In the wake of the tragedy in the Newtown, CT elementary school, we are all left speechless. The latest reports tell us there are 28 people shot and killed, 20 of them children. There are barely sufficient words to describe the grief and shock that accompany events like these, especially when there are children involved. In the midst of the chaos that ensues, and while we try to make sense of what happened, we rely on news media to guide us.
But news organizations sometimes have an agenda of their own. They compete for our eyeballs, and that competition can get dirty. In order to get as close as possible to the story, sometimes news media pass the line of what is acceptable.
Today, there were many instances of reporters talking to little children. I don't mean teenagers who have (barely) developed some coping mechanisms to deal with events of this magnitude, but children. Eight- and nine-year-olds. The little boy on ABC with his elementary school buzzcut comes to mind, emotionally ending his interview with "we're just glad to be alive," a quote that's likely to make it to the hourly highlight reel. Or the little girl who described officers telling her to close her eyes and not look at the guns as they guided her outside the building.
And that's not OK. A little child who has just experienced a tragedy like this doesn't need a microphone in his or her face. What that child needs is their parents, guardians, friends and loved ones. The story can wait. We would rather know that these children are receiving the comfort and attention they need, especially two hours after what is likely the most tragic event of their young lives.
Instead of hearing from community leaders, elected politicians, doctors in charge, and any other party that can offer us the necessary information we need to know in order to cope, some news organizations opted for the easy story. The tragic story is always the easy story.
Some will argue that it's our fault as audiences -- that we taught the media we want this. Through ratings, we declared: get us as close as possible to the tragedy, victims be damned! After seeing what this has descended into, we would like to politely say: not on our behalf, please. If we ever gave you the idea to be this reckless and unethical in our name, we wholly take it back.
I am one of many who hold journalism in the highest regard. We expect more of those who are telling these stories. We expect that they will respect the privacy of and have consideration for victims in such tragedies. Today, so far, the coverage of the massacre in Newtown has been a disappointment.
This poor community has barely comprehended what has happened this morning. We care about this tragedy, and we want media to cover it. But what we don't want is the use of little children as a means of getting viewers. Those children need love and care first. The story should always come after.
This post has been updated to reflect new information.
The president of the Connecticut Funeral Director's Association said the funeral and burial process for Newtown victims, which began Monday with the separate burials of Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, who both were six-years-old, is unlike anything he has seen before.
"I've unfortunately seen lots of kids who have died," said Pasquale Forino, 46, who runs Neilan Funeral Home in New London, Conn. "But this truly shakes your foundation to the core, and in a small town like Newtown, they need lots of help to handle this week of burials."
Forino and a group of morticians who have volunteered have driven to Newtown every day since Friday to help tend to families who are grieving and prepare arriving bodies for viewings and burials. The main funeral home in the town, Honan Funeral Home, is handling the process for 11 victims. Of those, Forino said he has worked on three -- all kids.
"It's not about me, it's about the families and victims. But it still affects us," he said. "We do what we can do to take care of the families. We'll deal with our own emotional needs later."
--HuffPost's Jaweed Kaleem
Sandy Hook School students will be attending Chalk Hill School in Monroe, CT as an alternative education facility in the wake of the shooting. Monroe police answered questions during a press conference briefing about the preparations of the building for use by Sandy Hook Elementary School, and outlined how police officers will keep children safe and secure on their first day back to school.
Via Patch:
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, a New Jersey columnist urges people and politicians to fight for stronger gun control laws."Every time there is a mass shooting, we shake our heads and bemoan the tragic violence. We wonder aloud why our elected officials cannot stanch the flow of weapons. We rue the fact that there are so many troubled individuals out there, desperate for help and poised to commit terrible crimes, for no apparent reason. But nothing ever changes," she writes. "This holiday season, can we all rise up as one and say ENOUGH?"
Via Patch:
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, issued a statement Monday in the wake of last week's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., saying it's time to get assault weapons off the streets. "After a heartbroken weekend where the nation grieved with the families of Newtown, it's time for elected leaders to come together and determine what we can do to help end the culture of violence that is leading to these tragedies," Shaheen said. "We need a comprehensive approach that includes improving access to mental health services, better enforcement of our current laws, and we need to get deadly assault weapons off our streets."
A nationally representative face-to-face survey of more than 10,000 teens ages 13-18 turned up alarming findings about their access to professional mental health care.
Only about one-third of those with any lifetime mental disorder got professional help, and just half of those severely impaired by mental disorders received professional help, the study found. State and federal efforts to increase youth mental health services aren't working, it said. Racial and ethnic minority youth were least likely to get help, the study found.
-- HuffPost's David Wood
Via Newtown Patch:
Lines are forming outside funeral homes in Newtown, Fairfield and Monroe, CT as people assemble to pay their respects to three 6-year-olds who were among the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14. In Newtown, services for Jack Pinto, 6, are set to start at 1 p.m. In Fairfield, mourners gathered for services for Noah Pozner, 6.A wake is scheduled today in Monroe for James Mattioli, 6. The three 6-year-olds are the first of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to be laid to rest. Funeral services for the other victims will take place tomorrow and Wednesday.
Via Patch:
The controversial Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to protest outside of the Anne Arundel Circuit Court on Jan 2.—the first day same-sex couples will be able to wed there. "On that day the court starts committing that abomination that brings the shooter like it did in Connecticut," said Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the church's founder.She also made headlines this weekend when she claimed via Twitter that Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, was sent by God. She told Annapolis Patch, "God keeps sending the shooter."
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and AFT Michigan President David Hecker on Sunday urged Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Sunday to veto legislation that would allow concealed firearms in schools and other locations.
The tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, is a “chilling and heartbreaking reminder” that “firearms have absolutely no place in our schools,” they wrote. “Gov. Snyder, please show the kind of leadership that students, families, educators and community members need to be as safe as possible in their schools. You can set an example for Michigan and the nation by taking this small but significant step to reduce gun violence by vetoing S.B. 59.”
View the letter here.
| @ TVMarci : Wow. Someone from CA just called the #Newtown General Store saying she wants to buy coffee for everyone in town. Every cup is billed to her |
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| @ TVMarci : Clerk @ #Newtown General Store started crying when woman offered to pay for every coffee purchased today. What an amazing #actofkindness |
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| @ TVMarci : This sign now hangs in front of the #Newtown General Store. Thank you, Tom Cabanaugh! #actofkindess http://t.co/DsLk5B2W |
From Patch:
Reports of a suspicious person at the Branchfield train station in Ridgefield Monday morning brought out police and placed all local schools on lockdown. Authorities, along with a K-9 unit, are canvassing the area after receiving a report of a man with an unknown item slung over his back. Police were first informed of the suspicious person at about 9 a.m.
From Patch:
An unidentified person was reportedly taken into police custody in the vicinity of Upper Dublin High School this morning following a report of a possibly armed subject at the school. Montgomery County Public Safety radio reports indicated one person at the school was in custody at about 9:00 a.m.Numerous police units from surrounding departments had been on their way to the school and were instructed to return to their home jurisdictions. An Upper Dublin Police Department representative said by telephone that the incident was a "misunderstanding" and that students were never in danger. WPVI-TV reported via its Twitter feed that a student's umbrella was mistaken for a firearm.
President Obama took the time to respond to white board notes yesterday at Newtown high school (via @connpost) twitter.com/michaelhayes/s…
— Mike Hayes (@michaelhayes) December 17, 2012
From the AP:
The man identified as the gunman who killed 26 children and adults in an elementary school took college classes when he was only 16, a spokesman for Western Connecticut State University said Monday.Paul Steinmetz, spokesman for the Danbury school, confirmed that Adam Lanza earned a 3.26 grade point average while a student there. He dropped out of a German language class and withdrew from a computer science class, but earned an A in a computer class, A-minus in American history and B in macroeconomics.
He participated when called on by the teacher in his evening course on introductory German, according to Dot Stasny, who was one of about a dozen other students in the class in the spring of 2009. She said she and a classmate once invited him out to a bar but he declined, saying he was only 17.
Read the rest here.
Writing in the National Journal, Ron Fournier worries that the wrong lessons will be drawn from the Sandy Hook tragedy:
My son cradled the iPad and scanned The New York Times article I had downloaded: "A Gunman, Recalled as Intelligent and Shy, Who Left Few Footprints in Life." It said mass murderer Adam Lanza may have had Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.Tyler is an Aspie. He shrugged. “If you meet somebody with Asperger’s,” he said, “you’ve only met one person with Asperger’s.”
Tyler's point is worth us all noting: Don’t overgeneralize. Don’t stigmatize in a rush to explain inexplicable evil. Autism didn't cause this tragedy: Asperger’s is a blip on the far-reaching autism spectrum and no two cases are the same. Just as no “typical” person deserves to be tar-brushed with the evil acts of another, Aspies don’t deserve the bad press they’re getting.
Read the whole piece here.
HuffPost's Amanda Terkel reports:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the strongest backers of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the Democratic Party, said it is time to sit down and have a "sensible, reasonable" debate about gun control in light of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., and expressed an openness to banning assault weapons."It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way. ... Everything has to be on the table," Manchin said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, adding that he had just come from deer hunting with his family.
Manchin's comments are significant because he has a "A" rating from the NRA for his pro-gun positions, and the organization endorsed him as recently as October 2012.
Read more here.
From The Associated Press:
Dennis Carlson, superintendent of Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, said a mental health consultant will meet with school officials Monday, and there will be three associates – one to work with the elementary, middle and high schools, respectively. As the day goes on, officials will be on the lookout for any issues that arise, and extra help will go where needed."We are concerned for everybody – our staff and student body and parents," Carlson said. "It's going to be a day where we are all going to be hypervigilant, I know that."
An excerpt from the prayer by Rev. Rob Mossis, vicar of Christ the King Lutheran Church, following the president's address:
"We bring to you 20 new stars in the heavens, 20 new saints, 20 new angels. We bring to you those who risk their lives for us everyday not counting the cost, and we bring to you those who died, those who counsel, those who bless and embrace the confused and the broken. And now in this prayer, we bring to you ourselves, our questions, our doubts, our anger and our hearts, and we pray for the peace, the hope and the renewal of trust that can come only from a God who first conceived us in love and places a hand of compassion on each of our shouldlers even in the most trying times. And so tonight for our community, a community deepl pained, we ask you to heal our brokenness, to answer our questions, to replace our doubts with certainty, our anger with peace and our hurt with and healing…"
Full story here from Newtown Patch.
| @ E_Laffs2 : Can't stop listening to your voicemails, Mommy. I need you now and forever... @DHochsprung |
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| @ E_Laffs2 : A great man holding my precious niece, @DHochsprung woulda love to see it. I love you mommy @BarackObama http://t.co/jbjHzL6y |
An excerpt from a prayer by Rev. Jim Solomon of the New Hope Community Church:
"Dear Lord, as we leave the children that we lost in your hands, we ask that by your grace you woud empower us to bless and comfort the children that are still here in our hands. Please be with them in a special way as they grieve the loss of siblings and friends. Life will never be the same, yet we ask that you help these precious little ones to carry the spirits of their lost loved ones in their hearts as they go along living their lives to its fullest according to your will for each of these girls and boys."
Full story from Newtown Patch here.
| @ Chass63 : My mother was murdered. Murdered. This can't be real. |
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| @ Chass63 : My mom would be SO proud to see President Obama holding her granddaughter. But not as proud as I am of her. http://t.co/YDU88x3O |
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| @ Chass63 : My mom, Dawn Hochsprung, was taken tragically from me. But she went down in a blaze of glory that truly represents who she was. #Newtown |
"Eleven year-old Briana Krasowski is among those waiting to attend an interfaith vigil service for Sandy Hook victims on Sunday, Dec. 16. Credit Amy Krasowski"
View the picture here.
| @ MayorMark : There will be a Danbury Police Officer in every elementary school tomorrow. #Danbury |
The National Rifle Association (NRA) appeared to have reactivated its Facebook page Sunday, after having temporarily disabled the page following Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The nation's most influential pro-gun lobby has faced withering criticism in the days following the mass murder, during which authorities believe 20 year-old Adam Lanza used a legally obtained Bushmaker assault rifle, as well as two handguns, to kill 20 children and six adults at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school.
The day before the shootings, the NRA boasted of having achieved 1.7 million "Likes," on Facebook. The group's reactivated Facebook page simply contains a link to a Wikipedia entry about the group. The pared down NRA page had 32,313 Likes on Sunday at 6:30 pm.
The group's Twitter account does not appear to have been deactivated, but it has not been updated since Friday morning, before the shootings began. A spokeswoman for the group told Time Warner Cable late Friday that "Until the facts are thoroughly known, NRA will not have any comment."
--Christina Wilkie, HuffPost
A group of volunteers calling themselves "Santas for Sandy Hook" have been out on Newtown's streets this weekend, raising money to support the victims of Friday's shooting.
What started as a small group setting up tables quickly grew to about 25 volunteers, said Zoe Walter, who was with Kay Donohuy and Kristen Brassard at a table in front of Starbucks on Church Hill Road. Walter said the group hopes to raise $10,000 for the victims by the end of the weekend.
A member of Westboro Baptist Church, the group that is known for picketing funerals of soldiers and AIDS victims, says the group plans to picket Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to Examiner.com.
A day after Friday's shooting in Newtown, CT, where police said 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother and then 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, Westboro Baptist member Shirley Phelps-Roper posted a message on Twitter that the group would "sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment."
Pictures and video of President Obama landing in Connecticut.
The Stratford High School Class of 2003 has established a memorial fund for their former classmate Victoria "Vicki" Soto, who died in the mass shooting Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Upon hearing the first rounds of gunfire in an adjacent classroom, the 27-year-old teacher scrambled to hide her first-grade students, 15 or 16 kids, before the gunman made his way to her room. After entering the room, the shooter confronted and killed Soto but the students were saved because the gunman did not see them in the room.
Police have ID'd Adam Lanza as the shooter and Nancy as the final victim, according to Newtown.Patch
Also in that link, memories of Adam from a neighbor: “He was the quiet kid at the bus stop,” he said. “I’d say, ‘Hi,’ and he’d say, ‘Hey,’ back and that was the extent of it.”
Follow Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Twitter: www.twitter.com/elamin88
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ThePlumLineGS
http://t.co/jQq0z2ZnNN: Gabriel Gomez lying when he claims Ed Markey blamed Newtown shooting on him: http://t.co/33FqZYU4EM
2 days ago from TweetDeck
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There are so MANY ways to prevent violence effectively but no brute was ever deterred by a law. Many have been stopped by a weapon.
Violence is an interior emotional place, and no law on earth can stop it. We can stop mass producing crazies however, and that is what we need to commit to do. It is certainly achievable.
It will mean reexamining in the light of truth and without prejudice what factors converge to produce crime. SHOOTING AT A RANGE is not one of them. Criminal sub-culture, exposure to emotional physical and or sexual violence as a victim or eyewitness, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, severe devaluation and objectification of an an individual to the point that that person ahs psychotic breaks and mental illness of an acting out nature that is untreated, and a myriad of other factors can converge to enhance the likelhood of tragic events like these murders.
Let s be effective and not foolish.
I am fine with documenting their experience, including recording interviews capturing their comments and recollection of what they saw and how they felt.
Of course, such things should be monitored and closely supervised, both by those responsible for the child and adults who know the boundaries for such things.
But I do not agree with not including the children in sharing what was their experience. They were there. They can be interviewed with sensitivity. It is meaningful to have their reports.
They endured an experience we cannot imagine. They can bear up to speak about it, and we can stand to hear their reports about what all they experienced.,
It is a first hand account.. I am not looking to be intrusive or pushy. I just would like to hear about the children's experience from their vantage point.
Of course, this was a once a decade type incident that seems to be occurring ever more frequently. Didn't the movie theater shootings in Colorado occur this year, too? So the real question is: why is America producing so much violence? One obvious answer from peaceful Canad will probably be, too many guns.
Strengths and humanity.