‘Are You With Us?’ A conversation with Emma Lemieux and Abby Gomes

Page 1

‘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

6

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!


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.