Conn. Schools Open on Sandy Hook Anniversary for First Time

Dec. 14--Monday will be the first time Newtown schools are open on the anniversary of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and officials are planning a quiet remembrance of the 26 lives lost in the school three years ago.

"We really don't know what the reaction in the schools will be. We're in unchartered territory," said Newtown Youth and Family Services Director Candice Bohr. "We're just going to see what the day brings and react."

The agency has counselors in every school in the district, including the school in Monroe that students from the old Sandy Hook Elementary School are attending. There are also counselors from Clifford Beers, a private firm, in the Monroe school.

Additional personnel may be assigned to some schools on the anniversary if needed, officials said. There also are counselors available for staff.

"We have a big concern about the teachers and the faculty reliving that day," Bohr said. "How do they do their job, connect with the kids and handle their own emotions?"

A moment of silence will be observed in the middle and high schools Monday. At the elementary schools, there will be no mention of the shooting. The children who survived are now fourth-graders.

"At the elementary and intermediate school level, staff fully understands that many children under their guidance may or may not know about the tragedy," Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi Jr. wrote in letter to parents about the anniversary.

"If requested by parents, school staff will provide talking points with parents to assist them in personal conversations with their child," Erardi said.

Erardi met with some of the families of the 26 victims, which included 20 first-graders and six adults, to determine if they wanted to cancel school, mark the day with a special remembrance or proceed as close to normal as possible.

"It is my hope that everyone will find a quiet moment to reflect on what was lost that day," Erardi said.

The quiet, insular community of Sandy Hook was shattered on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza shot his way through a glass window at the front of the elementary school he had attended as a child and proceeded to fire 154 bullets in less than five minutes using an AR-15.

The last bullet from one of two handguns he was carrying was used to kill himself. Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, as she slept in her bed before driving to the school.

Teachers and staff hid students in closets and under desks and remained in a lockdown until local and state police cleared the building class by class and took the frightened children to a nearby firehouse.

The school was torn down several months later after the state pledged $50 million to build a new one. The new school on the same site is scheduled to be completed in June and is on budget, Erardi said.

Unlike the first anniversary, when a number of the victims' families gathered at a local horse farm and lit candles in memory of their children, there are no town ceremonies planned. Many of the victims' families are busy with their own causes, whether it be brain research, gun control or establishing an animal sanctuary.

There will be an interfaith prayer gathering at 7 p.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church.

"Newtown is continuing to rebuild and heal," Erardi said.

Copyright 2015 - The Hartford Courant