Sandy Hook Survivor Henry Terifay Has Tattoo of Pal Chase Kowalski

Sandy Hook survivor Henry Terifay nonetheless thinks rather a lot about Chase Kowalski, who was one among his greatest pals at their elementary college in Newtown, Connecticut — till Chase was killed, together with 19 different college students and 6 educators, in a mass taking pictures in December 2012. He was 7.

“He was one among my closest pals. We frolicked on a regular basis,” Terifay, now an 18-year-old graduating senior, tells PEOPLE in an interview as he and different survivors and new grads mirror on their lives now.

When he turned 17, Terifay says, he obtained Chase’s identify tattooed on his proper shoulder: The design consists of Chase’s identify in cursive, with a inexperienced coronary heart for Sandy Hook remembrance on the finish of the “e.” (“The [artist] didn’t even make me pay for it,” Terifay says. “He knew the household, truly.”)

The tattoo is a tribute and a reminder of the toll of gun violence in America, which Terifay, as a member of the Jr. Newtown Motion Alliance, has pushed to vary.

“I do not wish to hear, ‘Our prayers are with you,’ as a result of sadly, your prayers do not actually do something for me,” he says. “I simply really need issues to be totally different.”

For extra from surviving college students and new grads and the dad and mom of those that have been killed, learn this week’s subject of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Terifay says he obtained the tattoo of Chase’s identify on his shoulder “in order that once I wrestle, it may present by means of my singlet. And within the yearbook, within the wrestling part, you may see a close-up image of me and you may see his tattoo in it.”

He despatched that to Chase’s mom, Rebecca, who thanked him. “He would not have been within the yearbook, in any other case,” Terifay says. “She was like, ‘I used to be afraid he would not be in there, however I admire you.’ ”

The primary-grade classmates he misplaced within the mass taking pictures aren’t ever removed from thoughts, Terifay says. “I take into consideration them on a regular basis.”

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free each day publication to remain up-to-date on the very best of what PEOPLE has to supply, from celeb information to forcing human curiosity tales.

“Each time I prepare, I can see [Chase’s] identify up on my shoulder,” Terifay says, including, “I attempt to bear in mind him in a great way, not in a horrible method the place I get unhappy about it. I attempt to take into consideration him in a optimistic method and simply preserve transferring ahead and bear in mind him however not be unhappy about it.”

Practically 12 years later, he can recall the morning of the taking pictures and the thrill he felt at planning to make gingerbread homes along with his class. “My mother [was] on the way in which,” he says. “A pair dad and mom are already there — and we hear these loud bangs.”

He says he then heard the principal, Daybreak Hochsprung, go on the loudspeaker system and although he does not bear in mind what she mentioned, “you may hear him [the shooter] go in there and shoot her and shoot the remainder of the entrance workplace. You’ll be able to hear the cellphone drop to the ground.”

Terifay’s instructor turned “so protecting and caring” as she led the scholars to cubbies to shelter in place, the place they performed video games, he says.

One father or mother who had volunteered in his classroom to make gingerbread homes was an ex-Marine, he says. When the police knocked on the classroom door after the taking pictures was over, he remembers that father asking the officer to slip his ID underneath the door for affirmation.

“Then they line us up they usually have us cowl our eyes and stroll out of the constructing,” Terifay says. “I met my mother within the car parking zone and I see her totally in tears. I’ve by no means seen her like that earlier than and I have never seen her like that since. I do not actually wish to see her like that once more.”

Terifay’s greatest pal now was a pupil in one of many two lecture rooms that was attacked, he says. “We have been greatest pals since then. it actually may have been him, too. It is actually loopy to consider how all of these individuals, we’ll graduate with out them.”

The primary message Terifay, who plans to review communications on the College of Hartford, desires unfold is that he does not need individuals to really feel sorry for what he survived. He desires actual, “commonsense” change to minimize the specter of extra violence.

He, like different younger activists who’ve been motivated by dwelling by means of mass shootings, is looking for extra background checks, restrictions on assault-style weapons and extra.

“I do not need individuals to inform me, ‘Oh, I am so sorry. That was horrible and also you’re so sturdy,’ ” he says. “I do not wish to hear, ‘I am sorry.’ I simply need issues to be carried out. We are saying it on a regular basis, but it surely does not change ever. I am certain there will be one other college taking pictures tomorrow or the day after that, which is horrible.”