Connecticut Schools

Roger Previs, principal of acclaimed Stratfield School in Fairfield, Conn., was forced into retirement after being blamed for doctored students' test scores. Previs, 57, said he is innocent and agreed to retire to spare students, parents and teachers further turmoil. Investigators found that incorrect answers on two standardized exams between 1993 and 1996 had been systematically erased and the correct answers filled in.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Hours after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Lee Shull sent an email to friends and neighbors in Newtown and urged them to join him in doing something to prevent another mass shooting. "I knew we had to act.... We needed to do something," said Shull, whose two children attended Sandy Hook, where a killer with an assault weapon opened fire on the morning of Dec. 14. But the answer to exactly what that "something" should be remains elusive even in this town hit so hard by gun violence, as was evident Monday when the group that Shull helped create formally announced itself without taking a stand on new gun laws.

When Yale psychiatrist James P. Comer started trying out his educational ideas in two of New Haven's most troubled inner-city schools in 1968, initial signs were not encouraging. Teachers and administrators began the experiment with high hopes, but soon were squabbling over apparent failures. Parents grew so angry that they planned a protest march. And in the classrooms, children were confused and uncontrollable.

Women pushing strollers stopped to peer at handguns in glass cases. Men squinted through scopes. The "clack-clack" of stun guns crackled overhead. A man meandered through the crowd, a black rifle slung over his back with a cardboard sign: "For sale: $1,700. " Less than a month after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, business was brisk at one of the nation's largest gun shows, held this weekend at the Ontario Convention Center, where vendors and patrons alike expressed fear of possible new federal restrictions on guns.

In a landmark ruling that is expected to influence efforts to integrate public schools across the nation, the Connecticut Supreme Court declared Tuesday that segregation in the Hartford area schools violates the state constitution. The ruling was a victory for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups, which have been turning to the state courts to achieve desegregation at a time when such efforts are being severely limited in the federal courts.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - School shooter Adam Lanza carried hundreds of bullets when he shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and used an assault rifle to do most of the killing, authorities confirmed Sunday. Lanza, 20, fired a Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic rifle to kill many of the 20 children and six adults at the school Friday, Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said. He used a Glock 10-millimeter handgun to shoot himself in the head. He also carried at Sig Sauer pistol.

It may not be possible to understand a tragedy like the shooting Friday in Newton, Conn., but parents can help their children cope with the fear and insecurity. A number of resources are available. Talking with Children about School Violence: Advice from the Lucy Daniels Center in North Carolina and tailored for children 11 years old or younger. Talking to Kids about School Safety : Mental Health America also offers suggestions, along with a list of signs that indicate a child may need help.

Stratfield School, long cited as one of the nation's best public elementary schools, was rocked Friday by a cheating scandal that called into question the entire state's testing system. The school, which has just over 400 students, drew national attention over the last decade as its students consistently scored as much as 40% higher on standardized tests than the next highest-scoring school in the same district.

WASHINGTON - The massacre of 26 children and adults at a school in western Connecticut may break the logjam in Congress on long-stalled gun-control legislation, although some longtime opponents said they plan to fight any new measures, lawmakers and analysts said Sunday. “I think we could be at a tipping point can get something done,” Sen. Chuck E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on CBS's "Face the Nation," noting that there had been several mass shootings this year alone. “The public will not accept as a new normal one of these incidents every month” Schumer called for restoring the ban on assault-style weapons, limiting the number of bullets in ammunition clips and making it harder for “mentally unstable” individuals to obtain firearms.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- School shooter Adam Lanza killed his mother with "multiple" shots to her head and killed himself with a single shot to his head, according to a coroner's report released Sunday. After killing his mother in the home they shared, Lanza, 20, drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he opened fire in two classrooms Friday morning, killing 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself. The autopsy reports were released by Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who said earlier that all the children had been shot multiple times.

The troubled young man who shot and killed 26 people at an elementary school had not had contact with his father in a nearby town for the last two years, despite his father's repeated efforts to repair the relationship, a family acquaintance said Tuesday as most students in the trauma-stricken town returned to school amid funeral processions. The revelation that Adam Lanza, 20, had broken off contact with his father and his brother deepened questions into what was going on inside the Lanza household in the weeks and months before the shooting, whose genesis still remains largely unknown.

Retailers are pulling back on sales of assault weapons and investors are abandoning gun makers' stocks as the nation's grief focuses on the funerals of the 20 children and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School rampage in Newtown, Conn. Calling the deadly assault "tragic and devastating," private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said Tuesday that it will sell its 95% stake in Freedom Group Inc., which makes the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that police said was used in the attack.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- They walked to Sandy Hook in twos and threes, some with children in strollers or infants bundled against the chill and fog. Some had teddy bears tucked under their arms. Others held bouquets of fresh flowers, Christmas wreaths with red ribbon, balloons in pink and blue and white. They came to leave gifts and cards and candles at a roadside shrine near Sandy Hook Elementary School on Sunday night. Police cars blocked the road to the school, and traffic was backed up even farther.

Since the shooting, Karen Dryer has done her best to keep the news from her 5-year-old son, Logan. He was already anxious enough about going to kindergarten. For months, she's had to reassure him there was nothing to be afraid of. How will she tell her son that two of the people who made it a little easier - the girls who accompanied him on the bus to Sandy Hook Elementary School and told him to be brave - were killed there Friday with 18 other children and six adults? Madeleine Hsu, shy and tiny, wore flowery dresses and lived across the street on Moccasin Trail.

WASHINGTON - The massacre of 26 children and adults at a school in western Connecticut may break the logjam in Congress on long-stalled gun-control legislation, although some longtime opponents said they plan to fight any new measures, lawmakers and analysts said Sunday. “I think we could be at a tipping point can get something done,” Sen. Chuck E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on CBS's "Face the Nation," noting that there had been several mass shootings this year alone. “The public will not accept as a new normal one of these incidents every month” Schumer called for restoring the ban on assault-style weapons, limiting the number of bullets in ammunition clips and making it harder for “mentally unstable” individuals to obtain firearms.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- School shooter Adam Lanza killed his mother with "multiple" shots to her head and killed himself with a single shot to his head, according to a coroner's report released Sunday. After killing his mother in the home they shared, Lanza, 20, drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he opened fire in two classrooms Friday morning, killing 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself. The autopsy reports were released by Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who said earlier that all the children had been shot multiple times.

An official from a town near Newtown, Conn. - the site of the horrific school shooting - said police informed him the principal was among the dead. First Selectman Gerald Stomski of Woodbury, told the Los Angeles Times that Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung was an “an incredible person” and an “outstanding educator and always put her students first.” Before she began at Sandy Hook in 2010, Hochsprung was a principal in nearby Woodbury, Stomski said.

Officials have corrected the identity of the gunman in Friday's deadly shooting at an elementary school in suburban Connecticut, saying the suspect was Adam Lanza and not his brother, Ryan. Earlier, law enforcement sources said that it was Ryan Lanza, 24, who was the gunman whose body was found in the Sandy Hook Elementary School, about 65 miles northeast of New York City. The Times, citing unnamed sources, was among media outlets that previously reported that Ryan was the suspect.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - School shooter Adam Lanza carried hundreds of bullets when he shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and used an assault rifle to do most of the killing, authorities confirmed Sunday. Lanza, 20, fired a Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic rifle to kill many of the 20 children and six adults at the school Friday, Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said. He used a Glock 10-millimeter handgun to shoot himself in the head. He also carried at Sig Sauer pistol.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - It's not the way Emilie Parker died that will matter. It's the way she lived. Emilie was only 61/2, but to hear her father tell it, the little blond girl with the cornflower blue eyes was an extraordinary force in the lives of her loved ones. "Emilie was bright, creative and very loving," said Robbie Parker, 30, a physician assistant who moved his family from Utah to Connecticut eight months ago. An "exceptional artist" who always carried markers and pencils with her, Emilie never missed the chance to make a drawing or a card for those around her. "I can't count the number of times Emilie found someone feeling sad or frustrated and rushed to grab a piece of paper to draw them a picture or write them a note," her father said Saturday.