Story highlights
- All 28 members of the Sandy Hook Task Force supported the recommendation
- Adam Lanza burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14
- He is accused of shooting at least 26 people at the school before killing himself
To erase some of the emotional scars left behind from the December shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, an advisory board wants the building torn down and replaced.
The Sandy Hook Task Force voted unanimously late Friday to recommend to the Newtown, Connecticut, board of education to build a new school on the site of the existing building.
Adam Lanza burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 armed with a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle and two handguns. He opened fire killing 26 people, 20 of them children, before taking his own life.
He had previously shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, to death in their home, police said. She was a gun enthusiast, who kept a collection of guns, including assault rifles, in a lock box in her basement. Adam Lanza had a gun safe in his room, an investigation revealed.
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Newtown school shooting – Children in Newtown, Connecticut, return to school on December 18, 2012, four days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Police officers search outside St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Connecticut, on Tuesday, December 16, after a threat prompted authorities to evacuate the building. Investigators found nothing to substantiate the reported threat, a police official said, declining to provide additional details. The church held Sunday services following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Police officers walk out of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church after the Newtown church received a threat December 16.
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Newtown school shooting – Firefighters attach black bunting to a fire truck as a memorial at the fire station down the street from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Saturday, December 15.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II talks to the media about the elementary school shooting during a press conference at Treadwell Memorial Park on December 15.
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Newtown school shooting – Zulma Sein is hugged by a family member outside of the entrance to the Sandy Hook School on Saturday.
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Newtown school shooting – Police officers keep guard at the entrance to the street leading to the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday, December 15.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance addresses the press on December 15.
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Newtown school shooting – Police officers stand at the entrance to the street leading to the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 15.
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Newtown school shooting – Corinne McLaughlin, a student at the University of Hartford, bows her head during a candlelight vigil at Hartford, Connecticut's Bushnell Park on Friday, December 14, honoring the students and teachers who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in nearby Newtown earlier in the day.
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Newtown school shooting – Distraught people leave the fire station after hearing news of their loved ones from officials on Friday.
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Newtown school shooting – Emergency workers stand in front of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
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Newtown school shooting – A child and her mother leave a staging area outside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – Members of the media converge on December 14 in front of an apartment at 1313 Grand Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. The apartment is believed to be connected to the Connecticut elementary school shooting.
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Newtown school shooting – Faisal Ali, right, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, joins other people outside the White House on December 14 to participate in a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance, center, briefs the media on the elementary school shootings during a press conference at Treadwell Memorial Park on December 14 in Newtown.
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Newtown school shooting – People weep and embrace near Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A woman leans on a man as she weeps near Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – President Barack Obama wipes a tear as he speaks about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School during a press briefing at the White House on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A woman weeps near the site of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A woman weeps near Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People comfort each other near Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A man takes in the scene near Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A young girl is given a blanket after being evacuated from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – State police personnel lead children from the school.
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Newtown school shooting – Children wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, after the shooting.
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Newtown school shooting – A boy weeps at Reed Intermediate School after getting news of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – FBI SWAT team members walk along Dickinson Drive near Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – An aerial view of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Troopers arrive on the scene outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A Connecticut State Police officer runs with a shotgun at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – Police patrol the streets around Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People try to deal with the shock of the attack outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – Connecticut State Police secure the scene of the shooting on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People embrace outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A man escorts his son away from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People take in the news outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People line up to enter Newtown Methodist Church near the the scene of the shooting on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – A woman speaks with a Connecticut state trooper outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – The streets around Sandy Hook Elementary are packed with first responders and other vehicles.
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Newtown school shooting – A view of the scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School after the shooting.
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Newtown school shooting – A young boy is comforted outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
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Newtown school shooting – People embrace each other on December 14.
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Begg: Gun 'will not make you safer' 06:30
The shooting reignited a national debate on gun control and the possibility of legal restrictions on assault rifles.
Students from Sandy Hook now attend Chalk Hill Middle School in the nearby town of Monroe. Part of the building was transformed to resemble an elementary school, and security was increased by adding new locks and surveillance cameras, a school official has said.
The school also enlisted the help of a comfort dog for the school children to bond with.
Sandy Hook's task force had considered other alternatives, such as renovating the existing building or building a new school on a different site. Its recommendation must be approved by the school board then by a vote in a popular referendum, before the plans can be carried out.
