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| A bus traveling from Newtown, Conn., to Monroe stops in front of 26 angels along the roadside on the first day of classes for Sandy Hook Elementary School students since the Dec. 14 shooting, in Monroe, Conn., Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013. Chalk Hill School in Monroe was overhauled especially for the students from the Sandy Hook School shooting. |
MONROE, Conn. (AP) -- For her son's first day of school since last month's massacre at his Sandy Hook Elementary, Sarah Caron tried to make Thursday as normal as possible. She made his favorite pancakes, and she walked the second-grader to the top of the driveway for the school bus.
But it was harder than usual to say goodbye.
"I hugged him a lot longer than normal, until he said, `Mommy, please,'" she said. "And then he got on the bus, and he was OK."
Her
7-year-old son, William, was among more than 400 students who escaped a
gunman's rampage that killed 20 first-graders and six educators at
Sandy Hook on Dec. 14. On Thursday, the returning students settled in at
their old, familiar desks but in a different school in a different
town.
Returning students, teachers and
administrators were met by a large police presence outside their new
school in the neighboring town of Monroe, where a middle school that had
been shuttered for nearly two years was overhauled and renamed after
their old school. Several officers guarded the entrance and checked IDs
of parents dropping off children.
Monroe police Lt. Keith White said attendance was very good and the children were getting back to "business as usual."
"A lot of them were happy to see their friends they hadn't seen in a while," he said.
William's
classroom had been across the hall from a first-grade room where
children and teacher Victoria Soto died, and he had been nervous about
going back to school, Caron said. But an open house Wednesday at the
school eased some of his fears.
"They didn't
talk about what happened at all," she said. "They went in, met up with
their teachers, had a little circle time and it was just about trying to
get them back into school."
Most of the
students arrived at the new school in Monroe by bus, something school
officials had suggested to help them get back into a familiar routine.
Nick
Phelps, who lives a few blocks from the original Sandy Hook school,
said his first-grader and third-grader are excited about the new school
because it means a longer bus ride to Monroe, which is about 7 miles
away.
He was there when the bus brought them home Thursday afternoon.
"I was never so excited to see my children and, certainly, to see my children get off the bus. There was a shared joy," he said.
About
80 parents attended an assembly Thursday with school and police
officials, who fielded questions about security and activities planned
for their children. White said security will remain at a high level for
now and will be re-evaluated each week.
The
gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother inside their
Newtown home before driving to the school. He shot his way into the
building and carried out the massacre before committing suicide as
police arrived.
On Thursday, Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy announced the creation of an advisory commission that will review
and recommend changes to state laws and policies on gun control, school
safety measures and mental health services in the wake of the Sandy
Hook rampage.
Teams of workers, many of them
volunteers, prepared the new school and even raised bathroom floors so
the smaller elementary school students can reach the toilets. The
students' backpacks and other belongings that were left behind after 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 colors and hung with the same pictures. Other
details, such as the location of bookshelves and cubby holes, were
replicated as much as possible.
Newtown school
Superintendent Janet Robinson said the school has been transformed into
a "cheerful" place for the students. She said mental health counselors
continue to be available for anyone who needs them.
Caron,
32, said her son knows what happened and has undergone counseling. She
said her 5-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."
Intellectually, Caron said, she knows her children will be very safe at their new school.
"But,
emotionally," she said. "It's very hard to turn off the little `What
if?' that kind of hangs on and says, `Well, you know what, December 14th
started out as a normal day, too."
