AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Fifth Anniversary of the Sandy Hook Shooting

WASHINGTON—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.:

“Today we remember the educators and young children who were violently gunned down in their classrooms five years ago in Newtown. We remember Charlotte, Anne Marie, Josephine, Dawn, Daniel, Caroline, Avielle, Ana, Rachel, Madeleine, Jessica, Catherine, Victoria, Noah, Benjamin, James, Emilie, Mary, Lauren, Allison, Chase, Dylan, Jesse, Olivia, Jack and Grace. We remember the courageous actions by educators and school staff to save their students by hiding them in closets and bathrooms, helping them flee out of windows and shielding them with their own bodies. We remember the school custodian who ran ahead of the gunman locking classroom doors to keep him out and keep people safe. We remember the pain and the mourning. We remember how the community of Newtown united to heal and support one another, and the work of our local unions to make sure teachers, school staff and children had the supports they needed to treat their trauma, feel safe and secure, and allow them to get back to teaching and learning. And we also remember the inaction by lawmakers to prevent people from having easy access to deadly assault weapons.”