Her son was killed in Parkland. She hopes a harrowing picture book will finally cause lawmakers to act

‘Joaquin’s First School Shooting’ borrows the aesthetics and language of children’s book, but its contents are purposely chilling. Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin was 17 when he died in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, tells Clémence Michallon how lawmakers are responding to the book

(Getty/Change the Ref)

About a year ago, in November 2022, Patricia Oliver addressed a courtroom during the sentencing hearing for the mass shooter who killed her son, Joaquin. “It is not anger or revenge that put me in this position,” she told the court. “I want you to listen very well. I am far beyond those feelings. I have emptiness, I have sadness, and I have grief. I am broken. I am broken. I am broken. I am broken. I am broken, and I am broken.”

Joaquin Oliver was 17 years old when a mass shooter opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. During the shooter’s trial, which ended with his conviction and sentencing to life in prison, Ms Oliver learned the details of her son’s death. “When I heard what happened to Joaquin in detail, my life changed forever,” she tells The Independent in a phone call at the end of May this year. “I can’t handle that Joaquin suffered that much. I suffered with him when I was listening to that.”

Ms Oliver has been an advocate for gun control. She co-founded the Change the Ref campaign, which has worked to end gun violence. And, as of late, Ms Oliver has been using an unusual tool in her efforts to urge lawmakers to act: a picture book titled Joaquin’s First School Shooting.

The book uses the kind of images and language usually seen in children’s books, but its contents are purposely harrowing. In eight pages of text — and eight pages of illustrations — the book follows a group of children who become the victims of a school shooting.

The main character, Joaquin, is named after Ms Oliver’s son. He wears a black beanie similar to the one Joaquin favored. And he is drawn on the cover of the book wearing a shirt with an avocado on the front—a reference to Joaquin’s nickname “Guac”, which is sort for “guacamole.”

As advocates and activists, Ms Oliver and her husband, Manuel Oliver, frequently get approached to take part in various campaigns, she says on the phone. When public relations and communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe got in touch about the book, she felt she needed to become a part of the project.

“This book touches your heart,” she says. “This book presents what it was like for Joaquin and everybody who was in that building that day, in a unique and very painful way.” The book, she says, is the hardest project she has handled. But she has already seen its impact on the lawmakers with whom she has shared it.

“This time, they felt me,” she says. “This time, they felt my pain. The book, with those illustrations — it hits your heart a thousand percent.”

Because Ms Oliver has been lobbying on Capitol Hill for five years, she says a lot of conversations in that space typically share a similar template: “They say, ‘Hi, I’m so sorry for your loss.’ They listen to your story — ‘I’m so sorry for your loss. Okay. So what is the reason for this visit?’ This time, they were out of words. They couldn’t say anything. They were crying instead. They were hugging me. They were remembering their family, their grandkids, their kids.”

Ms Oliver has shared Joaquin’s First School Shooting in person with a number of legislators so far, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, Jasmine Crockett, Jeff Jackson, Susie Lee, Maxwell Frost, Ilhan Omar, and Madeleine Dean, as well as Senators Raphael Warnock, Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren. One exchange, with Representative Tony Cardenas, stands out in her mind. “His grandkid’s name is Joaquin. He cried when he opened the book,” Ms Oliver says in a text after our phone call.

Ms Oliver also shared the book with Representative Laurel Lee at the Capitol. Ms Lee is a Republican who has supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s recently launched presidential run. On her website, Ms Lee describes herself as a “strong supporter of the Second Amendment” who “will always fight to protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners from radical gun control liberals.”

But in person, according to Ms Oliver, Ms Lee appeared receptive to the book and its message. “She started reading the book, and her face changed completely,” Ms Oliver says. “And was she said to me was, ‘I fear every time my 10-year-old goes to school, because I don’t know what’s going to happen.’” The exchange continued, and by the end, Ms Oliver felt the two had made a connection. (The Independent has approached Ms Lee’s office for comment.)

Change the Ref has set up a website, Myfirstschoolshooting.com, where people can take a look at the book and, using a dropdown menu, send a copy to the representative of their choice. (Each one is for sale at $23.)

Some representatives, Ms Oliver says, have several offices in various locations, so Change the Ref makes sure to send copies at all of them—not just in DC. According to Ms Oliver, the book has already sold more than 500 copies and is now back-ordered. “There isn’t a day when we don’t sell a book,” she says.

Joaquin’s parents are currently preparing their annual celebration of Joaquin’s birthday. He would have turned 23 this year, so they’re going to visit 23 cities between 3 July and 23 August. Ms Oliver refuses to view Joaquin’s birthday — 4 August — as a sad day, because he enjoyed celebrating it so much when he was alive. So the tour will be a “nice thing”, she says, with “positive activities.” A fundraiser has been created for the tour, as well as a Kickstarter Ms Oliver and her husband will take part in events and engage with communities.

“We’re going to give them our word that they can count on us, because this is our duty,” she says on the phone. “Anyone that doesn’t have a voice can have us, and we want to empower them.”