‘Are You With Us?’
A conversation with Emma Lemieux and Abby Gomes
The winning entry was titled “Are you with us?” and chronicles the experience of being in a school shooting and its aftermath. Angela McParland-Taylor, the justice resource manager for the Sisters of Mercy, sat down with two of the students who made the film, Emma Lemieux and Abigail Gomes, both seniors at Mercy High School in Middletown, Connecticut, and asked them about the inspiration for the video and how the threat of gun violence affects their daily lives. Their story reflects widespread trends: a 2018 Pew Research study found that a majority of teenagers 1 worry about a school shooting at their school, while another 2021 study found that this worry can lead increases in both anxiety and panic. You can view Emma and Abigail’s film, along with the other winning entries, at https://sistersofmercy. org/mercy-for-justice/nonviolence/mercy-studentsconfront-gun-violence/. 1
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Nikki Graf, “A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern,” Pew Research Center, April 18, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/shortreads/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-couldhappen-at-their-school-and-most-parents-share-their-concern/. W I N T E R 2 0 2 4 • N O. 1 4 0
Can you share your inspiration for your video? EMMA: We’re the “lockdown generation”: we’ve become so desensitized to lockdowns and, unfortunately, school shootings and just gun violence in general, because we see it everywhere in the media, and we practice all the time. You kind of become numb. So this project hit an area that I didn’t know was a sore spot. The more I started writing the scripts and directing it, and seeing Abby act in it, the more I was like, don’t get choked up. It kind of hit me when I didn’t expect it to. ABBY: I love acting and I love theater and I thought it would be a great opportunity to advocate for change. But, I remember at some point during the filming, like having that realization that even though I was just playing a role, there’s so many people that have been in that horrifying position that my character was, and just how much of an issue this is in our common, everyday life.
Has gun violence or the possibility of gun violence changed anything about your daily lives? ABBY: Today is the 11 year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Tragedy, which, as Connecticut residents, it’s something we hear about a lot. It’s something we also hear people’s stories about. I definitely remember close to that date when I was a lot younger,
Screenshot of the video, Are You With Us?
Each year, the Sisters of Mercy Justice Team hosts a social justice video contest, soliciting entries around one of their “Critical Concerns”—immigration, racism, women, nonviolence, and Earth. In 2023, one of the areas of focus was gun violence.
See the video here!
“We’ve become so desensitized to lockdowns . . . because we see it everywhere in the media, and we practice all the time. You kind of become numb.” when news about it started coming out. My parents were definitely rattled at the idea that it happened and that it could have been any kid that this is happening to—it could have been their kids, and they were just really scared about that. I also remember my sophomore year. A woman came to our school to talk to us named Scarlett Lewis, and she talked to us about the tragic passing of her son Jesse, and it was just a really powerful and impactful story that we all took a message from. EMMA: I remember that the day of the shooting me and my twin brother were one of the last students to get picked up at my school. We were nowhere near Sandy Hook. But I just remember how confusing it was. And, for example, our cafeteria windows are bulletproof. And Mercy is an extremely safe place. They take security very seriously. But I remember how, unfortunately, that was the sole reason for wanting to come to Mercy, the safety of the school. Obviously, I love it here. But it was big was a big factor. The sad part is, it was jaw dropping that the windows were bulletproof. And the thing is, the windows shouldn’t need to be bulletproof.
Do you do anything differently in school or in public because of the possibility of gun violence?
implementing gun regulation and violence prevention projects. And something more specific we have talked about is that teachers and leaders in general should be more cautiously monitoring mental health in schools, and even just in people in general, because that seems to be such a large cause of this issue. I think we should, as Emma worded it, destigmatize talking about our feelings, and being able to express negative' feelings we have. And that is okay to not be okay. And it’s better to talk about it than keep it inside, because that’s how you don’t let it build up. That’s how these kind of events can happen when you’re just so overwhelmed. EMMA: I think the reason why gun violence is such a hard issue is because it touches upon a bunch of other issues like mental health and poverty in a way, because, you know, a lot of underprivileged communities bear the brunt of gun violence. And I think because it touches upon such deep, different issues, we need a lot more conversations and a lot more support. And just new ideas, new approaches. And I think what a lot of authority figures are doing now is great. It’s getting the ball rolling. And I think if we continue that momentum and that awareness, we’ll eventually find a solution, just by finding different ways to look at the problem.
EMMA: Well, my mom told me when she was growing up—my mom is from Middletown, and I’m from Middletown—she used to tell me how everyone could just walk around and people would come to the school, and it wouldn’t be a huge deal. Once when I was in theology class, we went and secured the perimeter and a parent came to the school not knowing we were in a secured perimeter and a couple of girls who were walking by in the hallway start freaking out because they’re like, “there’s a random person here!” and it was just the parent.
Is there anything else you want to people reading this to know about how gun violence has affected you and your peers?
ABBY: We have very strict rules that you can’t let anyone in during school, even before or after the school day. There are kids that have to come after school for clubs and activities. But we’re not supposed to let them in. There are very strict roles at school that control that kind of stuff because of that danger that shouldn’t even be present.
ABBY: Seeing the project as a whole was really impactful. I had acted in it and that definitely spoke to me, just being a part of it. But I didn’t see it as a whole until the rest of the theology classes did. And so, seeing it come together as a whole, was like, “Wow! This is so moving and you are so talented, Emma.” Our whole theme of Theology 3 is social justice issues. So we were always focusing on that and at the end of the year we all had to make a presentation and gun violence was one of those issues. So we all learned about a lot of different things.
What do you think church leaders or politicians should be doing differently? ABBY: More generally, the government should be effectively
EMMA: I noticed after we made the video that I had a bunch of people come up to me and share their experiences. A couple of my classmates shared their experiences, and they have much more direct experiences with gun violence and they shared that and that was really eye opening to me.
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