A Fresh Start In Sandy Hook

It’s been nearly four years since Sandy Hook Elementary students have had a building to call their own.

The former school was demolished in the fall of 2013, less than a year after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults there. Students attended school in neighboring Monroe since then.

But now, a beautiful new school for kindergarteners through fourth-graders stands near the site of the former school. And on Monday, at long last, some 350 students got to know a new home.

Most of the students who walked into the new building weren’t at the old Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012. Students who were in kindergarten on that awful day will be entering fourth grade this year. Older students have moved to other schools. About half of the teachers who were in Sandy Hook in 2012 are in the new school now. The change must be a bittersweet relief to them as well.

The new school building does not enshrine the shootings, and the site of the former classrooms where so many were killed is an unmarked grassy area in a parking lot. Administrators say there will be a memorial eventually, and it’s right to respect the memories of those who lost their lives on that day. But it is also right not to let the past overwhelm the present. Those who endured the agony of that day and the months and years that followed need no additional reminder.

Of course, Sandy Hook is not the only school opening its doors this week. More than a half-million public school students in Connecticut are on their way back to class, and the reopening of Sandy Hook might inspire students and educators across the state to look for ways to minimize even the smallest acts of violence.

In Hartford on Saturday, about 1,000 youths attended a back-to-school event called “Stomp The Violence.” Developed in part by the Hartford Police Department, the event was designed to build relationships among police and the community and find ways to reduce violence, organizers said.

Organized efforts like that one might go a long way toward helping some youths make better choices. But preventing violence begins with the little choices individuals make every day. A teacher or student who chooses to smile instead of scowl might, with that simple gesture, steer someone away from an act of violence, mild or severe.

Sandy Hook cannot be erased from our memories. But, as the Sandy Hook community has made abundantly clear over the years, love wins.