Governor Malloy's Sandy Hook Advisory Commission met in Newtown on Friday. The panel heard from three parents of children killed in the Newtown tragedy, who offered a host of policy recommendations based on their experiences over the last 23 months since the massacre.
"Who owns this tragedy? We argue that we do," said Jeremy Richman, whose daughter Avielle was killed in Newtown on December 14, 2012. "It was bought and paid for in a most horrific way. We'd like to talk to you today about a victim focused response to this tragedy."
Richman, his wife Jennifer Hensel, and Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of Ana Greene -- who was also killed at Sandy Hook school -- testified about the often confusing and chaotic way help and support has reached the families of the victims.
Hensel recalled the scene at the fire house on the day of the shooting, when it became clear, as parents were reuniting with their children, that something horrific had obviously happened to her daughter. "Where was our daughter?" she said. "We asked our state trooper, can you please take us to an area where we don't have to be amongst all of these children? Our daughter is missing. Help us. We had to ask three times."
The parents recommended that the state adopt a triage protocol to shield victims' families from the media, and other unwanted visitors, immediately following a mass shooting like Sandy Hook.
The parents also described dealing with a deluge of well-meaning, but often unvetted and untrained support services.
Richman testified they were assigned case workers who were unable to emotionally handle the tragedy of the situation, and simply never came back. Marquez Greene said the Sandy Hook families deserve better. "From the beginning we should have only been engaging with highly trained experts in trauma, with enough self-knowledge to recognize their own professional and psychological limitations," she said. The parents urged lawmakers to funnel all support services through a single case worker who would work closely with the family.
The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission is expected to finalize their report on the tragedy by the end of the year.
Watch CT-N's footage of the session below:
