Reflecting on Sandy Hook
Five years after tragedy, silence, reflection and tributes replace political activism
Nicole Lesser of Hastings-onHudson, N.Y., holds a candle during a vigil Dec. 14 at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in Manhattan to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook School shootings in which 20 children and six educators were slain. The vigil was sponsored by Moms Demand Action and a coalition of more than 30 organizations.
Thursday marks the five-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and residents planned to honor the day mostly in private reflection after years of activism and advocacy in memory of 20 children and six educators slain.
Gov. Dan Malloy ordered flags at halfstaff statewide for the shooting in Newtown, Conn. Churches held morning masses and planned to ring bells about 9:30 a.m. ET, which was the approximate time of the rampage. Town offices will close from 9:30 to 9:45 a.m. for a moment of silence.
Newtown Congregational Church opened at 9 a.m. for prayer, silence, music and support. In the evening, two memorial services were planned.
Throughout the years, relatives of the victims have dedicated themselves to charity and other activism, in an effort to prevent violence. Rebecca Kowalski, whose 7-year-old son Chase died in the shooting, began a youth triathlon program called Race4Chase.
“You have two choices,” Kowalski told The Associated Press. “I could be in the bottom of a bottle; I could not get out of my bed. Or, I could do what’s making us heal a little bit every day.”
Nelba Marquez-Greene created the Ana Grace Project for her 6-year-old daughter who was killed to combat bullying and help socially isolated children at schools in New Britain, Conn.
“I want people to remember that Adam, the person who did this, was also once 6 and in a first-grade classroom and that if we had reached out earlier, then maybe this could have changed,” Marquez-Greene told AP.
Scarlett Lewis has also been pushing for emotional support in schools to honor her slain son through the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. The learning program began at four schools in Connecticut, Hawaii, Arkansas and New Mexico and has been downloaded by many other schools.
“I believe this is an urgent matter,” Lewis said. “I believe it would have saved my son’s life, as well as the lives of other victims ... and reduce bullying.”
Sandy Hook Promise was co-found- ed by several Newtown families, including the parents of first-grade victims Dylan Hockley and Daniel Barden.
The group lobbied for mental health care changes and gun control legislation in the months after the shooting, successfully advocating for state laws limiting sales of some guns in states such as Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and New Jersey. A public service announcement from the group went viral this week. The video, called Tomorrow’s News, looked like a news broadcast previewing a fictional shooting, with what students, parents and teachers should have mentioned to authorities about the 15-year-old gunman.
“He told some of us that his dad kept a gun in his closet and he always talked about using it on — you know —the people that bullied him,” one male student says. “Tomorrow I’ll probably say that I wish I told someone.” A teacher adds: “Tomorrow I’ll probably point out that something has seemed off with him since the beginning of the school year.”
The group had 17 Sandy Hook families lobby 49 senators during seven days in a failed effort in 2013 to get a federal law banning some semi-automatic weapons and expanding background checks for gun purchases.
“Shame on Congress for allowing yet another year to pass without action,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told the Hartford Courant. “Shame on Congress for allowing this tragic anniversary to be followed by so many more — in Sutherland Springs, in Las Vegas, in Orlando, in Charleston, and in our communities each and every day.”