Earthquakes, hurricanes, plane crashes and terrorist attacks to name just a few. It really doesn’t matter how horrendous the disaster, the reality remains the same in most cases, someone survives. What separates the survivors from those who perish ? Nancy thinks she knows, it is the failure to react when a threat is staring you in the face. That is why she stockpiled food and water in her home and why she registered five guns in her name.
Nancy Lanza 52, was an intelligent, self-reliant women, she was proud of her home situated in the prosperous town of Newtown, near the city of New York. She believed we are all facing an uncertain future that the global economy will collapse. She thought that financial disaster would lead to the fall of civilized society and signal the beginning of barbarism. She could never have guessed that a threat lay closer to home. She was the loving attentive mother of two boys. Once when her youngest was sick she had slept outside his room on the hard floor just so she could reassure him she was there should he wake.
Nancy Lanza 52, was an intelligent, self-reliant women, she was proud of her home situated in the prosperous town of Newtown, near the city of New York. She believed we are all facing an uncertain future that the global economy will collapse. She thought that financial disaster would lead to the fall of civilized society and signal the beginning of barbarism. She could never have guessed that a threat lay closer to home. She was the loving attentive mother of two boys. Once when her youngest was sick she had slept outside his room on the hard floor just so she could reassure him she was there should he wake.
Nancy was asleep in her bed when he years later crept into her room. He shot her four times in the head, using her own weapon a 22 Marlin rifle.
Adam Lanza, 20, must have felt powerless for years, and perhaps his mother seemed demanding. His parents were divorced. He had virtually no contact besides his mother. A year ago he had burnt himself with a lighter in the desperate attempt to feel something. Adam suffered from a medical condition which meant he could not feel pain. This condition stressed him and led to complex psychological issues. He also suffered from Asperger's Syndrome (autism spectrum) and had difficulty with normal social interactions. He was shy, reclusive and seemed unable to make friends.
Lanza was wearing black clothing and a mask when he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary along with a .223 calibre Bushmaster rifle and two pistols.
Victoria Soto was a young, bright eyed teacher, she loved her job and the students. One of her friends Rachel Schiavone remembers her as "a ball of energy with an incredible personality" Victoria spoke about her pupils and had reportedly planned to make gingerbread houses with them that day. When she heard gunfire and screams in the classroom opposite her plans had to change.
Victoria busied herself hiding her students in the cupboards. Then she bravely tried to distract the gunman by telling him her pupils were in the gym. First graders later recalled to their parents and policeman how Victoria had shielded children from bullets with her own body. In her yearbook she quoted Victor Hugo by writing "You have got to dance like nobody s watching. Dream like you will live forever. Live like you will die tomorrow and love like it will never hurt." Hugo s last printed words included "I beg a prayer to all souls."
Gene Rosen’s auditory senses perceived within seconds the abrupt sound of gunfire close to his house. He dismissed it, he was not unfamiliar with the sound of a hunter in the woods. Gene Rosen is a retired man of 69 who had once worked as a psychologist. A peaceful married man who lives in his modest-sized home, painted in bright welcoming yellow. Some might call it the idyllic lifestyle. He had built his small garden with the help of his two young grandchildren who often visited and they had chosen a small fish pond and a bubbling waterfall. He had taken his grandson a few times to a local school parking lot out of hours and taught him how to use his bike. His granddaughter he later recalled had enjoyed being pushed on the swings in the playground.
He could not have conceived the events that were transpiring around him. At 9.30 am Rosen found two young boys and four young girls sat in a semicircle on his driveway. One little boy then made him aware of a terrible event "We cannot go to our school" "Our teacher Mrs Soto is dead, we don’t have a teacher" A school bus driver then revealed to him the true scale of the disaster and that the children had fled a gunman. In total Adam Lanza shot dead 20 children between the ages of six and seven as well as six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary before committing suicide. One 52 year old teacher was reportedly found dead with her arms around a student in an attempt to protect them from harm. Adam Lanza killed 27 people on Friday 14th December 2012, including his mother, and the resounding question through tears will always be "... why ?"
On the 20th December a funeral was held for one of the victims. Ana Marquez Greene was six years old and already a talented singer, ”She didn’t walk anywhere. She danced.” Even at the young age of six she was known for selfless acts of kindness often leaving notes under her mother's pillow just to tell her how much she loved her. She left for school on Friday December 14th, “wearing a white shirt with a purple peace sign,” according to her mother Nelba Marquez Greene who revealed to the media that the day before the shooting she had purchased a new Kindle Fire HD for Ana's Christmas present.
Ana was originally a Winnipeg girl. Her mother had a job at the Aurora Family Therapy Centre, University of Winnipeg and Ana`s father Jimmy Greene worked at the University of Manitoba as a music professor. Her family had moved to Connecticut a year ago. Isaiah, Ana`s older brother also attended Sandy Hook Elementary School but was unharmed.
The last thing Nelba remembers is giving her beautiful daughter two kisses on the cheek before Ana got on the school bus. Uttering the last words her mother would hear, Ana said smiling, “There is something for you under the tree.” Nelba emphasized to the media that she felt the school had all the necessary safety procedures in place, and that, “No lock down procedure in the world could have prevented anyone with that kind of power and ammunition.”
As Winnipeg City Council continue to table the plans for Winnipeg's 2013 budget, Councillor Paula Havixbeck in the district of Charleswood-Tuxedo called for Winnipeg to increase the funding of the (SRO) program. The School Resource Officer Program places uniformed police officers in city schools. She believes in light of the recent shootings in Newtown it is now imperative schools improve on their security. Speaking to the Winnipeg Sun she said of her proposals for change, “Every student and every teacher has a right to be safe.
