Connecticut school district on lockdown after shooting report at a Newtown elemen #11

[Darkman00]

How one church is helping heal Newtown

Members of the Newtown United Methodist Church have turned to faith – and each other – to surmount a mass shooting.

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Correspondent / March 10, 2013

The top image shows paper hearts, which have come into Newtown, Conn., from around the country. The lower left image shows the Rev. Mel Kawakami greeting children during a Sunday service at the Newtown United Methodist Church. This is the cover story in the Mar. 11 issue of The Christian Science MonitorWeekly. (Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor)


Newtown, Conn.

As soon as Barbara Sibley entered the long driveway of Sandy Hook Elementary School shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, she noticed something seemed wrong. Children were outside, running, yelling, and waving their arms as if to signal her. She wondered where their teacher was and drove on to deliver the book her third-grade son, Daniel, had forgotten at home.

She parked and found more strangeness: an eerily quiet building, a shattered window, and an old hatchback car parked in front of the school with all the doors left open. Then she heard a series of staccato "pop pops" that sounded like roof construction. Suddenly, she and another mother who was there realized what it was – gunshots.

"The gunfire started again, and it was just relentless," Ms. Sibley recalls. "It was right there. We just ran."

They clasped hands and crouched behind a dumpster. Unsure whether Daniel was alive or dead, she frantically called her mother, then her husband, Rob.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0310/How-one-church-is-helping-heal-Newtown
​

 

[Darkman00]

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

2,500 gun deaths since Newtown, Conn., massacre

By: USA Today, Posted: 4:20 PM

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_..._death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html​

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/op...hs-since-Newtown-Conn-massacre-196777111.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...fficking-straw-purchases-senate-vote/1972181/

http://blogs.northcountrypublicradi...7/as-gun-debate-goes-on-2500-more-gun-deaths/

 

[Darkman00]

Blog helps Utah family deal with loss of daughter in Newtown shooting

By Viviane Vo-Duc and Devon Dolan, Deseret News

Published: Sunday, March 10 2013 7:12 p.m. MDT

Alissa Parker started a blog to help her process her thoughts and emotions over the loss of her daughter, 6-year-old Emilie Parker. Emilie was shot and killed Dec. 14, 2012, during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

OGDEN — Just how much Alissa Parker misses her 6-year-old daughter Emilie Parker is evident from her blog.

“I feel her often. I feel her influence even now,” she wrote on the website called The Parker Five. She created the blog to help process her thoughts during a painful and confusing time.

On Dec. 14, 2012, a man shot and killed 26 people, almost all of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Among them was 6-year-old Emilie Parker, the daughter of Robbie and Alyssa Parker who grew up in the Ogden area. They buried Emilie in Ogden's Myers Evergreen Memorial Park.

The family titled the blog The Parker Five because: “We will always be together.” Alissa Parker said she is taking things one day at a time and knows it’s going to be long healing process for her and her family.

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...ith-loss-of-daughter-in-Newtown-shooting.html
​

 

[time]

I am watching the PBS episode on Adam Lanza now. Very interesting.

I read a few articles before but honestly was way more concerned about the gun laws (and took action on that).

Adam was seriously messed up like a whole lot of kids these days (is your kid getting SSI? hello!), guess if it comes down to blaming a disturbed child or blaming guns....well...let's change laws and ignore the disturbed child component, guess we should make the world "disturbed child safe" except some of us are NOT cool with that.

We don't need to be disturbed child or insanity proof, we need to deal with those issues protactively and be prepared to defend against those individuals because there are more and more of them every day apparently.

I totally agree with you about giving kids prescription drugs. In fact, I think a lot of what is going on in that realm is a travesty. Kids are given drugs they do not need, get depressed, kill themselves or kill someone else. I might add that we do this to them and them often want to try them as adults even when drugs were prescribed.

On the other hand, we also need to focus on reforming gun laws. In this case, there are at least three related issues:

1. access to handguns that one doesn't own (and can't legally get? again a possible mental health connection)
2. having semi-automatic/assault rifles
3. research on what leads to gun violence (which could include the mental health issue and violent games, etc. - it appears the NRA got funding for this research stopped in the 1990's)

 

[time]

United Physicians of Newtown call for changes to address violence, guns

by Kristina Puga, @kristinapuga
12:40 am on 03/09/2013

“I’m a Newtown resident — I have children in the school system — that was the worst day of my life,” says Dr. José Mendez, a pulmonologist at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, recalling December 14, 2012 — the day of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 first graders and six educators.

Dr. Mendez is also one of the four Latino doctors in Newtown who have been recruited into the United Physicians of Newtown — a group of 106 doctors, residing in Newtown, Conn., who are dedicated to making the world a safer place. On March 14, they are supposed to have their second meeting, at the Edmund Town Hall, to further develop their position statement, which now includes, among other things: nullifying the restriction on federal institutions pursuing research on violence prevention, advocating for financial resources dedicated to mental health, and changing the culture of violence in the U.S. today.

Read more: http://nbclatino.com/2013/03/09/uni...wn-call-for-changes-to-address-violence-guns/

Bravo for them! What we need is a holistic package. I hope they would focus on Sonya's concern about medicating children also.

 

[human]

I used to be against drugs for mental health issues, but I have changed my mind.

Probably what we have now is just the beginning. We are OK with insulin for diabetics.

There can be things that go wrong with the brain.

Hopefully, as we get smarter and more knowledge, drugs will be a thing of the past, but for now, they do bring relief to many people.

Believe me. I do not trust the drug companies. But people are helped by some of these drugs.

I would love to see mandatory parenting classes for people whose children meet up with the law.

I would also like to see parenting and child development classes in schools starting perhaps in middle school.

 

[time]

I used to be against drugs for mental health issues, but I have changed my mind.

Probably what we have now is just the beginning. We are OK with insulin for diabetics.

There can be things that go wrong with the brain.

Hopefully, as we get smarter and more knowledge, drugs will be a thing of the past, but for now, they do bring relief to many people.

Believe me. I do not trust the drug companies. But people are helped by some of these drugs.

I would love to see mandatory parenting classes for people whose children meet up with the law.

I would also like to see parenting and child development classes in schools starting perhaps in middle school.

I'm not totally against all prescription drugs for children's mental health but there is a lot of inappropriate and over-prescribing (for adults also)

http://www.umdnj.edu/umcweb/marketi..._spring01/features/feature03_psychotropic.htm

"Millions of American youngsters take psychotropic drugs for a variety of mental disorders. There is no question that many children have greatly benefited. However, these drugs were developed for adults, not children. Most have not been tested for pediatric use, and have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of children. Some 75 to 80 percent of psychotropic drugs are used "off label"– prescribed for a different use than approved by the FDA.

Clearly, more research is needed to study the effects of psychotropic medications on children."
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/prescribing.aspx

BTW, I think both of these articles have too much of a bent towards prescribing drugs.

Having said that... I don't know if someone like AL would have benefited by some drug he was not getting... if he was getting too much of some drug or it had a negative effect ... or if he was or was not getting regular counseling? Certainly I would think the later was a must for him.

 

[Darkman00]

Board OKs school security money

Nanci Hutson

Published 12:05 am, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

NEWTOWN -- The call to have armed police in all seven of the town's public schools resounded loud and clear with town leaders.

On Monday night, the Board of Finance voted unanimously to create a $420,000 contingency account to hire armed police officers for all four elementary schools, as well as provide backup for the current school resource officer at Reed Intermediate.

The middle and high schools already have school resource officers.

The board also heard from officials from Newtown's three private schools that they, too, deserve security and that as taxpayers they expect it to be paid for with town money.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Board-OKs-school-security-money-4346617.php

 

[Darkman00]

Newtown influenced teen's 35-year sentence - baltimoresun.com

Did Newtown influence teen's 35-year sentence?

3:45 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2013

Also read "Related" at the link...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/op...bs-ed-gladden-letter-20130311,0,4443834.story

 

[Darkman00]

Board OKs school security money

Nanci Hutson

Published 12:05 am, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

NEWTOWN -- The call to have armed police in all seven of the town's public schools resounded loud and clear with town leaders.

On Monday night, the Board of Finance voted unanimously to create a $420,000 contingency account to hire armed police officers for all four elementary schools, as well as provide backup for the current school resource officer at Reed Intermediate.

The middle and high schools already have school resource officers.

The board also heard from officials from Newtown's three private schools that they, too, deserve security and that as taxpayers they expect it to be paid for with town money.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Board-OKs-school-security-money-4346617.php

More details on this HERE:

$420,000 allocated for armed guards in Newtown

 

[FragileSugar]

Newtown shootings: Dylan Hockley remembered with charity

At a memorial service held for Dylan on 21 December, Jake released a large bunch of balloons in his brother's favourite colour, purple.

Back home in the UK, his grandparents began raising money for an autism charity, supporting a fund set up by Dylan's own parents - Dylan's Wings of Change.

Local businesses in their Cambridgeshire town have sold cakes with purple butterflies on them.

Later this month the family are holding a coffee morning with more purple-iced cakes, purple balloons and purple butterflies.

"We read a lot on the internet about Newtown doing everything in purple," Mrs Hockley said.

"They've got purple butterflies all over the place.

"Dylan likened himself to a 'beautiful butterfly' and that has kind of caught on, and the colour purple," she added. Tom and Ivy Hockley Tom and Ivy Hockley hope to raise money to help other children with autism

The couple say the majority of funds raised in Dylan's memory will be donated to the Peterborough branch of the National Autistic Society.

 

[Darkman00]

Newtown cyclists greeted with news on gun control

Charles J. Lewis, Published 9:21 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Members of the Sandy Hook Ride on Washington, a team of 26 cyclists who rode almost 400 miles from Newtown, Conn., to the Capitol in Washington in support of gun violence prevention gather for a news conference on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Washington. Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster

WASHINGTON -- The cold, wet and shivering cyclists of Team 26 ended their four-day ride from Newtown on Tuesday to learn some news regarding their campaign for tougher firearms laws: A key Senate panel had just approved universal background checks on all gun buyers.

The cyclists had begun their day in Baltimore and rode 50 miles through cold rain to arrive at a welcoming ceremony on the muddy lawn at the bottom of the U.S. Capitol's West Front just as the sun broke through and gloomy clouds skittered eastward.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced to the cyclists and the welcoming crowd that the Senate Judiciary Committee had just approved the background check legislation -- one of four major gun control bills pending in Congress. The panel also approved more funding for school security.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/newtownshooti...-greeted-with-news-on-gun-control-4349538.php (includes photo gallery)​

 

[Darkman00]

Difficult post-Sandy Hook decisions on security should be made locally

Published 5:06 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Should armed guards be placed in all public schools in Greater Danbury in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14?

That is a question being raised in nearly every community after 20 first-graders and six educators were gunned down by a heavily armed man in the most deadly grade-school massacre in United States history.

It is a question that will need to be answered fairly quickly in most school districts as the 2013-14 budget-making process heads toward the finish line.

The question about armed guards -- usually school resource officers -- has long been a controversial and emotional issue, and we believe it is one for which there is not necessarily one correct answer.

Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Difficult-post-Sandy-Hook-decisions-on-security-4349063.php

 

[Darkman00]

Senate panel approves gun background check

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press

Updated 5:59 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/politics/article/Senate-panel-approves-gun-background-check-4346849.php

 

[Darkman00]

Newtown clergy urge tighter gun control

John Pirro, Updated 6:57 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

NEWTOWN -- Saying the "slaughter of innocence in Newtown" has awakened the nation to the tragedy of gun violence, a dozen Newtown clergy members have urged the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a ban on assault weapons and to pass other gun control legislation.

In a letter released on the eve of a Judiciary Committee vote on the assault weapons bill, more than 4,000 religious leaders across the country added their voices to those of the Newtown clergy in endorsing legislation that would also restrict the sales of high-capacity magazines, enact "enforceable universal background checks," end gun trafficking and prosecute "straw" buyers of weapons.

The idea for the letter grew out of meetings that the clergy members had last month with lawmakers and their staffs in Washington, D.C., said the Rev. Matthew Crebbin of the Newtown Congregational Church, who was one of the signers.

Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Newtown-clergy-urge-tighter-gun-control-4349312.php

 

[Darkman00]

Finch, gun lobby group, back free gun locks

Brian Lockhart, Published 10:33 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- Mayor Bill Finch, who has taken tough positions on reforming gun laws, appeared Tuesday at City Hall with the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, an organization that loves its firearms.

The strange bedfellows announced an initiative to hand out 2,500 free gun locks donated by the NSSF to residents of Bridgeport, Fairfield, Stratford and Waterbury.

The foundation, along with the National Rifle Association, has been at the forefront of organizing state and national opposition to gun control reforms in the wake of the Newtown massacre last December.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Finch-gun-lobby-group-back-free-gun-locks-4349676.php

 

[Darkman00]

Budget group OKs school security measures

Neil Vigdor, Updated 10:37 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A $1.4 million checklist of proposed security enhancements for Greenwich Public Schools on Tuesday night earned the preliminary endorsement of the town's budget architects, who said they felt a sense of urgency to protect students and educators following the Newtown massacre -- a mere 45 minutes away from the district.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation's Budget Committee unanimously recommended the interim appropriation following a half-hour presentation by Schools Superintendent William McKersie and Police Chief James Heavey at Town Hall.

The school district requested the money for additional closed circuit security cameras, to upgrade intercom systems, fix the locks on all classroom doors so they can be locked from the inside by a teacher, reinforce windows with security laminate and to put shades on the windows of classroom doors.

Read more: http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Budget-group-OKs-school-security-measures-4349492.php

 

[human]

How about if we spend money on smaller class sizes, counselors, and other issues for children?

We spend tons on prisons. We want to spend tons on making our schools into prisons. Can't we spend tons on making life better rather than crisis managment?

 

[Darkman00]

Son of 'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother' Likens Rage to Becoming a Werewolf

by Justin GreenMar 13, 2013 7:33 AM EDT

The most interesting quote from this PBS interview of a mentally troubled 13 year old boy:

"Your mind goes blank. You think about nothing but getting revenge on the people that have hurt you. You lash out and do violent things. It’s very hurtful and afterwards you may be incredibly tired and basically depressed. You feel really bad about it, but you know that there’s not really anything you can do to them to make up to the people you hurt during those incidents. And you can’t control yourself when you’re like that, and no one else can. When you get like that, you just want to get the heck away from anyone in the area. It’s kind of like a werewolf. When a werewolf turns into a werewolf, it doesn’t know who he is, it doesn’t know where he is, it just wants to hurt and fight people."

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...other-likens-rage-to-becoming-a-werewolf.html - includes Video (26:45)

 

[Darkman00]

Boston’s Newtown graduates hope good can come from grief

by Bella English | Globe Staff | March 13, 2013

It’s noontime on a bright winter Saturday, and at Church restaurant in the Fenway, a group of 20-somethings is enjoying Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers and plates of eggs and toast. Around them, other patrons watch basketball on TV, emitting an occasional whoop.

But the seven seated on leather couches near the doorway have spreadsheets and agendas in front of them. They’re here to work.

“Newtown in Boston” is what these members of Newtown High School Class of 2006 are calling themselves, and they’re planning a March 23 fund-raiser at Fenway Park to benefit their Connecticut hometown, where 26 people were shot to death in a December rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“Although we all currently reside in Boston, we still feel so connected to our hometown and the shooting affected us all very deeply,” says Laura Oggeri, 25, who in November married high school sweetheart Pete Oggeri.

‘It’s given me some semblance of comfort in the aftermath of the shootings.’

Newtown is where they grew up, where their families live, and where some of their siblings are still in the public schools. The friends had lost touch with one another after high school, but after the massacre, they reconnected on Facebook and decided to do something for the town they love.

Read more: http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/20...-from-grief/kOlP8OxfI6mbTKjlDyAcrM/story.html