After Sandy Hook and Texas shootings, ‘we need our schools to feel safe,’ CT officials say

Mary Ann Jacobs recalled being huddled in a closet with 18 children and three other staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown nearly 10 years ago as a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six staff members in a hail of bullets that stunned Connecticut and the nation.

“Yesterday, I was right back in that closet,” Jacobs told a crowd Wednesday during a news conference seeking more federal legislation to prevent further mass shootings like Sandy Hook and the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 elementary school students and two staff members were killed.

The Texas shootings are reverberating through schools in Connecticut, leaving teachers and staff again fearful of returning to work much like the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, according to officials with the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

“This brings back a terrible remembrance of Sandy Hook in schools throughout the state,” said Donald Williams, the union’s executive director. Williams said his organization was looking to provide more mental health support for teachers and students as the state legislature recently recognized that schools need more social workers and clinical staff.

But Joslyn DeLancey, vice president of the union, said it’s still too early to tell which districts may need help and staff members need more resources on how to discuss tragic events with students in an age-appropriate way.

“It’s hard, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said DeLancy, a Darien fifth-grade teacher who is on a leave of absence. “A significant number of educators had to talk themselves into going to work today, just as you had a significant number of parents who didn’t want to say goodbye to their children.”

The magnitude of Tuesday’s shootings committed by a lone male teen with an AR-15 in light of the Sandy Hook tragedy can seem like the “world is on fire,” said Dr. Javeed Sukhera, chair of Psychiatry for Hartford HealthCare’s Institute of Living.

But it also provides an opportunity for educators and others to show their humanity and help students by allowing them to experience their feelings, Sukhera said. While every feeling won’t have “a fix,” Sukhera said, allowing children and staff to acknowledge their concerns will help children process their fears.

“Teachers can’t pretend like they aren’t being affected by the this and not lean into their humanness,” he said. “They need to allow children to express their concerns and feelings and be role models.”

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The Institute of Living is often called on to provide support and advice to school officials dealing with tragedies, Sukhera said. Since the impact of the shooting is still unfolding throughout Connecticut, no school districts have yet requested help, he said. “We are prepared to provide educators and administrators the support they need,” he said.

Dr. Andre Newfield, chair of psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, said mass shootings like Uvalde have enduring effects on their communities and survivors, who may develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

“There’s no greater violence than perpetration of violence against children, and when there’s a mass murder of children all in one place in a sacred institution like a school, it doesn’t matter how big or small or strong or weak a community is, they’re going to have a major reckoning to deal with,” he said.

Newfield recommended that parents of young children in Connecticut think carefully about how, or whether, they discuss the shooting.

“For the younger kids who don’t have access to this firsthand, I don’t think you discuss this,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to instill fear in my children in going to school and having to think about, is there a shooter hiding around the corner? There’s just no way they could possibly process that.”

If children ask, Newfield said, parents can emphasize the rarity of school shootings and reassure them that school remains a safe place.

While mass shootings at schools are rare — one estimate claims that in 40 years there has been 19 mass school shootings, meaning three or more people were killed in addition to the gunman — state officials asked local superintendents to review their safety and security plans and to contact the state’s Mobile Crisis system through 211 if teachers or students have difficulty dealing with the Uvalde shootings.

The state Department of Education has contacted the Connecticut Intelligence Center and the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to monitor safety issues and provide support to districts, CSDE Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in the letter to superintendents issued Wednesday.

“As the academic year draws to a close, we want to make sure that those who might need help coping with this traumatic event find the assistance they need,” Russell-Tucker said.

The letter also provided links to national materials on how to explain traumatic events to children and state and resources on trauma, violence and grief in the aftermath of mass shootings.

But there’s more work to do, including considering federal gun legislation, DeLancey said.

“We’re at a loss that something like this could happen again,” she said.

Teachers need to feel safe in their jobs so they can make students feel safe, DeLancey added.

“We had teachers who were at Sandy Hook and now work in other districts going to school today remembering that moment of that day,” she said.

The state also needs to make it easier for children, their parents and educators to get help before a tragedy occurs, she said. “We need our schools to feel safe and joyful,” DeLancey said. “I can’t say that they feel that way now and that is just devastating.”

Staff writer Alex Putterman contributed to this story.

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