A first grade teacher sheltered her students in a closet, listening to gunshots in the hallway outside. Fearing the worst, she said she wanted these tiny 6 and 7 year olds to know that somebody loved them, and for that to be the last thing they heard, not the gunshots. Other teachers and staff risked their lives and died trying to protect children. They literally ran out without hesitation to warn others, to pull students to safety, and to put themselves between the bullets and the children.
Their incredible selflessness and bravery saved many childrens' lives. Thinking about that is helping to hold up the crushing weight of the rest of that horrible, tragic day. Because we can't stop thinking about it. I wanted to do something to help somehow, but feel pretty helpless. The only thing I can do right now is draw. It's not going to help, but I wanted to be doing something.
I'd like to dedicate this image to the teachers and students of Sandy Hook Elementary School.
We live in Newtown. Our daughter Daisy goes to Newtown Middle School, and our son Jamie is a senior at Newtown High School. A lot of friends, relatives and colleagues have texted and called and emailed over the last day to find out if we're okay, to express their grief and horror, and to send love and support. We are very grateful for all the thoughts and wishes. A lot of people have also wanted to know more information. I think everyone is desperately trying to find something to help give this all some kind of meaning.
So I hope you'll forgive me for describing our day here for all of the people who have been asking.
We got Daisy ready in the morning and got her on the school bus at 6:25 as usual. Jamie had the first few classes free and didn't have to leave until 10 am. Some time before that we were notified by phone and email of a school lockdown. It's not all that unusual here. The schools have drills, and they also lock down the schools as a precaution if there is a robbery or anything unusual in the town, so we weren't worried. But we wanted to know if it would be over soon so my son could get into the school. So I turned on the police scanner to see if anything was going on. Usually it's silent - not a lot goes on here in Newtown. This time it wasn't silent. It was immediately clear that something serious was going on. I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I heard an EMT say they were setting up triage units in the parking lot. Then a dispatcher said that 3 MCI units - mass casualty incident units - were en route. It was obviously a large-scale emergency. We heard ambulances inbound from towns all around us. We heard only three ambulances leaving for nearby hospitals.