Parkland shooting survivor Jonathan Blank: 'I hear that noise ... before I go to bed'
Jonathan Blank opens up about “the scariest moment” of his life.
Parkland student survivor Jonathan Blank opened up to “The View” co-host Sara Haines about “the scariest moment” of his life -- and how he’s working to ensure he and his fellow students are the last victims of school gun violence.
“It’s life-changing,” Blank said of the shooting that claimed 17 lives and injured others. “Hearing the shots go off … I have that noise in my head now before I go to bed, when I wake up in the morning, when I'm in school.”
Blank said it’s “tough” to go back to school. “It's hard to focus on different assignments because I'm just thinking … ‘What if something's gonna happen?’” he said.
“I sometimes don't feel safe in school -- and every student… should feel safe at school,’” Blank added, saying instead students should be focusing and investing in their future. “It's a place that you go to and say ‘I'm gonna learn for college ... I'm not gonna think about my life ending today.’”
On Feb. 14, Blank was in class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when he heard gunshots.
“I was thinking there's no way -- we're in Parkland, Florida,” Blank said. “There's no way something like this is gonna happen…. There's no way there's a shooter at my school right now.”
He said it all started “out of nowhere.” At first, he said he thought it was “a drill,” but he immediately “dove … close to the teacher’s desk.”
“Ten seconds later, it came into our class,” Blank remembered. “It came into our class and then the door … got shot first and glass went everywhere.”
“A lot of bullets went through,” Blank continued, recounting the seven to 10 minutes it took for police to arrive. “[Law enforcement officials] started screaming, they all had their guns pointed at us because they didn't know where the shooter was….”
Blank said six people in his class were injured, and two died in the shooting.
Speaking to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the listening session
Blank said he believes he, along with parents and other students attending the session at the White House, “moved” Trump and Pence.
“We put them in a position to think, 'What if it was your child that was in that school?'” he said, adding he noticed that the vice president “had a little tear in his eye” during the heart-wrenching testimonies.
“It wasn't about Democrats, it wasn't about Republicans,” Blank said. “It was just about the children and about the students of America [saying], 'This just can't happen again, and it won't happen again if we make the changes….'”
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and aftermath
Blank shares his goals for change
Blank said he and his colleagues aim to make Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “the last school that ever has to deal with this.”
“We lived through something that … no other kid should go through,” Blank said of his motivation to continue speaking out. “We wanna be the school that is known [for stopping] this from happening ever again.”
“I will be fighting for this change until this change is made,” Blank said, adding he won’t be the only one fighting. “Until that change happens, I don’t think anyone is gonna stop.
Blank also offered specific proposals for keeping kids safe in schools, including bulletproof windows and tighter security.
“Bulletproof windows … would have saved both of the kids' lives in my class and many more,” Blank said. “Another thing I think can help change is ... security. I don’t think that is such a horrible thing if that's what it takes to keep us safe.”
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