NEWTOWN, CT (WTNH) – Newtown will mark four years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That shooting took the lives of 20 young children and six adults.
Newtown will mark the day with 15 minutes of silence. That’s happening between 9:30 a.m. and 945 a.m., the time the shooting took place. The superintendent says there will also be quiet reflection and age appropriate messages for students.
Town official Pat Llodra has asked Newtown employees to refrain from doing any work, including answering phones, between 9:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. Wednesday.
The town also will lower its flags to half-staff to honor the 20 children and six educators shot to death when a gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. The gunman, who had earlier killed his mother inside their home, also killed himself.
“It is our mutual commitment that this event will never be forgotten and that we will honor those lost children and educators each and every year,” First Selectman Llodra wrote in a memo to town employees.
School Superintendent Joseph Erardi said Wednesday will be a full day of classes in the school system and will include quiet reflection and age-appropriate messages for students.
Erardi said school staff also will provide talking points to parents who request help for having personal conversations with their children about the anniversary.
The town’s Interfaith Clergy Association plan to lead a private prayer service with school staff before classes begin. It plans another service in the evening for the community at Trinity Episcopal Church.