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Police check ID as Sandy Hook kids go to class

School in nearby town remodelled

By: Dave Collins

Posted: 01/4/2013 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Jessica Hill / The Associated Press A sign welcomes Sandy Hook students on their first day of classes in Monroe, Conn., Thursday. (CP)

MONROE, Conn. -- Classes resumed Thursday for the students of the Newtown, Conn., school where a gunman last month killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself in the second-largest school shooting in U.S. history.

With their school still being treated as a crime scene, the more than 400 students of Sandy Hook Elementary School attended classes in a neighbouring town.

Returning students, teachers and administrators were met by a large police presence outside their new school, an overhauled middle school that had been shuttered for nearly two years. Several officers guarded the entrance and checked IDs of parents.

Law-enforcement officers guarding the new school called it "the safest school in America."

The school district said parents who wanted to be close to their children were welcome to visit and stay in classrooms or an auditorium throughout the day.

Newtown superintendent Janet Robinson said officials would do their best to make the students feel at ease. "We will be doing a normal day," she said.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their Newtown home before driving to the school. He had no known connection to the school. Police haven't released any details about a motive.

On Wednesday, the students and their families were welcomed at an open house at their new school, which was renamed as the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Students received gift boxes with toys inside and shared joyful reunions with teachers.

Teams of workers, many of them volunteers, prepared the school and even raised bathroom floors so the smaller elementary school students could reach the toilets. The students' backpacks and other belongings left behind following the shooting were taken to the new school to make them feel at home.

Students found the same chairs and desks, when possible. Their classroom walls were painted the same colours and hung with the same pictures. Other details, such as the location of bookshelves, were replicated.

Several signs welcoming the Sandy Hook students to their new school were posted along the road leading to it in a rural, residential neighbourhood.

Sarah Caron, 32, whose son was at the school on the day of shooting, said he knows what happened and has undergone counselling. She said her five-year-old daughter, Paige, attends afternoon kindergarten at the school and has been dealing with nightmares about "snakes and bears and coyotes."

"She wasn't at school that day but was with me when we went to look for William at the firehouse," Caron said. "Unfortunately, she heard more about it than I wish she did."

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 4, 2013 A14

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