MONROE, Conn. — For her son’s first day of school since last month’s massacre at his Sandy Hook Elementary, Sarah Caron tried to make Thursday as normal as possible. She made his favorite pancakes, and she walked the second-grader to the top of the driveway for the school bus.
But it was harder than usual to say goodbye.
“I hugged him a lot longer than normal, until he said, ‘Mommy, please,”’ she said. “And then he got on the bus, and he was OK.”
Her 7-year-old son, William, was among more than 400 students who escaped a gunman’s rampage that killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook on Dec. 14. On Thursday, the returning students settled in at their old, familiar desks but in a different school in a different town.
Returning students, teachers and administrators were met by a large police presence outside their new school in the neighboring town of Monroe, where a middle school that had been shuttered for nearly two years was overhauled and renamed after their old school. Several officers guarded the entrance and checked IDs of parents dropping off children.
Monroe police Lt. Keith White said attendance was very good and the children were getting back to “business as usual.”
William’s classroom had been across the hall from a first-grade room where children and teacher Victoria Soto died, and he had been nervous about going back to school, Caron said. But an open house Wednesday at the school eased some of his fears.
“They didn’t talk about what happened at all,” she said. “They went in, met up with their teachers, had a little circle time and it was just about trying to get them back into school.”
Most of the students arrived at the new school in Monroe by bus, something school officials had suggested to help them get back into a familiar routine.
For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.
Looking for Love? Take the Prague Metro
Crews Race to Find Survivors of Okla. Twister
First Person: Baby Falcons on a New York Bridge
Oklahoma: Images of Devastation, Reunion
Reunited Dad, Son: 'We Just Praise God'
Slow Pokes: Acupuncture Helps Sick Turtles
Moore, Okla. City of Reunions, Tears After Storm
Former IRS Chief: Can't Say How List Happened
Gov. Fallin: Okla. Facing Horrific Disaster
Tim Cook Defends Apple's Tax Accounting
AP Photograher: 'It Was a Miracle' They Got Out
Raw: Crews Search for Survivors of Okla. Tornado
Raw: Tearful Reunion After Okla. Tornado
OKC Hospital Describes Treating Tornado Wounded
Obama Pledges Urgent Aid for Tornado Victims
Raw: Massive Funnel Clouds in Oklahoma
