Newtown, May 2018: Storms, Sandy Hook, Continue to Echo

NEWTOWN, CT -- Rarely a month has gone by since that December day in 2012 that some ripple from the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School does not quaver through the news, and May 2018 was no exception:

• A wrongful death lawsuit filed against Newtown by two families who lost children in the shooting was dismissed in May after a ruling by a Superior Court judge argued in part that educators exercised reasonable discretion in the way they responded.
• The Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission narrowed down to four (from 188 submissions) their design choices for what will occupy a 5.3-acre property in Sandy Hook.
• Team 26, the bicycle activists led by lawyer and Lt. Governor candidate Monte Frank, pedaled into Washington D.C. to call for a ban on high-capacity gun magazines and AR-15 rifles.
• The Newtown Action Alliance, another activist group that formed shortly after the shooting, used the occasion of the shooting of 10 people in Santa Fe High School in Texas as the touchstone for a call to action requesting a vote on the 56 House Task Force Member gun safety bills. They also requested that House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, all members of Congress and President Donald Trump pledge to refuse donations from the National Rifle Association.
• As effective but more dramatic, the group's more youthful contingent, the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, staged a "die-in" with colleagues in New York City. The protest was meant "to send a strong message that they will no longer tolerate being senselessly gunned down in schools, movie theaters, malls, churches, concert venues, and in the streets," according to a media release.
• Also sending a strong message were the six new Newtown households who added their names to the list of families suing Infowars radio host Alex Jones. The suit alleges defamation for Jones and colleagues claiming the shooting was a hoax and the relatives are paid actors.

Mother Nature sent out a strong message, too, and she was heard loud when the town was hit exceptionally hard by the storm that slammed into southwestern Connecticut during the afternoon rush hour on Tuesday, May 15. At least 12 Newtown properties were condemned in the aftermath. The town went online to provide answers to the many frequently asked questions about the rebuilding, which will be ongoing into June and beyond.

Photo via Newtown website.