On December 14, 2012, twenty-six people died as a result of a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Here are the names of the twelve girls, eight boys, and six women whose lives were taken.
Charlotte Bacon, 6 years old, female
Daniel Barden, 7 years old, male
Rachel Davino, 29 years old, female
Olivia Engel, 6 years old, female
Josephine Gay, 7 years old, female
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6 years old, female
Dylan Hockley, 6 years old, male
Dawn Hochsprung, 47 years old, female
Madeleine F. Hsu, 6 years old, female
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6 years old, female
Chase Kowalski, 7 years old, male
Jesse Lewis, 6 years old, male
James Mattioli , 6 years old, male
Grace McDonnell, 7 years old, female
Anne Marie Murphy, 12 years old, female
Emilie Parker, 6 years old, female
Jack Pinto, 6 years, male
Noah Pozner, 6 years old, male
Caroline Previdi, 6 years old, female
Jessica Rekos, 6 years old, female
Avielle Richman, 6 years old, female
Lauren Rousseau, 30 years old, female
Mary Sherlach, 56 years old, female
Victoria Soto, 27 years old, female
Benjamin Wheeler, 6 years old, male
Allison N. Wyatt, 6 years old, female
This list is in accordance with those published by CNN and The Huffington Post in response to the reports of Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, Dr. H. Wayne Carver, and Connecticut state police.
Musical theater composer Jason Robert Brown posted on his website the following tribute:
A message from the Community Service Board:
Newtown’s heartbreak has a lot of us asking, “What can I do?” Thinking about this, Ann Curry took to social media and asked people to imagine what would happen if all of us committed to 26 acts of kindness to honor each life lost in Newtown.
As part of our ongoing response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Service Board has decided to join the movement of committing 26 acts of kindness in the next 26 school days. Between Friday, January 25th and March 1st, 2013, we are asking all Upper School students to perform 26 small acts of kindness. These can include anything from helping your neighbor carry his or her groceries to lending a hand to a friend at school.
Please use this space to record some of your favorite acts of kindness and to comment on others’.
The following quote, falsely attributed to actor Morgan Freeman, has gone viral on Facebook over the past two days. Controversy has sparked about both the author and the statement’s content–several are offended that someone would blame the tragedy on anything or anyone other than the shooter himself.
“You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here’s why. It’s because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batmantheater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody. CNN’s article says that if the body count ‘holds up,’ this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer’s identity? None that I’ve seen yet. Because they don’t sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next. You can help by forgetting you ever read this man’s name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem.”
Of course, the shooter himself is to blame. However, moving forward, our goal is to prevent something like this from happening again-THAT is where the media comes in. We should not give other people who might be as disturbed as this man something to “live up too”. I know people what closure and want the answer of why he did it. In reality, we might not get this answer. Not knowing is very hard, but we should be pro active. Gun control definitely is an issue at hand, but so is the care of mentally ill people. There is not enough resources to help them. Most mentally ill people end up in jail because there are not enough pysch wards. Of course, this man, if he were alive, deserved to rot in jail.
I personally do have pretty strong feelings about gun control, but I understand the other side of it too in terms of people considering it a human right and a part of personal freedom. I think that they are far too powerful and dangerous things for the common person, who has God-knows-what-kind-of intentions, to be able to acquire. People have shown that they cannot behave ethically, rationally and responsible – I feel comfortable with making that blanket statement. However, I also think that the quote “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” (which Anna shared in Latin class) is very relevant. Gun control is an important question in the wake of this tragedy, but mental health research is just as important, if not even more important. I think that the most in the meantime that we can do is offer our thoughts to the victims (and/or heroes) of this tragedy and their families.
Act of kindness # 1 — On my way home, I helped a man in a wheelchair and made sure that he slowly but surely got into his house and out of the cold as I saw him struggling to open his door successfully.
On Saturday at my SAT I gave some of my pencils to panicking test takers who forget theirs…and gave an encouraging smile as well 🙂
Act of kindness #1 – I play guitar for a church choir, with 8 other musicians. We had a new banjo player today whom I wanted to welcome. He was playing a vamp solo today on a certain song but wasn’t mic-ed, so instead of playing during that song, I held up a microphone to his banjo so that the entire congregation could hear him.
Act of kindness #2 – my mom had a gathering of friends today and invited a new friend that her other friends didn’t know. In order to make her feel more welcome and less intimidated walking into a room of close women who all know each other, I went downstairs to wait for her and greet her and then walk her up through the elevator to my apartment.
This may be somewhat simple, but today I was walking home and as I passed a Starbucks window, I saw a woman backing her way out of the store, pulling a bulky stroller loaded with children. Even though I wasn’t going inside, I paused my mental monologue and hopped to open the door for her, so that she and her tots could come pouring out.
Act of kindness #3 – I was contacted tonight to help fill in for a dancer for a ball on Friday who has the flew. They really need someone who knows how to dance so that the choreography isn’t messed up; this will take hours of rehearsal time tomorrow night and Thursday night, but I’m going to do it to help them out.
Act of kindness #4 – a few girls at the dance rehearsal were sitting off by themselves, so I tried to make them feel more welcome by including them in the group of friends with which I was talking.
A few nights ago, I had an overwhelming amount of homework and was knee-deep in finishing my English essay. It was getting late, and I was totally exhausted. But my younger brother had been out of school sick, and it was time for him to go to bed but he couldn’t fall asleep because of his ailments–so I pulled myself out of editing my essay to lay down with my brother for 15 minutes, comforting him so that he could sleep.
Last night my sister was stressing out about biology, so even though I had a lot of work, I spent most of the evening helping her understand the chapter. It meant staying up later to finish my work, but that’s what being a big sister is all about!
My sister, having missed two full weeks of school for a tonsillectomy, has needed to catch up on a lot of work! Though I had a lot more work to do, I felt it necessary that she be caught up to speed, and so I spent my time teaching her much of the trigonometry that she had missed.
I helped my neighbor get her braces (she has Cerebral Palsy) and shoes on in the elevator. She was all excited that a “big” girl was helping her get ready for her day!
[It’s a little concerning that most of these acts of kindness relate to having a lot of homework!]
Act of kindness #5 – Today at the second dance rehearsal, I searched and searched and asked people and asked people, until I found an extra bouquet for my sister to take home, so that she could be just like her (awesome) big sister.
Act of kindness #6 – Just before the dance even started, my friend was exhausted and had no money. I bought her a (ginormous) coffee, and it helped. 🙂
On Friday, I volunteered at a soup kitchen and made LOTS of lasagna. One woman was so excited that she would be able to bring home lots of leftovers. Now she does not have to worry about paying for a good meal for a couple of days.
I helped my young cousin get tea. She could not reach the hot water jug to fill her tea cup. I picked her up to the water jug, so she could be a “big” girl and fill the cup herself.
Act of kindness #7 – I gave up my seat on the subway for a woman with a child. 🙂
I sent notes to a classmate after she missed class while she was sick with the flue
Act of kindness #8 – A friend was having a rough day; I took the time to talk her through it for a while and it seemd to really help.
Act of kindness #9 – I told a lot of teachers today how phenomenal they are at life. A lot of teachers at Hewitt have changed my life and they deserve to know how fantastic they are.
I helped a woman carry an infant stroller down the steps of the library.
I was on my way to school after an early-morning doctor’s appointment, and I saw a man who had a two-child stroller, with an infant on the top, and his toddler walking in front of him. He seemed really stressed out and as he looked at the stairs mistrustfully, I asked him if I could help him carry the stroller down. He said no–so instead I went down and held the door open for him. But then there was another set of stairs, so I asked again. This time he said no hesitatingly, and asked instead that I watch his toddler as he made his way down with the stroller so that the toddler wouldn’t run into the street or something. So I walked down to the stairs and made small talk with a 3-year-old boy named Tommy until his father made it down the stairs with his little brother or sister and could prepare himself for the next mission: getting to the next place in one piece.
Act of kindness #10 – There’s this old man that absolutely loves talking to mom and calls her all the time but she was busy, so I took the time to talk to him.
Act of kindness #11 – Someone who interviewed me for college emailed me and asked me for some SAT tips for her daughter; it took me 30 minutes to write out every bit of advice I had, but they were so grateful that it was worth it.
Act of kindness #12 – Usually don’t have time at night to cuddle The Twins to sleep, but made time for it tonight because both parents weren’t home – so worth it!
Act of kindness #13 – Gave up the coldest spot in the hot yoga room for someone else. (Definitely hard to do.)
An elderly woman at Duane Reade could not find her favorite brand of toilet paper. I helped her look for it and then asked a clerk if they could get some for her. She was definitely happy to have her favorite toilet paper!
Act of kindness #14 – Let the taxi driver keep all the change.
Act of kindness #15 – Lessened my mom’s money load by babysitting the kids for the day.
Act of kindness #16 – Yesterday was the hottest class/teacher of the week, but I let my friend take the coldest spot in the room (for which I always come to class 15-20 minutes early) because she needed it more than I did.
At 6, I’m going to a meeting with the director of a French charity/programs of underprivileged kids to see how I can volunteer/get involved – probably gonna teach some yoga. 🙂
Act of kindness #18 – Did a lot today to support the wishes of my upper school community.
A man was standing behind of a car listening to music, and a car started to back up. I yelled for the man to move because the driver did not realize that (s)he was about to run over someone.