Sandy Hook Elementary Student Returns To School At Chalk Hill Middle School: Children Still Traumatize After Massacre

It's been three weeks since the horror at Sandy Hook elementary and now parents of the surviving children are preparing to send their children back to school. Children will not return to the school where Adam Lanza killed twenty children and six adults, but will attend a Chalk Hill school in a neighboring town of Monroe.

The school's Superintendent Janet Robinson and teachers will open up to the children of Sandy Hook and try to make them feel safer, "We want to get back to teaching and learning," Robinson said. "We will obviously take time out from the academics for any conversations that need to take place, and there will be a lot of support there. All in all, we want the kids to reconnect with their friends and classroom teachers, and I think that's going to be the healthiest thing."

Parents will be visiting the school and attending the open house Wednesday before the school officially opens Thursday. Workers have been reconstructing bathroom floors so the smaller children can reach the toilets,as well as re-painting and moving furniture. Teachers will help get the children back into a regular routine so they can focus on their school work. 

A clinical psychologist at the University of Connecticut, Julian Ford counseled families,"kids just spontaneously make associations and will start talking about something that reminds them of someone, or that reminds them of some of the scary parts of the experience," Ford said. "They don't need a lot of words; they need a few selective words that are thoughtful and sensitive, like, 'We're going to be OK,' and 'We really miss this person, but we'll always be able to think about her or him in ways that are really nice.'"