.house.gov)

Our Daily Losses

The deadly mass shootings in schools that are recorded in this book are not the only gun related tragedies that affect teenagers. Everytown for Gun Control states that 51 teenagers die every day due to gun violence. This staggering statistic is important and those lives must not be forgotten.

Healing Prayers

At the rising of the sun and its going down, we remember them. At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.

At the opening of the buds and the rebirth of spring, we remember them. At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.

At the rustling of the leaves and in the autumn, we remember them. At the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember them. When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember them. When we have joy we crave to share, we remember them. When we have decisions that are difficult to make, we remember them. When we have achievements that are based on theirs, we remember them.

As long as we live, they too will live; For they are now a part of us, As we remember them.

—Rabbi Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Reimer

Death can only take from us what might have been. It cannot take from us what has already been. It cannot rob us of our past. The days and years we shared, the common adventures and joys, the 'little nameless acts of kindness and love'—all these are part of the ineradicable record. Death has no dominion over them.

Words to Live By: Selected Writings of Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, edited by Arthur Kurzweil

About Us

We as Jews and as students want to raise awareness about the scourge of gun violence plaguing our public schools. We want to advocate for sensible gun control that puts an end to this problem.

"Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." (Leviticus 19:16)

Top row (left to right) : Jacob Dincin, Eden Shane, Ethan Shroff Bottom row (left to right) : Callie Newberg, Eva Stavisky, Miriam Saletan

TEMPLE EMANUEL

10101 Connecticut Ave, Kensington, MD 20895 www.templeemanuelmd.org