For the 35th anniversary of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton, leaders, community members and victims gathered for a vigil at a church Wednesday.
On Jan. 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy walked onto the campus of the elementary school after setting fire to his station wagon. He then set up on the porch of a portable building and opened fire while about 400 kids were at recess. In three minutes, he fired 106 shots, leaving five children dead and 30 wounded, including one teacher. The shooter killed himself while first responders arrived.
The young children killed by gunfire that day were all under the age of 9– Rathanar Or, Ram Chun, Sokhim An, Oeun Lim, and Thuy Tran.
The majority of the student population of the school back then was Southeast Asian, and the children killed were from Cambodian or Vietnamese families that had come to American to escape violence.
The terrible event shocked the community and the nation at a time when mass shootings in schools were unthinkable.
Members of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a national nonprofit that advocates for gun reform, spoke out at Wednesday’s event. The organization is named for James Brady, President Ronald Reagan’s aide who was severely wounded and became permanently disabled after being hit by a bullet meant for the president in 1981.
According to Brady: United Against Gun Violence, the Cleveland school shooting was one of the first of its kind, but since then school shootings have plagued the country for 35 years, with limited legislation passed to try and curb the bloodshed.
Saranh Ing walked in and out of the Central United Methodist Church on Wednesday wiping tears from her red, tear-stained eyes. Ing was remembering her daughter Sokhim, who died in the Cleveland Elementary shooting.
She said she first learned about the shooting from her husband, who had driven near the school and saw two children drop to the ground.
In that moment, Ing said she ran all the way to the school in search of her daughter and was met with the terrible news.
Although the memories never leave her mind, she finds peace knowing she will one day see her child again.
“God takes care of me, someday I will see her in heaven,” she said.
Old newspaper clippings capturing the aftermath of the shooting were displayed at the vigil alongside candles and photos of the children.
The first speaker was Judith Weldon, who was a teacher at the time of the tragedy. Weldon said that during and after the shooting, children ran into classrooms and hallways seeking shelter. Teachers and aids used their hands to attempt to stop the flow of blood, though children died in their arms.
A survivor of the shooting, Cuong Nguyen, came to the podium to speak about his memories of what occurred that day. Despite getting choked up, he shared with the audience that he was a first grader who loved attending school and was a math whiz. He said he was playing on the monkey bars prior to the shooting but had decided to go stand outside his classroom because he wanted to make sure he was the first to enter his class.
“I remember looking out as it happened, I see kids falling thinking it’s a new game,” Nguyen said.
He said he questions how he survived the shooting, considering he stayed in place during the shots and was in the line of fire of Purdy.
In spite of suffering from survivors’ guilt and still carrying around the events of that day, he decided to work for Stockton Unified School District. He said his first assignment was at Cleveland Elementary School.
A portion of the vigil consisted of a bell ceremony with people who were there on that day– kindergarten teachers Barbara Sarkany-Gore, Sue Rothman, and Diane Lopez; third grader Thao Ha, and Weldon, who held up black and white photos with the faces of the lives lost. After each name was said, a bell rang in their honor.
On that day, Sarkany-Gore had stepped back to view her class board when she saw bullets fly and land at her feet. Ha was a third grader who saw the shooting start-to-finish through a window in her classroom. And Rothman helped stop the bleeding of the injured children. She said when helicopters started showing up at the school following the shooting, she thought they were still gunshots. She is now triggered by the sound of helicopters.
The event ended with the Bill Withers classic “Lean on Me,” perhaps as a reminder that no one was alone, even in their sadness.
As his voice carried over the crowd, guests pulled closer together and some began to sway.
“Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow… But, if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow.”
Nguyen said he wanted to leave one clear message to the audience. “Compassion, kindness and empathy… if we can show our kids compassion, and kindness, empathy, maybe we won’t have another Cleveland shooting or Columbine,” he said.