A Parkland, Florida, teenager has traveled to Washington, D.C., with his family for the March for Our Lives so he can share his account of the tragic shooting at his high school.
“I’m going to tell my story so people can see how real it is for a survivor who was in there and saw everything; saw people die. Just make it real,” Dylan Kraemer said.
On Friday, Kraemer wore a gray sweatshirt emblazoned with "Stoneman Douglas Lacrosse." Under one shoulder he pinned a ribbon symbolizing the 17 students and teachers killed on Feb. 14. Underneath the other, a button showed the picture of a young man.
"That’s Nick, my friend who died in my classroom," Kraemer said.
Kraemer watched bullets hit Nick Dworet and other classmates and he tried to shield his peers.
"So, we moved the file cabinet and we were grabbing everyone and just hid behind the file cabinets and was just getting shot at through the window and just sitting there trying to cover each other," Kraemer had told News4 in the days after the shooting.
Dworet died right next to him.
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Weeks later, Kraemer says it's strange going to school and seeing the boarded off classroom.
"It’s just…it’s really weird being there. It feels like a crime scene, I guess, instead of, like, the school," Kraemer said. "It’s definitely a different environment now. I stay away from the door. I think every time I’m in a classroom, like, where would I hide? So it’s definitely a lot different."
He has also become more sensitive to other school shootings, including the deadly shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland.
"I actually left school that day once I heard about it. I was just like so upset and heartbroken that it had happened again, that I was like I just want to go home," he said.
Kraemer and his parents are joining the other Parkland families who are now activists against assault weapons.
“I’m not saying that no one should have a handgun, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be able to protect your person and your home, I have no problem with hunting, I just think that… and Dylan can tell you firsthand, this is a weapon that no one in their right mind should have,” Dylan's father Adam Kraemer said.
