Her name is Grace. She was one of the 26 victims killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December 2014. At the time, I looked at the pictures of all of the victims, 20 elementary school students and six educators, and her face spoke to me, so I copied it […]
She was one of the 26 victims killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December 2014.
At the time, I looked at the pictures of all of the victims, 20 elementary school students and six educators, and her face spoke to me, so I copied it and pasted it to my Facebook timeline along with some comments I found related to Grace.
“A real little doll” is how a neighbor described Grace, whom she’d see at the bus stop each morning, bound for a day of school.
“It’s heartbreaking, just heartbreaking,” said neighbor Todd Werden.
I don’t know how the families of these victims can even process the event that took place there in an elementary school in a quiet little town in America, even years later.
Elementary schools are safe havens for little children and teachers. Laughter, learning, hugs, smiles, and friends are what you expect to find in the hallways, cafeterias and classrooms of elementary schools.
Not a killing zone for a deranged person with easy access to automatic weapons.
How are parents, siblings, teachers, doctors and first responders dealing with the grief?
Newtown, an Independent Lens documentary airing Monday night at 10 ET (check local listings) on PBS, uses the deeply personal testimonies of those in the community changed by the events.
They speak candidly about their grief, anger and disbelief over what occurred and their disappointment that nothing has truly changed with regard to the country’s legal response to gun violence.
Newtown bears witness to their profound grief and allows it to reverberate within our collective conscience, exploring what happens to a community after it becomes the epicenter of a national discussion and what it must cope with after the cameras leave.
“The team was committed to making a film that was incisive without being exploitative,” said Lois Vossen, executive producer.
“Newtown shows the impact of trauma on a community, the grief gun violence causes and how we begin to heal and move forward.”
Comments (0)
Reader Interactions