Social Story - About Newton, CT

On Friday December 14th, 2012....a man entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and took the lives of 26 people....20 young children and 6 adults. My heart aches for the community of Newtown, and all of you are in my thoughts and prayers. Out of respect for the families of the victims, I will not post their names here....nor will I mention the name of the man responsible for this horrible event. The purpose of this blog post is to share the social story that I created for my ASD son, to help explain it all to him and his NT brothers.

Like many others, upon hearing the news of this horrible event....I cried and asked how something like this could happen? As a parent, I worried about how my children would respond to the news.....especially my ASD son. I struggled with the "do I tell them or do I not?" question.....and decided that I would do my best to keep them from seeing the news reports and all of the stuff that has been online this weekend. Some may argue that it was the wrong choice...but at the time, I questioned whether or not they would understand it all and if hearing the news would scare them to the point that they wouldn't want to return to school.

I've thought about it all weekend.....I've thought about the precious children who died that day....I've thought about the staff members at the school and the first responders. I've cried, I've prayed, and I haven't really slept since hearing the news on TV. Today as I thought about it, I decided that I would rather have my children hear about it from me versus some kid on the bus or someone at school. But how do you explain something like this to a child....especially a child with Autism? After spending some time trying to decide what I would say, I began to look online for some clip art....and created the following social story.

*Disclaimer* -- Please keep in mind, all of the social stories that I write are done so for my son and protected by the copyright I have. I do NOT own the clip art however, so please respect all copyright laws and do not duplicate this social story for profit purposes or any other "negative" purposes. You may print a copy for personal use only. I am sharing this one here because it may help someone else with explaining to their child what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary. Any questions please ask.

Ok, so here is the social story:

******(page 1)******

  On Friday December 14^th, 2012 something happened at an Elementary School

in Newtown, Connecticut.

 

******(page 2)******

  

 Do you know where Connecticut is? How far is it from where we live?

 

**************(page 3)****************

A man went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School with a weapon.

The man killed 6 adults and 20 children.

*************(page 4)*************

  

Although 26 people died, many people were kept safe because of what several heroes did on that day. Do you know what a hero is?

 

***********(page 5)***************

       The man who did this died.

He can NOT hurt anyone else.

The danger is OVER. You are SAFE, you do NOT have to feel scared.

 

***********(page 6)**********

 Some people were sad when they heard what happened at the school.

Some people were angry.

How do you feel?

 

 ********(page 7)********

Now is a good time to talk about what things you can do to stay safe at school.

*******(page 8)*********

1. Follow the rules.

2.    Have practice drills.

3.    Listen to your teacher & other adults.

What other things can you do to stay safe?