Anderson Cooper shows how the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School unfolded.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
After 18 years in the classroom, Janet Vollmer trusted her instincts when her school was under attack by a gunman. She read to her 5-year-old students at the Sandy Hook Elementary school to keep them calm, and took precautions to ensure their safety.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
Aimee Seaver's daughter survived the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. She talks to Anderson Cooper about explaining the incident to kids with gentle honesty.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung's professor and friend remembers her as a dedicated, passionate and fearless educator.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
In an emotional statement, President Obama expresses his condolences for those who perished in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Here's part of what the president said:
"This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Gov. Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.
"We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news, I react not as a president, but as anybody else would as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.
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Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
A former classmate and bus driver of the Connecticut school shooter describe him as a nice, typical kid.
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Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting |
Reporter's Note: President Obama spoke this afternoon about the shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut.
Dear Mr. President,
When I was a child, gunmen did not shoot up schools. We’ve always had sociopaths, sadists, and simply cruel people among us; and yes, they’ve visited their horrors upon the rest of the population, including children, since the dawn of humankind. But I repeat there was a time in quite recent memory when gunmen did not descend upon hapless children in a place where they ought to be safe.
Now these shootings, while not common, happen with such regularity that their newsworthiness is judged more by the number of fatalities than by the shocking nature of the crime. Because, to be honest, unless the shootings are big, I’m not sure they shock us anymore.
I can think of almost nothing more tragic.
What has become of us that this is a part of the fabric of our society? How does any society reach a point where normal parents, on normal days, think twice about dropping their kids off at school for fear of the unimaginable happening?
I ask those questions sincerely, because I don’t have the answers. Some will blame the availability of guns, or our violent media, or our culture that grows outraged at each incident, then grows bored with trying to figure out why it happened, and then grows complacent that it won’t happen again. Others will say these events are just something that occurs, like a human storm. “When a population is as large as ours,” they say, “the odds dictate that now and then someone will do something terrible.”
I don’t know who is right. I wish I did. All I know is that there was a time when it didn’t happen this way. There were assassins among us. There were mass murderers. There was even the odd shooter who appeared on a college campus. But the idea that every year or so, a gunman would wade into school children was unthinkable precisely because it did not happen. And though I don’t spend my days pining for the past, in that regard I wish our country was the way it used to be.
You were kind and good to express your condolences to the community in Connecticut today. As I have grown older I don’t pray enough and I’m never sure if God is listening. But I will tonight and I hope he is, for the sake of all those families whose hearts were forever broken by today’s tragedy.
Regards,
Tom
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Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman |
Much about the devastating crime at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is still unknown. Police say the scene is secure, while the investigation into the senseless act continues.
20 children were killed after shots rang out in their classroom, a place where they’re supposed to feel safe. Six adults, including the school’s principal and psychologist were also gunned down for a reason we may never comprehend.
It was early in the school day when the gunman shattered lives and destroyed the sanctity of the school. As the day went on, each police news conference brought more horror. The statements from students describing the sounds of gunshots and hurried evacuations gave a glimpse of the trauma they endured.
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Post by: Ella Chick Filed under: 360° Radar • Connecticut School Shooting |
Dana Bash, David Gergen and Gloria Borger discuss why Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: 360° Radar • President Barack Obama |
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