I still can’t help but weep for the innocent victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School whenever I think about them.Today marks the 9th anniversary of the saddest, most haunting day in the country’s history. On Dec. 14, 2012 20 little children and 6 adults were murdered in a senseless act of violence.At 9:30 a.m. the cowardly armed monster shot through a locked security door at the school and continued his unwarranted rampage of terror (he’d already murdered his mother).
Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach confronted him and were shot and killed. The school followed lockdown protocols, locking and barricading doors.
The murderer entered Lauren Rousseau’s classroom and killed her and 14 children, then went to a second classroom, where first-grade teacher Victoria Soto had hidden her students in a closet.
Soto, who had the day off, but decided to come in and work with her kids on their holiday projects, told him that her class was in the school’s auditorium on the other side of the building. He shot her and then killed six students who attempted to flee from their hiding place.
He also killed special education aide Anne Marie Murphy and behavioral therapist Rachel D’Avino, who were trying to protect the children. Two other staff members, lead teacher Natalie Hammond, 40, and Deborah Pisani were injured during the rampage.
The recollections tear me apart as I think of my own young family members and pray they never face horror like this.
Let’s never EVER forget the 26 innocent victims of Sandy Hook at the hands of the spineless coward who killed himself before he could be arrested. I refuse to name and memorialize the murderer.
The children would be 15-16 years old today.
-
- Rachel D’Avino, 29, behavior therapist
- Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal
- Anne Marie Murphy, 52, special education teacher
- Lauren Rousseau, 30, teacher
- Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist
- Victoria Leigh Soto, 27, teacher
- Students
- Charlotte Bacon, 6
- Daniel Barden, 7
- Olivia Engel, 6
- Josephine Gay, 7
- Dylan Hockley, 6
- Madeleine Hsu, 6
- Catherine Hubbard, 6
- Chase Kowalski, 7
- Jesse Lewis, 6
- Ana Márquez-Greene, 6
- James Mattioli, 6
- Grace McDonnell, 7
- Emilie Parker, 6
- Jack Pinto, 6
- Noah Pozner, 6
- Caroline Previdi, 6
- Jessica Rekos, 6
- Avielle Richman, 6
- Benjamin Wheeler, 6
- Allison Wyatt, 6
No matter how much time passes, we will never forget you.