<p>swizzle13, I’m sorry for what your community is going through, and will continue to go through for a long time to come. It is indeed a national tragedy, and I think your comparison to 9/11 is apt. As a number of adults have mentioned, many of us haven’t felt this way since that terrible day. </p>
<p>Like 9/11, this is already raising many questions about how it could have happened, and will probably lead to changes of some kind at many American schools, although it will take a while for us to sort it out. </p>
<p>As for the lawsuit, I don’t condone it. BUT I’m inclined to give the people of Newtown some slack, especially the Sandy Hook parents. The children who survived that day will never be the same, because of what they saw and heard, because of the loss of so many friends, schoolmates and beloved adults, and because it will be hard for them ever to feel safe again. Their previously peaceful lives are shattered, and will never be put back together in the same way. They and their families are still in shock and grief, and in some cases their parents are deeply, deeply angry. This is a natural reaction, and some parents may feel that they have to strike out at someone, anyone. Not everyone feels that way, but I’m not going to condemn those who do. I’ve never had to walk in those peoples’ shoes.</p>
<p>^I don’t agree. They are being insensitive to families who lost their kids. I am sure every one of the twenty parents who lost their kids that day would love to switch places with their “scarred” kids. I am sure I would give up everything to take my scarred child and nurse it to recovery than bury the lifeless body. They were extremely fortunate not to lose their child that day. It could have been much much worse. This lawsuit is outrageous.</p>
<p>Obviously, it’s better for those whose children survived. But that doesn’t mean everything is fine with those kids. The children who had to live through that terror, and had to be walked through that carnage were injured in a real way, and many of them are going to require help for a long time to come. And BTW, I think we will also see lawsuits from the parents of children who were killed.</p>
<p>As I said, I don’t condone the lawsuit. But I understand where it comes from.</p>
<p>My community was the victim of a school shooting in 1997. While we live in that district, I paid tuition for my children to attend the city schools because I had graduated from city schools and believed they were/are academically better and the city schools were actually closer than the county school where the shooting occurred. Our community was devastated by the shooting and I’m sure the parents pain continues as the shooter periodically appeals his sentencing ( a recent appeal regarding his mental state was denied). He was 14 at the time and sentencing laws in my state only allowed for him to be sentenced a maximum of 25 years for killing 3 and wounding 5 more. He attended preschool & kindergarten with my son and played on the same church league soccer team when they were 4-5. </p>
<p>I know members of his family and my next door neighbor’s son was in the prayer group when he opened fire. The mother of one of the shooting victims, who had a full physical recovery, teaches part-time at my cc and the assistant principal of the high school lives in my neighborhood and we attend the same church. All nice people who, I’m sure, continue to feel the ripples of pain every time the news reports another mass shooting. Of everyone involved, I believe only one lawsuit was filed on behalf of 3 sets of parents. It was dismissed. Different time - different circumstances, but I can’t imagine the state being held accountable in this instance. The money they will spend defending the lawsuit could be so much better used in victim assistance.</p>
<p>We need to condemn the lawsuit at this point, not just not condone. Did someone say we need gun-control, “Look at Japan, how peaceful they are without guns”? Do you think people in Japan will sue? Unless something turns up that shows grownups in charge were grossly negligent, I don’t know how lawsuits can help anybody? Why are we so stuck with the notion that any hurt in life should be compensated by someone else? Wasn’t that what the gun man was thinking; he got a lousy deal in life so someone’s gotta pay? Along with a gun control legistration, we need a stop-absurd-lawsuit legistration.</p>
<p>Instead of suing, this family should show gratitude that they limited the damage and minimized the number of victims. I am a coward and I am not sure if I would have taken the bullets as the teachers did. In fact, I kind of doubt the suing parents would have taken the bullets if it were up to them.</p>
<p>Is saying you are bothered by the fact someone filed a lawsuit when their child survived political? Bothered is a feeling related to the events in Newtown. I am bothered by scam artists taking advantage of the goodwill of others and I am bothered by parents suing and claiming the State should have done more to keep schools safe. Those are feelings related to this event.</p>
<p>You know what, selfishly, makes me most sad? That my kids have to know about this happening. That, in addition to fire and tornado drills, their schools have to have procedures in place for responding to a crazy person coming into the classrooms. That my future grandchildren won’t have the sense of innocence we had or get to go to schools with open doors and no police presence. That they will know what guns look like, as if we are in some kind of banana republic or Syria or Somalia. And yes, I feel deeply for kids who have to grow up in those places too.</p>
<p>sally- I agree with you this event will lead to drills to deal with deranged attackers. Kids will be okay. Do you remember the drills we did 40-50 years ago hiding under our desks in case we were bombed.</p>
<p>Tom, but the thing is we were never bombed. I was never afrad to go to school and fear being bombed. These kids are living another reality. I didn’t want my D to know about the shooting. This was naive on my part. Because of twitter, etc., they already knew as it was happening. MyD does not even have a smart phone but other kids do. </p>
<p>A week after the shooting, there were rumors going around my D’s school that someone would bring a gun to school on the anniversary and also because it was the “apocalypse day”. Though, security was stepped up, how do you send your kid to school with peace of mind when something like that happens so close to home and so fresh.</p>
<p>lia- you are correct this is more real that the communist bombers. My 22 year old and her 23 year boyfriend said they went through lockdown drills since elementary school.</p>
<p>Not only is the lawsuit insensitive, but it’s also preposterous to think that the school system is to blame for the actions of a crazy gunman. I was impressed that the teachers followed their training and acted calmly to minimize the loss of life, some of them at the cost of their own lives. I hope this suit is thrown out. (And I don’t think this is a political belief because I suspect that the revulsion I feel is shared by others across the political spectrum.)</p>
<p>Consolation – wow. Just wow. Love the column.</p>
<p>I would but add however, that while a finite 20 children were killed, who knows how many off the 600+/- children in the school they saved by their actions. We know about one from one classroom, and (I think a total of) thirteen from another. But all those <em>other</em> classrooms – just slowing him down until the “good guys” could get there – they saved them too! I’m giving them credit for not just their own classroom, but all the others too.</p>
<p>I work in a school in CT and lockdown drills are done twice a year. The Monday after the shooting, the first thing I did was figure out how to physically barricade the door to the backroom room in my office where I usually herd the kids during a drill. In the unlikely event of anything like this happening, I think I can tip over my file cabinet to bar the door. I can’t believe I did this but it is new reality.</p>