R.I.P. those affected by the school shooting in CT

[sportdan30]

My heart breaks for the families affected. Absolutely tragic....soooo incredibly sad.

[sportdan30]

Edit: should not be speculating regrading the number of deaths....my apologies.

[DivotMaker]

Totally f***ed up world we live in today....what a senseless tragedy.

[TCrouch]

Rapidly losing faith in humanity.

...grammar school kids?

Unreal.

[bdunn13]

Rapidly losing faith in humanity.

...grammar school kids?

Unreal.

I could not and do not want to imagine what the parents are going through. I rather die myself than live on this earth without my kids.

The parents will never recover.

The kids that are lost are gone forever.

The kids that are still there today may never recover and will likely be scarred forever.

[dbdynsty25]

The kids that are still there today may never recover and will likely be scarred forever.

The only redeeming quality of an elementary school being hit is that hopefully the kids are too young to really understand how truly horrific this is.

[Pete1210]

Just seeing the news now. I am literally sick to my stomach.

[pigpen81]

The kids that are still there today may never recover and will likely be scarred forever.

The only redeeming quality of an elementary school being hit is that hopefully the kids are too young to really understand how truly horrific this is.

I am 41 and I remember quite a few happenings going back to kindergarten. I think many will remember.

Being a teacher and parent myself, this breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. A Tragedy of the worst kind.

What would bring a person to do such a thing?

[TCrouch]

From what was all over the news at lunch, the gunman's mother was a kindergarten teacher there. So apparently he killed somebody at his house (not sure who that was yet, but speculation when I left the house was his father or brother), then drove over to the school, and the school had full ID-recognition and visual scan procedures in place. Since they knew the kid, he got in. Then opened fire and went to his mom's class. Killed her and her class, apparently.

I can't even fathom this at the moment. It just saddens me beyond belief.

[dbdynsty25]

So full ID-Visual Recognition doesn't detect three guns and a vest? They need a refund on that tech. Clearly it's worthless.

[WillHunting]

This person is psychotic.... possibly killed his father, brother's gf, then killed his mother and all the kids and others..... just speechless.

[TCrouch]

So full ID-Visual Recognition doesn't detect three guns and a vest? They need a refund on that tech. Clearly it's worthless.

They quite possibly knew the kid. He could have been wearing a black coat because it's f'n cold in Connecticut in December, and if they see his face and know he's the son of a teacher there, I don't know what we could realistically expect from the teachers. If they don't know them, they'd have to have ID, etc., but if the kid shows up on a winter day wearing a thick coat that has a bunch of weapons under it, I can't say it was the fault of the front office to let them in.

If it's some unknown kid and NOT the son of a teacher, that's another story. But he could have just strolled up leisurely and say he needed to see his mom. I don't think they had any fancy tech, but the news clip was saying they sent out a letter about new security procedures they put in place at the beginning of the year requiring visitors to ring the bell to be allowed into the building. That's all I was talking about.

The saddest part of the whole thing is I don't know how you prevent it. The circumstances were just too much...it would have to be some sci-fi thing like Person of Interest to see it coming.

[sportdan30]

Had the day off from work today. It just so happened to be Country Western day at the school (square dancing). I walked up to my children's elementary school and rang the bell (door is automatically locked). They immediately allowed myself and another woman to enter. I could have easily had a hand gun under my coat. No metal detectors, no security guard in the viscinity, etc. I walked to the office, signed in, and walked to the gym.

Also, our school classrooms are open, without doors. So, it's not even possible for the teachers to lock down the classroom if necessary! That's ridiculous.

There should be metal detectors at the school entrance, bullet proof doors to the classrooms that lock automatically when the metal detector or alarm goes off. And why isn't that implemented. Money of course.

[RobVarak]

Had the day off from work today. It just so happened to be Country Western day at the school (square dancing). I walked up to my children's elementary school and rang the bell (door is automatically locked). They immediately allowed myself and another woman to enter. I could have easily had a hand gun under my coat. No metal detectors, no security guard in the viscinity, etc. I walked to the office, signed in, and walked to the gym.

Also, our school classrooms are open, without doors. So, it's not even possible for the teachers to lock down the classroom if necessary! That's ridiculous.

There should be metal detectors at the school entrance, bullet proof doors to the classrooms that lock automatically when the metal detector or alarm goes off. And why isn't that implemented. Money of course.

The fact that they aren't able to lock down the classrooms is unbelievable. That's really surprising.

Metal detectors are probably overkill, particularly when weighed against the cultural repercussions and the likelihood of actually deterring a crime. I'm not talking about schools with significant gang activity, obviously.

The trouble is that any security scheme is only as strong as the personnel implementing it. I live in one of the finest school districts in the state, but the administration here has never managed to send me a letter without a mistake in it and can't seem to administer the carpool lane without turning it into a complete cluster%uck. This is not inspiring.

Security has to be simplified and consistent. No piggybacking, use of CCTV to identify visitors, sequential barriers to entry etc.

But there is a limit to what we can and should do. It's not remotely cost effective to have armed police in every school in the nation, no matter how outrageous a tragedy like this is.

Just as with the gun laws (and I'm not even opening that can of worms), there is a point beyond which people with the desire to do evil will ultimately do so regardless of regulatory, societal or legal boundaries.

[Diablo25]

My thoughts go out to the families. Being a teacher myself - this hits home pretty hard. I'm both sad and angry at the same time.

[Brando70]

It is an unbelievable tragedy. Almost impossible to get my head around it. My wife and I couldn't wait to pick our daughter up from school today.

[MizzouRah]

It's just really hard to comprehend something like this happening. Makes me sick to my stomach.

[10spro]

My kids are in elementary school still and my heart just goes out to the families involved in this tragedy. It just seems incomprehensible what goes in some peoples' heart an mind Whether it's human nature or mother nature it's just something hard to understand at this juncture of the year. What a tragedy.

[XXXIV]

I dont understand how someone is able to hurt and kill any innocent person let alone a child.

It does make you feel sick.

[fsquid]

we've already walled off these public schools from the communities they serve, what more do want to do? It's a horrible, horrible tragedy, but do you want every school to be like Fort Knox?

I agree that security procedures are only as good as the people enforcing them.

[Teal]

I know the inevitable side bar of politicians is politics, but the politicization of this tragedy almost immediately is infuriating. Let them at least bury their children and mourn before you use them as pawns for your ideological nonsense, dirtbags...god, I hate politicians.

[Danimal]

I know a lot of people from that area of CT having grown up and attending college in CT myself.

What I saw this morning is he shot his mother then went to the school that was locked down and shot his way in through a window (so no one let him in) and then did the rest. My kids school has a locked down entrance and you need to be buzzed in and then enter through the office before getting into the rest of the school. I'm sure they don't have bullet proof glass.

I don't even know what to say about this, makes me sick to my stomach. I'm steering clear from the gun argument because I know how I feel and I have many good friends who feel differently and own guns. Right now my focus is how as a parent can I send my girls to school and know they are safe and yesterday was a stark reminder you can't.

[dbdynsty25]

What I saw this morning is he shot his mother then went to the school that was locked down and shot his way in through a window (so no one let him in) and then did the rest. My kids school has a locked down entrance and you need to be buzzed in and then enter through the office before getting into the rest of the school. I'm sure they don't have bullet proof glass.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is spin control quite honestly. They don't want every parent in the world freaking out about how easy it was to get past the "security" system that was in place. They don't want every parent going apesh*t at the next school board meeting because their child's school doesn't have a system nearly as sophisticated. That's my tin foil hat response. If I'm completely wrong and they give us some proof that happened, then by all means I can believe it. But I'm skeptical. It seems like that's the first thing they'd say yesterday but that info is just NOW coming out. Hmmm.

[pk500]

I know the inevitable side bar of politicians is politics, but the politicization of this tragedy almost immediately is infuriating. Let them at least bury their children and mourn before you use them as pawns for your ideological nonsense, dirtbags...god, I hate politicians.

Couldn't disagree more. If part of the aftermath of this tragedy isn't a self-examination of our culture and laws, then we're failing as a society. Whether you support gun control or not, NOW is the time to talk about it. Not a week from now, when nearly everyone in the nation outside of Connecticut has moved on to the next scandal, celebrity meltdown or tragedy.

"Now is not the time" is just another form of apathy that is causing our culture, our system of values, to erode, regardless of your beliefs on gun control. Human beings have the mental capacity to grieve and ask serious questions simultaneously.

I don't want to see grandstanding. But I'm 100 percent OK with anyone, including a politician, asking sincere, objective questions right now about our culture and its laws.

[pk500]

What I saw this morning is he shot his mother then went to the school that was locked down and shot his way in through a window (so no one let him in) and then did the rest. My kids school has a locked down entrance and you need to be buzzed in and then enter through the office before getting into the rest of the school. I'm sure they don't have bullet proof glass.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is spin control quite honestly. They don't want every parent in the world freaking out about how easy it was to get past the "security" system that was in place. They don't want every parent going apesh*t at the next school board meeting because their child's school doesn't have a system nearly as sophisticated. That's my tin foil hat response. If I'm completely wrong and they give us some proof that happened, then by all means I can believe it. But I'm skeptical. It seems like that's the first thing they'd say yesterday but that info is just NOW coming out. Hmmm.

I'm sure the kid would have been admitted to the school if he wanted to take that route. His mother taught there, and he was an alum. I know I'm all but waved into my kids' schools -- even though security systems are in place -- because I'm known by administrators and teachers in our small town. Sadly, Lanza probably was in the same boat.