In the public eye since the tragic incident, about 60 of the Newtown High graduates this year attended Sandy Hook Elementary School. Speaking at their graduation on Wednesday, June 12, Principal Kimberly Longobucco read the names of all those killed that day.

"We remember them for their bravery, their kindness and their spirit," she told the 335 graduates. "Let us strive to honor them today and every day."

While national media was not allowed in the ceremony, some of the students spoke out beforehand. "I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions," 17-year-old Emma Ehrens told The AP. Ehrens was in her classroom when the shooter came in, watching him shoot her teacher and friends. She fled when his gun jammed and remembers bumping into him as she ran past him.

"I’m super excited to be, like, done with high school and moving on to the next chapter of my life. But I’m also so ... mournful, I guess, to have to be walking across that stage alone. … I like to think that they’ll be there with us and walking across that stage with us."

Ehrens was one of those students directly impacted by the shooting, telling CBS News (per The BBC), "The shooter actually came into my classroom. So I had to, like, watch all my friends and teachers get killed, and I had to run for my life at six years old."

She said she grew up with fear and "what-ifs" worries, "because I was, like, I was going to be next."

While the kids were deeply impacted by what they endured twelve years ago, many of them have moved to activism in the wake of living through such tragedy, and plan to do much more.

Speaking with People, some graduates talked about wanting to go on to become therapists, after the years of therapy they've gone through, while some others are wanting to go into the legal profession or politics, so they can have a hand in helping to stop gun violence.

"This lives with us," Ehrens told People. "For the people that think that it just disappears, it doesn't. It's going to be with us until we die."

Fellow graduate Ella Seaver told the outlet that she's found it "kind of hard" to find joys in the years since the shooting. Even her graduation "has that touch of sorrow when you realize what's missing."

What she's learned, though, is how to live with that grief, "but not let it overtake you." She wants to work not only to combat gun violence, but to help survivors know, "You can still find the joy in life ... grief doesn't have to be so consuming."

Admitting that she still struggles with some PTSD, Grace Fischer is grateful for the community that's been built around the survivors. "We’re all there for each other, even people that weren’t at the school. Everyone being there for each other, everyone understanding what people have been through, it's a very tight community and I'm definitely happy that we have that here," she told People.

Henry Terifay tattooed his friend Chase Kowalski's name on his shoulder. While Terifay made it out of the school that day, Kowalski did not. He wants something to be done out of their tragedy. "I want more commonsense gun laws, universal background checks and more bannings on high power assault rifles," he said.

It's a sentiment echoed by Lily Wasilnak, who says she learned how to turn her survivor's guilt around "and be like, ‘Okay, well I did survive, so I need to do something with this and I can't just die with them’ … Everything I do is for them."

As the graduating survivors look ahead to their futures, with the experience of Sandy Hook always a part of them, it's a different experience for the parents of their classmates who didn't make it.

Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan, says she's "so proud" of his classmates, but watching them graduate is "bittersweet" for her.

"I'm so proud of these kids and can't wait to see what they do next, and thinking about how much they've already been through and how resilient they are, but it was also just very hard because I'm seeing kids that I still think of as 6-year-olds in Dylan's classroom," she told People.

After twelve years of milestones in the lives of the kids who survived the shooting, Mark Barden, who lost his son Daniel, said that graduation is "a doozy. This is a tough one." He can't help but think of "all of the other life experiences in life itself that have been stolen from him," but especially this one.

Scarlett Lewis, who lost her son Jesse in the shooting, shares the same resolve as many of the graduates. "They have an incredible opportunity to use their experience and all that they've learned through living through that tragedy and use it for the benefit of others," she said. "I feel like that's why we're here ... to help others."

Many of the Sandy Hook parents have just done that, with Michele Gay and Alissa Parker having founded the non-profit Safe and Sound Schools, while Mark Barden is a co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, which he proudly says has averted 16 school shootings through its training programs for students -- as well as preventing more than 600 imminent suicides.

"I never lose sight of the privilege that I have of being able to honor my little Daniel with this work," Barden told People. "Sparing other families this lifetime of pain and grief by having to lose a loved one to preventable gun violence."

According to CBS News, there have been more than 4,200 mass shootings in the United States, including dozens at schools, since the Sandy Hook massacre. At the time, Obama called it "the single darkest day of my presidency."

Controversial InfoWars founder Alex Jones has been in the news of late in relation to the shooting after he was found guilty in 2022 of defamation by the victims' families for repeatedly claiming the mass shooting was a "giant hoax."

On June 7 of this year, TMZ reported that he'd filed to liquidate his personal assets to begin to pay down the $1.5 billion he now owes the families. He has requested a shift from a Chapter 11 restructuring bankruptcy to Chapter 7, which would lead to selling off most of his assets.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.