What if a school shooting was preventable, but you just didn’t know what to look for?

On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Several young children as well as adults were shot and killed and others were wounded. Now four years after the horrific attack, steps are being taken to try and prevent more people from experiencing losing a loved one to a shooter.

The shooting happened around 9:30 in the morning. Adam Lanza walked into the school and shot down the locked door. Once the gunshots were heard, teachers frantically hid the kids.

The shooter made his way throughout the office as well as through two classrooms of kindergarten and first grade students, shooting almost everyone in his path. The police arrived within minutes, but when they approached Lanza, the gunman shot himself.

A total of 20 children ages six and seven were killed in addition to six adults.

It was a mass shooting that shook the nation. No one saw it coming, and no one could understand why.

Parents of the victims experienced great sadness and grief that is unimaginable. JoAnne Bacon, mother of a shooting victim, said in a TIMES interview that her life was suddenly spiraling out of control.

“For me, these were impossible days filled with mistrust, deep grief and avoidance,” Bacon said. “We had no ability to stop the madness while in the midst of funeral arrangements, deep disbelief and shock.”

With many unanswered questions looming in the heads of the victims parents as well as the entire school, the only thing to ask was where they should go from there.

In the months following the attack, many parents took the initiative by starting an organization called the Sandy Hook Promise. This non-profit organization strives to raise awareness for gun violence and prevention of mass shootings.

According to the Sandy Hook Promise’s website, its mission is to “Prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.”

Since the launch of the organization, over one million young children have been impacted by their various programs, over 19 thousand people have volunteered to raise awareness and deliver the programs as promise leaders, and over 810 thousand people have made the promise to protect children from gun violence.

One of the organization’s most recent programs includes the “Know the Signs” program. The program raises awareness for mental health and intervention among young kids and adults. The program emphasizes trying to look for a potential problem and stopping it before it escalates into a possible shooting.

Through the program, the Sandy Hook Promise had educated over one million youths and adults on gun violence prevention throughout all 50 states.

The organization said, “These children and teens are changing the way that our country thinks about mental health and wellness and, thanks to their training, are able to prevent violence before it starts.”

The Sandy Hook Promise recently took their teachings one step further. On December 2, the organization released a haunting public service announcement showing how easily warning signs of a potential shooting could be easily missed.

The PSA follows Evan as he enjoys the last few days of school before summer break. Out of boredom, he starts writing notes on the desk, and he comes back the next day to find that someone had replied to them. The notes continued going back and forth until the end of the year when he finally finds the girl who wrote the notes back to him.

However, what seems to be a romantic story is abruptly ended when an active shooter enters the gym that they are in.

The video then proceeds to go through the previous scenes again this time highlighting a boy in the background. The boy is shown making gun-like hand signals, holding a gun on a social media picture, and seeming depressed while Evan’s story was going on. The boy in the background ended up being the shooter at the end of the story.

The signs were all there, but no one knew where to look.

The video has left many people speechless and has over six million views on YouTube. People are now seeing just how easy it is to miss the warning signs and that someone could be showing them in their own school.

“The one message is I want people to know that gun violence is preventable when you know the signs,” said Nicole

Hockley, founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise in a Washington Post interview.

She also noted that the video is a big eye opener because people normally think that gun violence prevention is all about lockdowns and drills. The big message the video makes however, is about prevention.

The video has caused even more people to be aware and think about the message the video tried to send. Several students at HHS, such as junior Grace Murray, were very surprised by the end of the video.

“It surprised me to know the boy was there the whole time and nobody noticed,” Murray said.

“It made me wonder about how many things I don’t notice a day that could potentially be dangerous.”

The message has rang loud and clear throughout the country, and more and more people are being made aware of how to prevent a future attack.

The Sandy Hook Promise has made their mark on the country. They’ve worked to end gun violence, and have continued to advocate even four years after the original tragedy. They hope to honor those who died in the attacks, and they wish for no one to experience what many did on December 14, 2012.