It's been three years since a gunman forced his way into a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and killed 20 young children and six staff members before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life as police responded to the scene.
The shootings were a catalyst for discussions that continue today about schools' responsibility to keep students safe. For many educators, those discussions have led to a broader understanding of what safety means for students—both physically and emotionally.
Though there have been other school shootings since Newtown, the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School remain a painful touch point in conversations about school safety. And those conversations have long held to a pattern of referencing the largest recent instance of senseless violence as an example of what everyone hopes to prevent.
Since the Dec. 14, 2012 shootings—known to Newtown residents as simply "12/14"—many educators, lawmakers, and parents have focused policy proposals, prayers, and school-level efforts on ensuring that nothing unseats the Sandy Hook shootings as the deadliest K-12 shooting in U.S. history.
But many of the people most closely affected by the shootings, including victims' families, have expressed frustration that Congress has failed to pass laws they say would reduce the chances of gun violence.
[For more of this story, written by Evie Blad, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...ition_of_safety.html]
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