Newtown School Massacre

The Newtown School Shooting; The Nation's Second Deadliest Mass Shooting

President Obama once said, “This is our first task, caring for our children” (Owings 101). Caring for children includes creating a safe environment at school. Unfortunately, this doesn't always happen as numerous school shootings show. One such disaster was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.

Adam Lanza, later to be the Newtown school shooter, was born on April 22, 1992, to Nancy and Peter Lanza. Peter Lanza was offered a high paying job in Connecticut, he and his family moved to Newtown, Connecticut (Owings 15), which was known as a very safe neighborhood (1). At age six, Nancy and Peter enrolled Adam in Sandy Hook

His school work was very violent, disturbing many (Martinez). "Adam would write ten pages, obsessing over battles, destruction and war," Adam’s former teacher said, according to the report. His work was "so graphic that it could not be shared" (Sanchez). Eventually, Nancy Lanza realized that Adam was not doing well in his current school, she pulled him out and enrolled him in a homeschooling program ( Owings 17).Soon after, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (Martinez).

As Adam’s life went on, he began having a lot of social trouble (Owings 16). One event happened that would worsen his mental condition. In 2009 Peter and Nancy Lanza divorced. In 2010 Peter Lanza moved away and this caused loss of communication with Adam. This caused Adam to become very close to his mother. As his state of mind became worse, people described him as fidgety and deeply disturbed (Sanchez). His mother was continually concerned with his mental health (Martinez). She later enrolled him in classes at Western Connecticut State University (Owings

For example, Peter Lanza could be blamed for not doing as much as possible to reach out to his son during the worst part of Adam’s life. Adam’s mental disabilities and the fact that he received little to no mental help could be blamed. One could even blame the school designers for not building the doors with double-sided locks. If the locks were double sided, the teachers could have prevented some of the students from being harmed. It all depends on how one chooses to look at it. Some people even think that Sandy Hook was a hoax and was staged by actors paid by the government to help enforce strong gun control laws