Children’s deaths become a statistic in the debate over gun control in the United States, their names and their short lives quickly forgotten, while there seems no restraint on providing details of the one wielding the weapon. It is a disturbing reality how the National Rifle Association (NRA), with its lobbying power deep in the pockets of those who make decisions and enact laws, is able to keep America from tightening regulations to eliminate weapons that would never be used for anything but harm, and to block a government from making stringent rules for the purchase of guns to keep weapons out of the hands of those who choose to do harm.
Steve Hartman of CBS News says he has been typecast as the feel-good news guy. He was first assigned to a school shooting in 1997, when there were 17 such school shootings that year, a statistic that has grown exponentially since then. No U.S. government agency tracks the number of children killed in school shootings, which is interesting in a country whose government officials stand at the ready to send “thoughts and prayers.” The Independent reported in August of 2025, there had already been 44 shootings in US schools, and Everytown Research later reported 159 incidents of gunfire on school property in 2025. As Steve explained, “they bring me in at the end… to restore people’s faith in humanity.” As he covered more of these shootings, he felt numb, using the same words in his offering of a positive message when no such message exists in this madness. People were moving on quicker from the news of these deaths, insulating themselves for the next shooting which could be just around the corner. Steve wanted to do something different than trying to find positive words. He did just that.
For seven years, Steve Hartman and Lou Bopp worked on a film documenting the empty bedrooms of children lost to gun violence in schools. Lou Bopp, photographer, visited the homes of parents whose child’s bedroom remains as it was the day their child left for school. Lou confesses this to be the hardest work he has ever done, gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. The two of them spent time in these bedrooms capturing the images of who these kids were, what inspired them, what made them happy, each room a sanctuary. Together Steve and Lou created a short film, “All The Empty Rooms,” which was released on Netflix on December 1, 2025.
As I watched the film, I noticed that both Steve and Lou removed their shoes before entering each room. It was a solemn and quiet gesture of respect. The rooms were a shrine with posters of SpongeBob SquarePants, friendship bracelets, hair elastics, an open tube of toothpaste, favourite books, odds and ends under the bed, a line of lights around the ceiling of one bedroom that had not been turned off since her death. They listened to the parents share how they kept the rooms as they had been left, as best they could. One mom didn’t wash the clothes in her son’s laundry hamper in the hopes of retaining his smell in the room. A father leaves a chair beside his young daughter’s bed where he can go to sit, to find comfort, to relive the joyful memories of her. Another mother and father shared the notes their daughter had written to her future self, notes filled with hope and positivity and plans.
The media spend too much time mentioning the shooters, Steve said, and he wanted to focus on the children in this film. Not a single word was spoken of how they died, but rather how they lived.
“These were our children,” Steve said, his voice filled with emotion.
“If all Americans could be transported to one of these bedrooms, we’d be a different America.”
“All The Empty Rooms” is not the usual documentary film, but rather a quiet tribute to the lives of these children, lives that were far too short, lives filled with love and laughter.
World Population Review listed twelve countries who experienced school shootings between 2009 and 2018, the U.S. topping the list with 288 incidents, with Canada further down the list in ninth position with two incidents. Global News reported 29 school shootings in Canada from 1885 to 2018. Regardless of the numbers, Canadians are not immune despite our willingness to look south of us with disdain and judgment.
The film wasn’t about statistics, though it is difficult not to focus on the frightening numbers. All children’s lives are precious and at the very least, every child deserves safety at school. Steve and Lou photographed eight bedrooms, using four of them in the film, the children ages nine to fifteen. In this thirty-five-minute film, it is Steve’s hope that empathy will be restored for the children lost. Instead of sending thoughts and prayers, action toward change would comfort these parents who have had to learn how to live without their children, an impossible challenge.
wendistewart@live.ca
