Three and a half years after a gunman killed 26 people inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School, students will soon head to the halls of a brand new building at the same spot.
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After the December 2012 massacre that took the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators, the old Sandy Hook Elementary School was demolished.
Those features include a gated entrance, impact-resistant windows, an elevated ground floor, video monitoring, locks at entrances and card readers. All the doors and windows are bulletproof.
In many ways, Friday’s public unveiling of the new, $50-million Sandy Hook Elementary School is the culmination of a balancing act.
Still, many would give anything to have the old building back.
The school’s ground floor is elevated, making it hard to see inside classrooms from the outside. The property has been landscaped to ensure anyone approaching the school is visible to those inside.
Almost four years after suffering one of the worst mass shootings in America, an elementary school in CT will re-open in a brand-new, high-tech building this autumn. The school opened for the first time on Friday to show off the school’s new safety features and satiate the public’s curiosity – so when the students go back to school on August 29, they can go back in peace.
Of the 390 students enrolled to return to the school this fall, 70 of those were enrolled at the time of the shooting. Only about 30 of them were in the building at the time, he said, attending the morning kindergarten session.
“That is what a school should be”, said Moran, “the excitement of learning and seeing all the new stuff”. Others left through retirement or job changes, and a handful chose to transfer as part of their personal recovery process, he said.
The district will provide those students and staff with special resources to help cope with the return, Erardi said.
Principal Dr. Kathy Gombos said the kids are their top priority.
The new school was designed by New Haven-based Svigals + Partners and built by Consigli Construction Co.
In one classroom, a refrigerator magnet reads “We are Newtown, we choose love”.
“I’m going to pass on answering that”, he said, “because it involves the conversations I’ve had with the impacted families and those will always remain confidential”.
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Melisa Horan found touring the new school with her now sixth-grade son cathartic. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form.
