Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit founded after 26 children and adults were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, launched a new public service announcement Monday to prevent school gun violence.
The PSA focuses on a symbol of childhood: the teddy bear.
In the video, a little girl in a toy store picks out her teddy from a line of teddies. And the bear imagines his life with her. They go home and have playtimes, naps, rides in her bike carrier.
But the teddy ends up in a shrine for victims of a school shooting.
“We want to take back the teddy bear as a symbol of innocence for children rather than something that’s used at a school shooting shrine,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise and mother of Dylan, who died in the Newtown shooting.
Following the 2012 shooting, Newtown received more than 60,000 teddy bears from well wishers and supporters, Hockley said. She recalled how overwhelming it was to visit the warehouse stored with bins of teddy bears, some addressed to her son Dylan.
“It just shows that people don't know what to do, and that's why at Sandy Hook Promise we focus on what to do, which is around learning the signs, so that you can prevent these tragedies from happening,” Hockley said.
The PSA features multiple real-life images of teddy bears placed at shrines from past school shootings including Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Oxford High School in Michigan, Santa Fe High School in Texas, and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
'Know the signs' to prevent violence
Each day, 12 children die from gun violence in America. Another 32 are shot and injured, according to a 2022 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But Hockley said school shootings are preventable, and the PSA attempts to raise awareness of the group’s “Know the Signs” program to make schools and kids safer.
In four out of five school shootings, the attacker told someone ahead of time about their plans, according to Sandy Hook Promise.
The program teaches students and educators to recognize the warning signs of potential violence and get help.
“Know the Signs” has resulted in “several thousand mental health interventions, over 700 imminent suicides averted, and [the] eighteenth school shooting plot averted as a direct result of our programs,” Hockley said.
10 critical warning signs
Sandy Hook Promise’s list of 10 potential warning signs that can signal an individual may be in crisis or need help include:
- Suddenly withdrawing from friends, family and activities including online or via social media
- Bullying, especially if targeted toward differences in race, religion, gender or sexual orientation
- Excessive irritability, lack of patience or becoming angry quickly
- Experiencing chronic loneliness or social isolation
- Expressing persistent thoughts of harming themselves or someone else
- Making direct threats toward a place, another person or themselves
- Bragging about access to guns or weapons
- Recruiting accomplices or audiences for an attack
- Obsession with online violent content, mass shooters or weapons
- Cruelty to animals
A growing problem
Last year, there were more than 320 incidents where a gun was brandished or fired on school grounds, making 2024 the second highest year for gun violence at schools ever recorded, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which has compiled data on school shootings going back to the 1960s.
Learn more
Sandy Hook Promise | Prevent Gun Violence by Knowing the Signs
