Parents of victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting struggling with massacre in Uvalde, Texas
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NEWTOWN, Conn. — The shooting in Uvalde, Texas is the deadliest attack at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown.
CBS2’s Dave Carlin has more on how parents who lost their own children at Sandy Hook Elementary School are reacting to this latest tragedy.
Another elementary school tragedy is bringing back raw and painful emotions for families in Connecticut.
“We are not keeping people safe,” Nelba Marquez-Greene told CBS Mornings.
Marquez-Greene’s 6-year-old daughter, Ana Grace, was among the children massacred at Sandy Hook in 2012.
“I received a text on my phone that said, ‘Please don’t look at the news,'” Marquez-Greene said.
She is a licensed marriage and family therapist who is reliving the heartbreak that never goes away.
“The agony that you face in the survival that you have to do in order to go through something like this, we are asking for superhuman strength from these parents,” Marquez-Greene said.
“I don’t think these parents at the moment have any idea what just happened and what’s to happen in the days or weeks to come,” said Nicole Hockley, CEO of Sandy Hook Promise.
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Hockley remembered her 6-year-old son, Dylan, who was stolen from the world almost a decade ago.
“No one expects to take their child to school in the morning and never see them again,” Hockley said. “I know I shut down after the murder of Dylan. It was several days before I could do anything. I am feeling in shock yet again, just reliving that day and thinking about what these families and that community is going through right now.”
Hockley said it’s urgent and decades overdue that Congress introduce certain gun measures and pass them this time.
“It’s about being responsible with who can access them at what point,” Hockley said. “Obviously, background checks is something that has been debated and there’s not even on the floor right now, as I understand it, in the Senate to even have that debate. So, that’s an action that can be taken. There’s also measures like safe storage.”
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Many in the Tri-State Area and across the nation are feeling anxiety and fear because of this. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont talked about that Wednesday.
“I want you to look out for each other. I want you to be a shoulder to lean on,” Lamont said.
Mental health say taking care of the victims’ parents, survivors, and others in pain requires checking in, but not just here and now, but long-term and meaningful support for the decades to come.
Dave Carlin