Shadow of Sandy Hook Still Looms Large

The mother of a child murdered during one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history visited Rockland to share her story and spread the word on school safety

While many in Newtown, Connecticut were having their coffee on the morning of December 12, 2012, one individual was planning to wreak havoc on the community. On that fateful day, a 20-year-old man with a history of mental health issues killed his mother, loaded his car with weapons from the family’s arsenal and drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Blasting his way through its locked front doors, a deranged Adam Lanza killed the principal who tried to stop him, as well as five staff members and 20 children before turning the gun on himself.   

Michele Gay, who co-founded Safe & Sound Schools in 2018, returned to her former hometown in Rockland last week and shared a cautionary tale of the chaos that can occur during a surprise attack or emergency. She sought to encourage the audience of teachers, first responders and legislators to formulate a stronger game plan for protecting students and staff and evacuating their own schools safely. Gay, who lost her youngest daughter to the shooter, is a former teacher herself and has since become an ardent advocate for school safety and preparedness. She travels across the country to share Newtown’s story and ways they can help make their own halls of learning safer. 

The students at Sandy Hook Elementary had routinely practiced safety drills in case there was a need to vacate the school, walking a path from the school down the hill to the local firehouse, their designated gathering place. Unfortunately, said Gay, no one was prepared for what happened that day or for the chaos that ensued after the shooter forced his way through the front entrance. “When I first got a call that all schools were in lockdown, I tried to call my daughters’ schools, but I was not able to reach anyone,” said Gay. She then drove to her oldest daughter’s school, where she saw all was quiet and continued on to Sandy Hook Elementary to check on her two other children. “I couldn’t get near the building—I was re-directed to a different location, where I could see children being escorted down the path to the fire station and I saw my 4th grader’s class. I knew two of my three girls were safe.”  Gay noticed her oldest daughter didn’t say anything about the reason for the evacuation when they connected.  The scene rapidly became an overflow of parents, family, friends and community members trying to find out what was happening. While the remaining children and staff managed to get out of the building once the shooter took his own life, the scene soon became a nightmare of logistics, as well as emotions.

 Gay continued searching for her youngest daughter and became more and more concerned about her when she didn’t see her class being escorted down the hill. However, neither she nor others waiting for children or family members to emerge were prepared for the shock and pain that ensued as they learned what happened inside the building. Gay learned that her youngest child, Josephine, was among those killed by the shooter.  “If classroom doors had been locked, it would have been a different story,” she said. “Now, some States we work with have mandated that classroom doors be locked. Had our own teachers had their doors locked, I would not be here in front of you today…and there would be 20 young people graduating college.”  Gay  praised the staff member in the school who reached for her phone from under a desk and called 911, alerting police and first responders to the shooter—“Those heroes arrived within four minutes of the 911 call.”

Today, Gay tours the country, promoting safety in schools, sharing what educators and students can do to keep themselves safe in what has become an unsettling scenario in many cities and towns across the U.S. “While locking classroom doors during instruction may pose an inconvenience for kids who come and go throughout the day, it will, in fact, save lives in the event of another assault on a school, like the one that happened at Sandy Hook.” She added that the lack of landline telephone availability also made it more difficult to respond in a timely manner as many cell phones ran out of power. “We learned in our community we can count on our first responders, but even before they could get to us, all the teachers, staff members, custodian and students themselves helped and comforted each other throughout the evacuation process and in the aftermath of the shootings.”

She also asked the audience, “What can we do better in a crisis?  We can teach students and staff how to be safe during all kinds of circumstances. There’s no magic wand, but we need to motivate other people outside this room to be engaged and proactive.” That’s the goal of Gay’s organization, and she hopes more schools will take heed to implement some life-saving tips. To learn more about how administrators, teachers and parents can make their school community safer, visit www.safeandsoundschools.org