STOCKTON, Calif. — The Stockton community came together to remember and honor the lives taken during a mass shooting in 1989 at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton.
Now 35 years later, nearly 100 people packed the Central United Methodist Church for a night of reflection, music and encouraging people to push for more change.
“I still cannot believe it is 35 years,” said Rob Young, who was injured during the shooting. “I do remember just the panic. And everybody taking off running. And realized that I had to get to my classroom.”
Shot in the chest and foot, Young was one of more than 30 students and teachers injured during the shooting. Five students were killed during the tragedy which saw 106 rounds fired in three minutes.
The shooter was 24-year-old Patrick Purdy, often described as a drifter. He was armed with an AKS rifle, a semiautomatic version of the military’s AK-47. Purdy was once a student at the very same Stockton elementary school he would open fire on. He fired more than 100 rounds in a minute before he ultimately shot himself.
“This was 1989, school shootings did not happen. Seems like the term active shooter was not coined back then and there was no response training for this type of incident back then,” said Young.
Survivors and families impacted by the shooting came together to honor the victims and other lives lost to gun violence.
The moment allows the tragedy not to be forgotten. In 1989, it was one of America’s first mass school shootings.
“I want people to know that the impact of gun violence is horrific,” said Judy Weldon, who was a second-grade teacher in 1989. “It impacts every person; it just ripples out from the person who has died or who was injured.”
Young, a father of four, worked in law enforcement and now his work focuses on campus safety. He is hoping parents can use this tragedy as a learning lesson of having the hard talk with kids, so they know what to do.
“It is not being paranoid, but unfortunately we live in a society where evil exists, and you have to be prepared,” said Young.
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