BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — What happened in Uvalde, Texas is just the latest in a long and tragic history of school shootings in this country.
Nearly 10 years ago, a similar tragedy struck the community of Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 26 people — most of them children.
"We're still struggling today. It still comes back up for us,” mother Carly Posey says.
Nearly ten years have passed, but Posey still remembers exactly how it felt when she got the call about an active shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary where her two youngest kids went to school.
"They were both in classrooms when the shooting started. The gunman entered my youngest son’s first grade classroom,” Posey explains.
"His two teachers were killed in that first grade classroom and some first grade students were also killed. He saved his own life by running out."
Posey and her family moved away shortly after the shooting, but the fear and pain traveled with them, especially for her then six-year-old son.
"He couldn't do schoolwork. He really missed first and second grade. He wasn't learning anything because he couldn't, his brain wasn't there,” Posey says.
"You know, your brain only has space for so much, right? And so, his, for so much time, was filled with trauma and 'I'm not safe.'"
"He just thought that the world we lived in was like this, that people just go and kill people all the time."
"I lost my innocence that day too. He lost his innocence at six. I lost my innocence at like 40 or whatever I was when it happened.”
For the first six years, Posey says she couldn't talk about it — the hurt and fear was still too fresh.
However, four years ago Posey decided she was ready to start talking about the tragedy.
She joined the “Love You Guys Foundation” and she's been touring the country sharing her story ever since.
"We're smart people in America. We can figure this out and we can put the resources needed to solve these safety problems in our communities. We just need everyone doing it,” Posey says.
Wednesday morning Posey spoke at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center.
She shared her story with hundreds of first responders, health care workers and security experts who are working to make schools, hospitals and businesses safer.
"I am excited to see that more agencies, departments, community entities are getting together and talking about this,” Posey says.
The conference was scheduled long before the recent school shooting in Texas, but Posey says it was on the minds of everyone who was there.
"I can't watch it. So, I've read about it. People don't understand the long-lasting effects this has on our community members. We’re still dealing with it now ten years later,” Posey says.
“I will do everything I can do as one person to make this stop because I know the reality of it."
The Footprint of Disasters conference was hosted by the Metro Health and Medical Preparedness Coalition.
The coalition includes emergency managers, first responders and hospital administrators from hospitals and clinics across the Twin Cities.
For more information on the coalition and their mission, click here.
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