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From Vigil To Vigilance: Sandy Hook Tragedy Reaches North Texas

Be The Change, Inc.
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Five stories that have North Texas talking: Schools ask, “What if?”, parents and activists speak out, the DMN supports gay marriage and more.

  • Funerals for victimsof the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., begin today. More than a few teachers in Texas return to classrooms on little sleep, anticipating questions from confused kids -- as anyone scanning Facebook over the weekend knows. But sadness isn’t the only element of this disaster that spread to North Texas.
  • School districts in DFW are looking at implementing everyday security measures and lockdown policies at elementary schools that were once reserved for those with older kids. At Dallas ISD, for instance, officials may start assigning a police officer to an elementary school, as they’ve already done at all district middle and high schools. Stephanie Lucero of CBS DFW has the story. In Newtown, informal memorials and vigils were held all weekend. President Obama attended one of them at Newton High School, sharing prayers and love of a nation. NPR's Bill Chappell has details on what Obama found there. And NPR's Russell Lewis shared what the short 6 years lived by Emilie Parker, one of 20 children killed, mean to the family who mourns her.
  • As more information about 20-year-old shooter Adam Lanza surfaced, a stream of opinions on gun control and mental illness was impossible to duck. Liza Long told her story of parenting a young teen prone to erratic violence -- whom she drove to a mental hospital just days before Lanza killed his mother -- in an article for the Huffington Post called “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother.” Long's piece, which recounts her struggles with a teenage son, has become a lightning rod in the discussion between mental health activists and gun control advocates, but what really stands out is her empathy, and her revelations about what it’s like to fear your own child. [Today]
  • The Dallas Morning News came out in support of same-sex marriage this weekend, cheering the Supreme Court’s decision to hear two pivotal cases: California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. In an editorial, the paper encouraged “fundamental American equality before the law.” [Dallas Morning News]
  • Been craving some time with the Crawley family? How 'bout a Downton Abbey marathon? KERA Channel 13 is re-airing Season 1, starting with episode 1 tonight at 8 p.m. Visit 1912 each night at that same time through Thursday.  [KERA]