Sandy Hook, part one

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Some Thoughts on the Sandy Hook School Deaths

Part One

If someone kicked in your front door and went room to room shooting people what would you do about it?  More importantly, what could you do about it?

Most people would run away or hide; every man for himself.  That’s about all they could do.

But what if you feel some responsibility for the other people in the house, or business?  What would you do then?

If you are Dawn Hochsprung, Principal of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, you hear the shots and the breaking glass and you know that the most terrible thing imaginable is happening—a gunman is come to your school.  You rush to meet the threat bare-handed without hesitation, even though you are terrified of what you will find, because you are an honorable and caring adult and you are ultimately responsible for the four-hundred and fifty-six children who are enrolled and you will not abandon them to save yourself.  Neither will Mary Sherlach.  She goes with you. 

Both of you die. As does Lauren, a substitute teacher, along with every child in her classroom, save one little girl who plays dead.

If you are Victoria you hide your young charges in closets and cupboards and try to convince the angry man that they are elsewhere, but the ruse doesn’t completely succeed, and you and all but six of your students will die.

Anne Marie and Rachel also die trying to shield their students.  Some of the other adults fare better by hiding with children behind barricaded doors, or escaping the building with them.

About fourteen minutes after it starts the killer ends it all--when he sees police arrive--with a bullet to his own head.

I pray for the families of the slain.  I pray that they may be comforted. 

I also want to praise the adults, in the school that day, living and dead, for their courage and selflessness and sense of duty.  They wanted above all else to save the lives of the children entrusted to their care.  They wanted it so much they were willing to die so those little ones could go on living…but....and I’m sorry to have to say this…

They failed, miserably. 

(To be continued)