Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newton, CT - Multiple Deaths

[Tamikosmom]

12/28/12 Claim seeks $100 million for child survivor of Connecticut school shooting
 
"The unidentified client, referred to as Jill Doe, heard "cursing, screaming, and shooting" over the school intercom when the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, opened fire, according to the claim filed by New Haven-based attorney Irv Pinsky.

"As a consequence, the ... child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined," the claim said"

http://news.yahoo.com/claim-seeks-100-million-child-survivor-connecticut-school-003646074.html

Well this just sickens me. These people should be thankful that their child is alive. Im sure the rest of those families would trade any amount of money to have their loved ones back.

This is ridiculous.  I pray it isn't true. The intercom was turned on so everyone could hear and know what was going on. They should be thankful. Who isn't suffering that was there that day? 

I agree in regards to the survivors.  It must have been traumatic but ... there was no other option.  The intercom was the only means to convey to all inside that building the scope/seriousness of the situation.
 
However ... I believe the families of the 20 children and 6 faculty members who were sitting ducks to a gunman may have a case ... a gunman who realized that a designated "gun free zone" implied little or no resistance to his mission of evil.

All six of those unarmed faculty members who lost their lives were denied "the choice" to exercise their consitution right to use lethal force to defend themselves ... to defend their innocent charges.

Think about it.  ONE bullet could have taken Adam Lanza down.  How many lives could have been spared that fateful day?

Janet

[Tamikosmom]

Free weapons training offered to Utah teachers after school rampage
First Published Dec 24 2012 03:12 pm
Last Updated Dec 26 2012 03:29 pm

Concealed-weapons instructors are offering free permit courses and mass violence response training to public school teachers, an effort to arm more teachers in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting.

Utah is one of two states — Kansas being the other — that allows individuals with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns in a school.

Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, said he expects the class to reach its limit of 200 people and more will be turned away.

<snipped>

USSC has offered the course to teachers before, typically around the fall break, but after a Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 dead, including the gunman, there was demand for another class, Aposhian said.

http://**/sltrib/news/55524114-78/utah-teachers-weapons-shooting.html.csp

[grace-land]

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-newtown-sandy-hook-crime-scene-1230-20121229,0,1955631.story

Police To Re-Create Scene Outside Sandy Hook School
Bullets Hit Cars In Parking Lot, And Officers Want To Know If Lanza Was Firing At Them
6:00 p.m. EST, December 29, 2012

State police are considering partially re-creating the scene outside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14 as the first police officers responded to the mass shooting to try and answer a nagging question: Did Adam Lanza fire at police officers?
 
Police are discussing bringing back some of the cars that were in the school lot as the first Newtown officers and state police troopers arrived following 911 calls that was a shooter was on the loose. The cars will be placed exactly where they parked that morning as will the police cruisers of the first responders. The plan is to receate the scene in the coming week.
 
Police have found numerous bullets outside the school that hit at least three cars, including the one owned by Lauren Rousseau, who was killed by Lanza in her classroom along with 14 of her students and a special-education aide. The three cars that were hit, belonging to Sandy Hook staffers, were near where at least one of the first group of officers parked before running into the school, sources said.

First responders said they could hear gunshots when they arrived, meaning Lanza was still firing. It was only after they entered the building that the shooting stopped and police discovered that Lanza, 20, had killed himself with a pistol, but not before killing 26 others in the school, including 20 first-graders, with a Bushmaster .223 rifle.
 ::snipping2::

[kcrn]

12/28/12 Claim seeks $100 million for child survivor of Connecticut school shooting
 
"The unidentified client, referred to as Jill Doe, heard "cursing, screaming, and shooting" over the school intercom when the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, opened fire, according to the claim filed by New Haven-based attorney Irv Pinsky.

"As a consequence, the ... child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined," the claim said"

http://news.yahoo.com/claim-seeks-100-million-child-survivor-connecticut-school-003646074.html

Well this just sickens me. These people should be thankful that their child is alive. Im sure the rest of those families would trade any amount of money to have their loved ones back.

This is ridiculous.  I pray it isn't true. The intercom was turned on so everyone could hear and know what was going on. They should be thankful. Who isn't suffering that was there that day? 

I agree in regards to the survivors.  It must have been traumatic but ... there was no other option.  The intercom was the only means to convey to all inside that building the scope/seriousness of the situation.
 
However ... I believe the families of the 20 children and 6 faculty members who were sitting ducks to a gunman may have a case ... a gunman who realized that a designated "gun free zone" implied little or no resistance to his mission of evil.

All six of those unarmed faculty members who lost their lives were denied "the choice" to exercise their consitution right to use lethal force to defend themselves ... to defend their innocent charges.

Think about it.  ONE bullet could have taken Adam Lanza down.  How many lives could have been spared that fateful day?

Janet

Anyone that sues after this tragedy is pathetic. All schools are gun free zones. So are hospitals & many other places. The only difference is at our hospitals the security gaurds can carry. At our grade school our resource officer of course has a gun. Noone can forsee a tragedy like this & it can happen anywhere. I doubtthat even if the school was not a gun free zone that many, if any of the teachers there would have had a weapon. I think that any parent who tries to profit off this is really sad. Those teachers gave their lives trying to protect those children. To make it about money is a disgrace.

[crazybabyborg]

Maybe it's relevant, maybe not, but this could have been another massacre. Somebody (an off duty officer) stopped it...... with a gun. It would seem that a good person with a gun is sometimes the best answer to a bad person with one.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/san-antonio-movie-theater-shooting_n_2315139.html
 ::snipping2::


San Antonio Movie Theater Shooting: Gunman Shoots 1 In Theater Parking Lot
The gunman entered the theater. Antu says the man fired a shot but struck no one. An off-duty sheriff's deputy working security then shot the gunman.

 ::snipping2::

[klaasend]

Maybe it's relevant, maybe not, but this could have been another massacre. Somebody (an off duty officer) stopped it...... with a gun. It would seem that a good person with a gun is sometimes the best answer to a bad person with one.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/san-antonio-movie-theater-shooting_n_2315139.html
 ::snipping2::


San Antonio Movie Theater Shooting: Gunman Shoots 1 In Theater Parking Lot
The gunman entered the theater. Antu says the man fired a shot but struck no one. An off-duty sheriff's deputy working security then shot the gunman.

 ::snipping2::

Depends entirely upon what type of weapon this man had.  I didn't see any reports of semi automatic or assault weapon in the articles I read.

[Brandi]

Maybe it's relevant, maybe not, but this could have been another massacre. Somebody (an off duty officer) stopped it...... with a gun. It would seem that a good person with a gun is sometimes the best answer to a bad person with one.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/san-antonio-movie-theater-shooting_n_2315139.html
 ::snipping2::


San Antonio Movie Theater Shooting: Gunman Shoots 1 In Theater Parking Lot
The gunman entered the theater. Antu says the man fired a shot but struck no one. An off-duty sheriff's deputy working security then shot the gunman.

 ::snipping2::

Depends entirely upon what type of weapon this man had.  I didn't see any reports of semi automatic or assault weapon in the articles I read.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/man-attempts-to-open-fire-on-crowd-at-movie-theater-armed-off-duty-sheriffs-deputy-drops-him-with-one-bullet/
<snipped>

Pollard said the woman called to warn restaurant employees, but by the time she saw his message, Garcia was already outside the China Garden firing a Glock 23 at the front door about 9:25 p.m.

<snipped>

A Glock 23 is a semi-automatic weapon.
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?r=view&i=422463

[klaasend]

Yes but not a military assault rifle.

[crazybabyborg]

Yes but not a military assault rifle.

Agreed...... if the shooter had a rifle that could spray bullets (machine gun fashion), then a lot of damage could be done before anyone had a chance to draw a hand gun to shoot him. I'm confused about the difference between an assault rifle and an automatic weapon, but I've seen enough old movies to know that any "machine gun like" weapon in a crowd, whether it be a mall, movie, or school, spells total disaster before any response is possible.

[BabsKats]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/12/somebody-finally-claimed-adam-lanzas-body/60440/


Dec 30, 2012

Over two weeks after he opened fire on a school full of children, killing 26 people as well as himself and his mother, Adam Lanza is heading to his final resting place. On Sunday, in a bulletin bereft of detail, the Connecticut chief medical examiner's office announced that the 20-year-old's body had been claimed for burial. They didn't say who claimed him, where he would be buried, if he would receive a funeral or really anything else about what will happen to the young mass murderer. Similarly, The New York Times came up short in its search for details as "calls and messages to family members and a family spokesman were not immediately returned on Sunday night."

Who knows if we'll find out who wanted to give Lanza a proper burial. Perhaps it was his wealthy father, the man who's been conspicuously absent from coverage of the December 14 shooting and its aftermath. (Evidently, the father and son hadn't spoken in two years.) Maybe it was Adam's brother, Ryan, who's consistently found himself in troubling and compromising positions since the tragedy. The family did quietly bury Nancy Lanza, who was murdered by her son Adam, on December 20 in New Hampshire but hasn't said whether or not they planned to collect Adam's body. But somebody did, and now it's over.

 ::snipping2::
In a more practical way, though, if nobody had claimed it, the government would've had to pay over $1,500 to dispose of the body.

[crazybabyborg]

Thanks, BabsKats. My bet is that the family did claim the body and they will opt for cremation. I don't think they would want a grave site. JMO.

[carpe noctem]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/12/somebody-finally-claimed-adam-lanzas-body/60440/


Dec 30, 2012

Over two weeks after he opened fire on a school full of children, killing 26 people as well as himself and his mother, Adam Lanza is heading to his final resting place. On Sunday, in a bulletin bereft of detail, the Connecticut chief medical examiner's office announced that the 20-year-old's body had been claimed for burial. They didn't say who claimed him, where he would be buried, if he would receive a funeral or really anything else about what will happen to the young mass murderer. Similarly, The New York Times came up short in its search for details as "calls and messages to family members and a family spokesman were not immediately returned on Sunday night."

Who knows if we'll find out who wanted to give Lanza a proper burial. Perhaps it was his wealthy father, the man who's been conspicuously absent from coverage of the December 14 shooting and its aftermath. (Evidently, the father and son hadn't spoken in two years.) Maybe it was Adam's brother, Ryan, who's consistently found himself in troubling and compromising positions since the tragedy. The family did quietly bury Nancy Lanza, who was murdered by her son Adam, on December 20 in New Hampshire but hasn't said whether or not they planned to collect Adam's body. But somebody did, and now it's over.

 ::snipping2::
In a more practical way, though, if nobody had claimed it, the government would've had to pay over $1,500 to dispose of the body.

Very interesting, babskats. Thank you!

Only the USA would pay $1,500 for body disposal. Proud home of the $750 hammer.

Reminds me of that 600 pound Haiti woman we C-130 shipped to Miami for weight surgery. She was too big for Delta - They love to fly and it shows, but even they have a limit.

They couldn't stop her from eating porridge or something and she died in a month or so. To a better & more peaceful New Year for all!

[San]

Thanks, BabsKats. My bet is that the family did claim the body and they will opt for cremation. I don't think they would want a grave site. JMO.

I agree CBB.

[San]

New York Daily News 2012 Person of the Year winner: The brave faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary School

In the face of tragedy and unspeakable evil, the staff gave everything -- some their own lives -- to rescue students from the massacre that claimed 26 lives.


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, December 30, 2012, 7:47 PM
Updated: Monday, December 31, 2012, 7:00 AM

t was a yeat that summoned the human spirit to greatness.

And never more so than during the quarter-hour on the sunny Friday morning when mass murder invaded an elementary school in rural Connecticut.

 Amid a bloody siege unlike any in American history, there was courage and there was selflessness of awe-inspiring dimensions. People who were nurturers by calling rose to do what they could to safeguard the children in their care from gunfire.

Six fell to the bullets.

Greater love ...

In sorrow, anger and immeasurable admiration, the Daily News honors every valiant member of the Sandy Hook family, both the living and the dead, as a Daily News Person of the Year.

All of America and much of the world absorbed the horror of the massacre like a powerful blow to the gut: 20 innocents, my God, 20 little boys and girls trapped in terror and pain as a madman tore at them with a weapon and ammunition designed for a lethal battlefield.

You, this newspaper’s readers, wept with so many others, as conveyed touchingly in letters to the Voice of the People. Then you joined in marveling as stories of heroism and lifesaving composure under fire from Newtown came to the fore.

The accounts were all the more astounding because Sandy Hook Elementary School’s administrators, teachers and support personnel were not soldiers or cops, were not in any way physically or psychically trained to quell violence.

 ::snipping2::

 What happened in that elementary school fits the most extreme definition of the word.

More than 400 children, as young as 5, as old as 10, were at desks or carrying out placid school-day tasks when Adam Lanza gained entry to their well-secured world through gunfire.

From that moment on, each child was at grave risk. As the shots echoed, one, then another and another, there was no telling where Lanza would strike or how many he intended to kill.

And Principal Dawn Hochsprung and psychologist Mary Sherlach ran toward the gunfire and were slain.

And first-grade teacher Lauren Rousseau died with her students, their last moments lost to witnesses.

And first-grade teacher Victoria Soto hurried children into closets and died standing between them and the gunman.

And janitor Rick Thorne ran through the halls sounding the alarm.

And special-education teacher Anne Marie Murphy cradled a 6-year-old boy as the bullets killed them both and others she was shielding.

And teacher’s aide Rachel D’Avino went to her death trying to save a child.

And music teacher Maryrose Kristopik hugged her students in a locked closet as the gunman pounded on the door.

And teacher Kaitlin Roig barricaded 14 third-graders in a bathroom.

And lead teacher Natalie Hammond encountered the gunman and miraculously survived, wounded.

And library workers Yvonne Cech and Maryann Jacob told 18 children to crawl into a storage area, barricaded the door with a filing cabinet and calmed them with crayons and paper.

And teacher Abbey Clements and reading specialist Laura Feinstein pulled children into hiding from outside their classrooms.

And kindergarten teacher Janet Vollmer huddled her children in lockdown and read them stories.

And teacher Ted Varga escaped but went back to help others get out.

And so many others found the strength to bring the children calmly and safely through the terror.

Would that all were on this Earth to share in a recognition of the bravery that beat hidden in their hearts.

If only.

Read the entire story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-york-daily-news-2012-person-year-winner-brave-faculty-sandy-hook-elementary-school-article-1.1230018?pgno=1#ixzz2GdXIO0th

[Tamikosmom]

Remains of gunman in Connecticut school massacre claimed for burial by his father
Published December 31, 2012

The body of the young man who killed 26 people in the second largest school shooting in U.S. history has been claimed by his father.

A spokesman for the family said Monday that Peter Lanza claimed the remains of 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/31/remains-gunman-in-connecticut-school-massacre-claimed-for-burial/?test=latestnews

[crazybabyborg]

New York Daily News 2012 Person of the Year winner: The brave faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary School

In the face of tragedy and unspeakable evil, the staff gave everything -- some their own lives -- to rescue students from the massacre that claimed 26 lives.


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, December 30, 2012, 7:47 PM
Updated: Monday, December 31, 2012, 7:00 AM

t was a yeat that summoned the human spirit to greatness.

And never more so than during the quarter-hour on the sunny Friday morning when mass murder invaded an elementary school in rural Connecticut.

 Amid a bloody siege unlike any in American history, there was courage and there was selflessness of awe-inspiring dimensions. People who were nurturers by calling rose to do what they could to safeguard the children in their care from gunfire.

Six fell to the bullets.

Greater love ...

In sorrow, anger and immeasurable admiration, the Daily News honors every valiant member of the Sandy Hook family, both the living and the dead, as a Daily News Person of the Year.

All of America and much of the world absorbed the horror of the massacre like a powerful blow to the gut: 20 innocents, my God, 20 little boys and girls trapped in terror and pain as a madman tore at them with a weapon and ammunition designed for a lethal battlefield.

You, this newspaper’s readers, wept with so many others, as conveyed touchingly in letters to the Voice of the People. Then you joined in marveling as stories of heroism and lifesaving composure under fire from Newtown came to the fore.

The accounts were all the more astounding because Sandy Hook Elementary School’s administrators, teachers and support personnel were not soldiers or cops, were not in any way physically or psychically trained to quell violence.

 ::snipping2::

 What happened in that elementary school fits the most extreme definition of the word.

More than 400 children, as young as 5, as old as 10, were at desks or carrying out placid school-day tasks when Adam Lanza gained entry to their well-secured world through gunfire.

From that moment on, each child was at grave risk. As the shots echoed, one, then another and another, there was no telling where Lanza would strike or how many he intended to kill.

And Principal Dawn Hochsprung and psychologist Mary Sherlach ran toward the gunfire and were slain.

And first-grade teacher Lauren Rousseau died with her students, their last moments lost to witnesses.

And first-grade teacher Victoria Soto hurried children into closets and died standing between them and the gunman.

And janitor Rick Thorne ran through the halls sounding the alarm.

And special-education teacher Anne Marie Murphy cradled a 6-year-old boy as the bullets killed them both and others she was shielding.

And teacher’s aide Rachel D’Avino went to her death trying to save a child.

And music teacher Maryrose Kristopik hugged her students in a locked closet as the gunman pounded on the door.

And teacher Kaitlin Roig barricaded 14 third-graders in a bathroom.

And lead teacher Natalie Hammond encountered the gunman and miraculously survived, wounded.

And library workers Yvonne Cech and Maryann Jacob told 18 children to crawl into a storage area, barricaded the door with a filing cabinet and calmed them with crayons and paper.

And teacher Abbey Clements and reading specialist Laura Feinstein pulled children into hiding from outside their classrooms.

And kindergarten teacher Janet Vollmer huddled her children in lockdown and read them stories.

And teacher Ted Varga escaped but went back to help others get out.

And so many others found the strength to bring the children calmly and safely through the terror.

Would that all were on this Earth to share in a recognition of the bravery that beat hidden in their hearts.

If only.

Read the entire story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-york-daily-news-2012-person-year-winner-brave-faculty-sandy-hook-elementary-school-article-1.1230018?pgno=1#ixzz2GdXIO0th

Reading this just breaks my heart all over again. Thanks for posting it, San. If we are to find an answer, we have to remember.

Forgive me for repeating myself, but I've really searched for anything that would have saved those children, and all the victims of school shootings we've experienced in this country. There are, of course, moral considerations and certainly mental health issues but the article brings home to me that measures must be taken immediately to protect the children. For me, that's the starting point and the road to "helping" the troubled lies on the road beyond that.

I understand those who say that more guns can't be the answer. That seems logical but I keep coming back to that day at Sandy Hook and the principal who lunged at the shooter with her body because it's all she had to fight with. I keep thinking of the teacher who told her children that she loved them because she didn't want the sound of gunshots to be the last sound they heard before they were slaughtered. I believe that each hero that day would have given anything to have something to protect those kids. They were all so totally helpless against a well armed, ruthless murderer.

I honestly believe that each classroom should have a teacher coded locked box on the wall; not glass and contents not visible. Think of those fire alarm pulls. I believe the box should contain a loaded gun. I think that the second an opening code was entered, an automated alarm should sound at the police station, telling authorities exactly which classroom was involved, so that the location of a shooter might be known and also conveying that the teacher within that room would need to be properly notified before police entered it. One staff day should be enough to instruct teachers on a drill that would identify a safe zone within each classroom to secure the children before the teacher crouches behind a desk and trains that gun on the door. That's all a teacher should do. No one expects or would want a teacher to hunt down a shooter within the school. A teacher just needs to bridge those critical first few minutes, before police can get there when so much harm is always done and the threat is so deadly. A teacher needs something besides her own body to protect the children against a deranged, well armed, murderer stepping into her classroom.

I honestly believe that once it was well known that school children were protected, the probability that a locked, teacher coded box on the wall, would ever have need to be opened, would be almost non existent. It wouldn't stop mall shootings or movie shootings, but school children would be safer. Isn't that progress?

There's a lot of talk about armed guards, but that has problems. Many schools are huge and sprawling and the cost of another position goes on year after year. There would be an initial cost to the above plan, but it wouldn't be perpetual. An armed guard, IMO, wouldn't serve as a deterrent as well as placing protection at the point of immediate threat. I know it sounds radical, but I believe that sometimes peace through strength makes sense and is the best assurance that you'll never have to use that strength. I've questioned myself about being in the position those teachers were in. I've never shot a gun and am uncomfortable about even holding one. Given what they faced, I would have been so grateful to be able to hold the children's chance to live in my hand rather than their small bodies and attempting to make their last moments less fearful. I could do what I have proposed, under their circumstances. I could line up a site on the door and if a gun carrying murderer stepped inside, I could pull the trigger.

[alagary]

This video is by a rifle enthusiast but he does a good job explaning the different types of rifles;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVh76TfqJ-k

[Brandi]

$100 Million Dollar Lawsuit Against Connecticut For Sandy Hook Shooting Dropped
by Anjali Sareen | 2:28 pm, January 1st, 2013

New Haven lawyer Irving Pinsky has dropped his $100 million law suit against the state of Connecticut, claiming he needed to evaluate new evidence in the matter. Pinsky was suing Connecticut on behalf of a 6-year-old student at Sandy Hook Elementary, who was allegedly “traumatized” by hearing violent screams and gun shots over the school’s intercom system.
<snipped>

Pinsky said although he is dropping this suit, he is not ruling out other legal action in the future.

State Attorney General George Jepsen said Pinsky’s suit was “misguided” and indicated the solution to violent crime would be in legislative action, rather than legal action.
<snipped>

http://www.mediaite.com/online/lawsuit-against-connecticut-for-sandy-hook-shooting-dropped/

[Green Eyes]

May the parents and children have a wonderful day. Prayers for them all.

http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-hook-kids-head-school-first-time-since-050335929.html
 
 ::snipping2::
School officials are preparing for droves of anxious parents to join the fleet of buses carting children to a disused middle school in the neighboring town of Monroe. Chalk Hill Middle School, closed about a year and half ago, has been hastily refurbished in the three weeks since the December 14 attack and renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 ::snipping2::
Parents wishing to remain with their kids, ages 5 to 10 in kindergarten through grade 4, will be allowed to accompany them to their classrooms and afterwards may stay in the school's "lecture room" for as long as they like, according to a memo to parents on the school's website. Counseling will be available for students and parents at the new school, about 7 miles south of the scene of the shooting.

[BabsKats]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/03/state-worker-reportedly-placed-on-leave-after-letting-husband-view-adam-lanza/?intcmp=obinsite


State worker reportedly placed on leave after letting husband view Adam Lanza's body
Published January 03, 2013
FoxNews.com

An administrative worker at Connecticut’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has reportedly been placed on a paid leave after allegedly allowing her husband to view the body of mass killer Adam Lanza two days after the Newtown school massacre.

Sources told The Hartford Courant that Jean Henry, a processing technician at the state’s Farmington facility, and her husband entered the refrigerated room in which bodies are kept pending autopsies on the morning of the day when the post-mortem would later be performed on the 20-year-old gunman.

 ::snipping2::

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/03/state-worker-reportedly-placed-on-leave-after-letting-husband-view-adam-lanza/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2GxNVXZIq