New report examines ‘missed opportunities’ in Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s past
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Version 0 of 1. A new state report examining “missed opportunities” to intervene before the Newtown, Conn., school shooting suggests that “weaknesses and lapses in the educational and healthcare systems’ response and untreated mental illness” played a role in the continued mental deterioration of the gunman, Adam Lanza. The report, by Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocate, comes nearly two years after Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 26 people and then himself. Among other things, the 114-page report says that an otherwise supportive school system unwittingly helped to “accommodate and appease” Lanza, at the wishes of his mother. Those accommodations included “lack of attention to social-emotional support, failure to provide related services,” and an agreement to allow Lanza to take independent studies out of the classroom. Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother, Nancy, before traveling to Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012. However, the report notes: “No direct line of causation can be drawn from these to the horrific mass murder at Sandy Hook.” A team of lawyers, social workers, psychiatrists and educators compiled the report, which is dedicated to Lanza’s victims. “AL’s parents (and the school) appeared to conceptualize him as intellectually gifted, and much of AL’s high school experience catered to his curricular needs,” the report reads, noting that “in actuality, psychological testing performed by the school district in high school indicated AL’s cognitive abilities were average.” (Lanza is mentioned by name once, and then referred to as “AL” throughout the rest of the report.) The authors single out the recommendations from an evaluation at the Yale Child Study Center when Lanza was 14. Those recommendations warned against accommodation-based strategies. “Yale’s recommendations for extensive special education supports, ongoing expert consultation, and rigorous therapeutic supports embedded into AL’s daily life went largely unheeded,” the report says. RELATED: Remembering the victims Other key findings in the report include: While the document provides some insight into the last years of Lanza’s life and into the health system that treated him, the authors are clear to make the distinction between their analysis and a claim of causality. “While authors describe the predisposing factors and compounding stresses in AL’s life, authors do not conclude that they add up to an inevitable arc leading to mass murder,” they write. RELATED: After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet Like previous investigations into the shooting, this one underlines that there may never be an answer for why Newtown happened: “There is no way to adequately explain why AL was obsessed with mass shootings and how or why he came to act on this obsession. In the end, only he, and he alone, bears responsibility for this monstrous act.” The authors make several recommendations, including universal mental health screening for children from birth until age 21. It also recommends better training for educators, better support programs for families, and better financial support for schools to import “therapeutic and other related services (such as occupational therapy and behaviorist services)” when needed. Schools will also need additional support when trying to provide services for children with “highly specialized” needs. |