Tag Archives: Sandy Hook Elementary School

Butter Knife Packed In Student’s Lunch Leads To Suspension

By B. Christopher Agee

Butter Knife SC Butter knife packed in students lunch leads to suspension

There is scarcely any foolhardy decision made by today’s educators that would surprise me in today’s societal climate.

In numerous bizarre cases of overreaction to the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, students have been reprimanded and suspended for such innocuous acts as “threatening” another student with a bubble maker or chewing a pastry into something vaguely reminiscent of a gun.

A middle school in Massachusetts recently got in on the act by targeting a student who brought – gasp! – a butter knife with her lunch.

Morgan LaPlaume, who wears braces, was spotted using the dull cutlery by the school’s vice principal. She used the knife to cut the fruit she brought for lunch since she is unable to eat certain foods whole.

Reports indicate that the administrator took LaPlaume to his office and promptly suspended her for violating school policy. The school principal made a statement on his assistant’s behalf, explaining that the student’s parents signed a handbook containing the zero-tolerance policy pertaining to students bringing knives to school.

LaPlaume’s mother agreed she signed the paperwork but did not fathom the policy would be stretched to such ridiculous lengths as to include an eating utensil being used for its intended purpose.

When I was in school – not all that long ago, by the way – I picked up a case knife along with my fork and spoon and continued along to enjoy my lunch. Today’s children are so sheltered that the possession of such silverware constitutes a breech worthy of suspension.

The utterly sickening common theme among all these cases of hypersensitivity is that, on their own, none will prevent an individual intent on causing harm from doing so. Until we, as a nation, address the real causes of such anomalies instead of demonizing those who want to protect themselves and their families, the only result will be a more helpless and victimized society.
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Photo credit: davidfntau (Creative Commons)

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Newtown Fire Destroys Hans And Audra Barth Home Where Sandy Hook Shooting Survivors Lived

By The Huffington Post News Editors

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A Newtown home destroyed by a fire this week was owned by a couple whose children survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December.

The News-Times of Danbury reports (http://bit.ly/ZsimWk) that Wednesday afternoon’s fire left Hans and Audra Barth and their three children homeless. The American Red Cross has put them up in a hotel.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Marco Rubio Joins Pledge To Filibuster Gun Legislation

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced Thursday that he will join efforts to filibuster gun control legislation led by his colleagues Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

“We should look for ways to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill prone to misusing them, but I oppose legislation that will be used as a vehicle to impose new Second Amendment restrictions on responsible, law-abiding gun owners,” Rubio said in a statement. “We should work to reduce tragic acts of violence by addressing violence at its source, including untreated mental illness, the lack of adequate information-sharing on mental health issues, and the breakdown of the family.”

The Florida Republican’s comments came shortly after President Barack Obama again urged congressional lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws in response to December’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Billionaire Tries To Buy Legislation, And The New York Times Loves It

By Breaking News

Michael Bloomberg 2 SC Billionaire Tries to Buy Legislation, and the New York Times Loves It

New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro promoted billionaire New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s bankrolling of his latest liberal crusade on Sunday’s front page: “TV Blitz on Guns Puts Swing Senators on the Spot.”

Barbaro, who covered the Romney campaign in hostile fashion and hated Wal-Mart’s occasional donations to conservative groups (dwarfed by the corporation’s liberal giving), didn’t ask whether big-money Bloomberg was playing an unfairly influential role by trying to buy legislation he favors through his group Mayors for Illegal Guns.

The commercial is an unambiguous appeal to gun owners: a middle-aged hunter, shotgun in hand, vows that he will fight to protect the Second Amendment. But in a sensible, father-of-the-house tone, he also urges voters to support comprehensive background checks, “so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can’t buy guns.”

The man behind the advertisement is not known for his kinship with the gun crowd: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the nation’s fiercest advocate of restrictions on firearms since the December rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Determined to persuade Congress to act in response to that shooting, Mr. Bloomberg on Monday will begin bankrolling a $12 million national advertising campaign that focuses on senators who he believes might be persuaded to support a pending package of federal regulations to curb gun violence. The ads, in 13 states, will blanket those senators’ districts during an Easter Congressional recess that is to be followed by debate over the legislation.

Read More at tellthetruth2012.com . By Clay Waters.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Search warrants to be released in Newtown investigation

Search warrants used in the investigation of the Newtown school shooting are being released along with a statement from prosecutors about their work to unravel the motives of the 20-year-old gunman.

The warrants, which were to be released on Thursday, are related to searches of gunman Adam Lanza‘s home and car. They have been sealed under an order that expired Wednesday, and prosecutors have made few details available, despite pressure to do so.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has expressed concern about leaked information appearing in the news, and state lawmakers have requested a more complete accounting of the case as they address gun control and other issues raised by the shooting.

A Danbury Superior Court judge on Wednesday granted a request by the prosecutor overseeing the investigation, State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, to withhold some details. Sedensky asked to redact the name of a witness, saying the person’s safety might be jeopardized if the name were disclosed. He also asked that the release not include other information such as telephone numbers, serial numbers on items found and a few paragraphs of an affidavit.

Lanza shot his mother to death inside their Newtown home on Dec. 14 before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he massacred 20 first-graders and six educators. He killed himself as police arrived. Authorities have said it will take until June or later for the investigation to be completed.

The Associated Press and other outlets have reported previously that Lanza showed interest in other mass killings and authorities found literature on other massacres at his house

Malloy announced last week that additional information would be released at his request. Malloy expressed concern that some information about the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans was leaked.

“Like many others, I was disappointed and angered to learn that certain information about the Newtown shooting had been leaked, specifically with concern for the victims’ families who may have been hearing this news for the first time,” the governor said in a statement.

A column published last week in the New York Daily News, citing an unnamed police officer who attended the seminar, reported that Col. Daniel Stebbins discussed evidence that suggested the Newtown gunman studied other mass slayings and dedicated extensive planning to the rampage.

The seminar was designed for law enforcement professionals only and sensitive information dealing with the tactical approaches used by first responders to the Sandy Hook shootings was discussed, state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.

Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. said this week that legislative leaders hope to review the search warrant documents before finishing work on a bipartisan bill that addresses gun control and other issues related to the massacre.

A judge denied a motion by the AP and five newspapers seeking to intervene against any move to extend the current 90-day seal of the warrants. Sedensky had said earlier that the request to intervene was premature because the state hasn’t filed any further requests.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Prosecutor seeks limit on information from Newtown search warrants

A Connecticut prosecutor sought Wednesday to black out some information from search warrants in the Connecticut school shooting that were due to be released Thursday.

State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III asked a judge not to release the name of a witness, saying the person’s safety may be jeopardized if the name were disclosed. He also asked that other information be redacted, such as telephone numbers and a few paragraphs of an affidavit. He filed the motions Wednesday in Danbury Superior Court as an order to seal the documents related to the massacre in December in Newtown expires Wednesday.

The gunman killed his mother in their home before massacring 26 people at the school Dec. 14. He then committed suicide.

The investigation into the mass shooting is not expected to be finished till June, but prosecutors are expected to release additional information to the public about the investigation in a statement Thursday.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced last week that additional information would be released at his request. Malloy expressed concern that certain information about the Dec. 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans was leaked.

“Like many others, I was disappointed and angered to learn that certain information about the Newtown shooting had been leaked, specifically with concern for the victims’ families who may have been hearing this news for the first time,” the governor said in a statement.

A column published last week in the New York Daily News, citing an unnamed police officer who attended the seminar, reported that Col. Daniel Stebbins discussed evidence that suggested the Newtown gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, studied other mass slayings and dedicated extensive planning to the rampage that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead. Lanza also killed his mother and later committed suicide.

The seminar was designed for law enforcement professionals only and sensitive information dealing with the tactical approaches used by first responders to the Sandy Hook shootings was discussed, state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.

Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. said this week that legislative leaders hope to review the search warrant documents before finishing work on a bipartisan bill that addresses gun control and other issues related to the massacre.

A judge denied a motion by The Associated Press and five newspapers seeking to intervene against any move to extend the current 90-day seal of the warrants. Sedensky had said earlier that the request to intervene was premature because the state hasn’t filed any further requests.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Newtown Residents Blast 'Insensitive' NRA Robocalls

Some residents in Newtown, Conn., say they’re outraged at receiving robocalls from the National Rifle Association only three months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Town residents say the automated calls from the NRA began last week and urge people to tell their state legislators to oppose gun-control proposals… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Bob Casey Explains Gun Control Switch After Newtown Shooting

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) explained his switch in position on gun control during a Monday morning appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” saying he thought about the Newton, Conn., shooting and realized it could have been even worse.

“When I watched more and learned more about how he killed his mother and the rage that he brought to that school … I began to think of what could’ve happened, and not the reality but the potential,” he said, according to The Hill. “He was not going to kill 20 children, but he was going try and kill several hundred and would have if he’d had the time and the capacity.”

Casey announced in December that he would support gun control measures such as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. It was a significant switch given his longtime opposition to gun control and high rating from the National Rifle Association. The change was prompted by the shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, along with the shooter’s mother, a massacre that has restarted long-dormant talks of further regulating guns.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Newtown residents upset about NRA robocalls three months after school massacre

Some residents in Newtown, Conn., say they’re outraged at receiving robocalls from the National Rifle Association only three months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

Town residents say the automated calls from the NRA began last week and urge people to tell their state legislators to oppose gun control proposals. Lawmakers are debating whether to ban military-style assault weapons, prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines and other measures in response to the school shootings.

Dan O’Donnell lives in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown and told WVIT-TV that the robocalls are “ridiculous and insensitive.”

Messages seeking comment were left with the NRA, which like other nonprofit groups is allowed to make robocalls under federal law.

A gunman killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself in December after shooting his mother to death.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Mass Shooting Victims Seek Control Over Donations

By The Huffington Post News Editors

By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) – Survivors of mass U.S. shootings have united to provide victims of future tragedies greater control over donations made after such events and to prevent nonprofit groups from holding onto money intended for families of the dead and wounded.
A group representing families of those killed at the Columbine, Virginia Tech and Aurora mass shootings wants to ensure any unspecified funds raised as a result of the Newtown shooting go directly to victims and their families.
Newtown, the Connecticut town where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, has identified more than 60 funds raising money on behalf of victims or projects related to the shooting.
The families of some mass shooting victims want a trusted, centralized authority to manage future donations.
“Going back to Oklahoma City, we’ve seen families who have had to endure not only horrific loss, but also the unimaginable task of wrestling with Byzantine nonprofit bureaucracies to access financial relief intended for them,” the families said in a statement. “It’s time to stop the madness. We cannot watch this happen, yet again, in Sandy Hook.”
The informal group, so far unnamed, has initiated talks with senior White House officials and two members of Congress about establishing an official fundraising operation for such tragedies, said Caryn Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the families. She declined to name the officials out of concern it might jeopardize the project.
The group is examining whether legislation or an executive order would be needed to create a federal or nonprofit entity that would coordinate donations after any future tragedy.
The project has won initial support from Kenneth Feinberg, the influential Washington lawyer who administered funds for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and several mass shootings.
Jerri Jackson, whose son Matt McQuinn was killed with 11 others in the 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, wants it to be easier for future victims to receive aid. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Obama Presses Congress To Vote On Assault Weapons Ban

By Breaking News

Barack Obama speech 9 SC Obama presses Congress to vote on assault weapons ban

President Obama in his weekly address urged both chambers of Congress to hold a vote on a series of gun-control measures, including the controversial assault weapons ban and a limit on magazine sizes.

“These ideas shouldn’t be controversial — they’re common sense,” Obama said. “They’re supported by a majority of the American people. And I urge the Senate and the House to give each of them a vote.”

Referencing the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults three months ago, Obama on Saturday also pressed lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it harder for criminals and people with mentally illnesses to buy guns by expanding the national background check system.

Right now, we have a real chance to reduce gun violence in America, and prevent the very worst violence,” he said. “We have a unique opportunity to reaffirm our tradition of responsible gun ownership, and also do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals or people with a severe mental illness.

“We’ve made progress over the last three months, but we’re not there yet. And in the weeks ahead, I hope members of Congress will join me in finishing the job — for our communities and, most importantly, for our kids.”

Read more at The Hill. By Jordy Yager.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Obama Urges Action On Gun Control Bills In Weekly Address

By The Huffington Post News Editors

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama put the spotlight back on gun violence on Saturday, praising senators for taking “big steps” to advance gun bills but pressing lawmakers to finish the job and deliver legislation to his desk in the coming weeks.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said the nation has changed in the three months since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of 20 children and six adults. There is “still genuine disagreement” about how to reduce gun violence, he said, but everyone now agrees that it is time to do something.

“Senators here in Washington have listened and taken some big steps forward,” Obama said, pointing to the mix of gun control legislation headed to the Senate floor next month. Provisions on the table include tighter background checks, a new gun trafficking statute, an assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Reid: Background Checks Will Be In Senate Gun Bill

By Breaking News

Harry Reid 4 SC Reid: Background checks will be in Senate gun bill

WASHINGTON— Democrats who vowed a crackdown on guns after the horrific Newtown, Conn., school shooting are touting prospects for Senate passage of expanded federal background checks, even as they acknowledge there isn’t enough support to restore a ban on assault-style weapons.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that a measure likely to be debated in his chamber next month will include tougher laws and stiffer sentences for gun trafficking and increased school safety grants.

Closing background check loopholes will be the core of the legislation, just as it was the cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s proposals for stemming gun violence following the December slayings of 20 first-graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Including expanded checks in the gun legislation signals that Democrats feel they can win bipartisan support for the measure or are happy to dare Republicans to reject the entire gun-control package and face political consequences in next year’s elections.

Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped a trio of senators would craft a bipartisan background check compromise. If not, he said, senators would consider a stricter version that allows fewer exemptions approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.

Read More at OfficialWire . By Alan Fram.

Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service Creative Commons

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Newtown victim's mom says she doesn't hold gunman's father responsible after meeting

When Alissa and Robbie Parker met face-to-face recently with the father of the young man who killed their daughter and 19 other first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, they weren’t angry with him and didn’t blame him for the massacre.

Instead, the Parkers said they and Peter Lanza shared their condolences for one another and talked about his son, Adam Lanza, during the emotional meeting, which lasted more than an hour.

“I don’t feel like he should be held responsible for what happened that day,” Allisa Parker told “CBS This Morning,” during the second part of an interview that aired Friday. “That was not ultimately his decision to do that, so how can I hold him responsible? Were there missteps in the raising of his son? Possibly.”

Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot 20 children and six educators with a military-style rifle on Dec. 14, then killed himself as police arrived. Authorities say he also killed his mother at their Newtown home before he went to the school. The Parkers lost their 6-year-old daughter, Emilie, in the rampage.

Allissa Parker said she told Peter Lanza that there was an opportunity to learn from the killings and his cooperation was vital.

The Parkers wouldn’t reveal what Peter Lanza said about his son. Connecticut state police haven’t released any information about a motive, but people close to the investigation have told The Associated Press that Adam Lanza showed interest in other mass killings and had literature on other mass shootings at his home. The people spoke on conditional of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Peter Lanza, who was divorced from Nancy Lanza, has declined to comment about the meeting with the Parkers, who said they came away from it with a better understanding of Adam Lanza.

Robbie Parker, who was among the first of the victims’ parents to publicly discuss the shooting, said he and his wife wanted to meet with Peter Lanza because he was the only person who could answer their questions.

“Adam’s gone and his mother’s gone, and those are the two people that could give us the most information to the questions that all of us have,” he said.

The Parkers, who have two other daughters ages 3 and 5, said they’re not angry because they know they can’t undo what happened at the school that day.

“So the idea of wasting any energy on anger towards somebody or trying to point blame at anybody seems like a waste of time and energy that we can use to be better parents to our girls,” Robbie Parker said.

Allisa Parker said she believes Nancy Lanza bears some accountability for what happened. The Bushmaster rifle used in the school shootings belonged to Nancy Lanza.

Asked whether she forgives Adam Lanza, Allisa Parker said it’s not her burden to bear.

“I do hold him accountable, but I feel like God will determine that,” she said. “And I feel like he’s in a place where the judgment will happen, and I don’t have to. I don’t have to judge him, and I’m at peace with …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Newtown Gun Permit Applications Jump After Sandy Hook Shooting

By The Huffington Post News Editors

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Applications for gun permits have jumped in Newtown since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which sparked a renewed debate about stricter gun control laws and a surge in gun sales around the country due to worries about new limits.

Newtown in recent years has issued about 130 gun permits annually. Police say the town received 79 permit applications in the three months since the Dec. 14 massacre, well over double the normal pace.

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Adam Lanza, Newtown Gunman, Had Interest In Other Mass Murders, Law Enforcement Source Says

By The Huffington Post News Editors

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — People close to the investigation tell The Associated Press that the gunman in the Connecticut school massacre showed interest in other mass killings.

Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home before killing 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police arrived.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Report: Conn. Senator Murphy urges NASCAR to reconsider NRA race sponsorship [w/poll]

By Zach Bowman

NASCAR NRA 500 Logo

Filed under:

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy wants NASCAR officials to reconsider calling one of the sport’s upcoming events, the NRA 500. Murphy, who has helmed the conversation on gun control in the US since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut last December, sent a letter to NASCAR officials asking them to reconsider the move. According to reports, the senator addressed his correspondence to Brian France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR, saying the National Rifle Association has placed itself at odds with both “the overwhelming majority of the American people, and even their own members” over the “proper response” to the tragic school shooting.

NASCAR, it should be noted, honored the victims of the Connecticut shooting with a special green-and-white car at the Daytona 500. The machine’s livery featured a green Sandy Hook ribbon, along with instructions on how to donate to funds set up for victims. In his letter, Murphy said, “I believe it would be imprudent for NASCAR to step into such a heated political debate and take sides in this debate by allowing the NRA the title role in the race.” The NRA 500 is set to take place April 13.

Meanwhile, Texas Motorspeedway president Eddie Gossage insists the naming has less to do with politics and more to do with sports marketing, and NASCAR has said race sponsorships are agreements between the track and the sponsor, though technically the race organization can approve or reject those agreements.

What do you think, should NASCAR reconsider its sponsorship with the NRA? Vote in our poll and have your say in Comments.

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Conn. Senator Murphy urges NASCAR to reconsider NRA race sponsorship [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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