When I wrote Part Seven of this series, I mentioned that I was sorting through around 120 additional photographs taken in and around Sandy Hook School between 2008—the year deniers falsely claim the school was secretly closed (while failing to provide even a shred of empirical evidence to support their absurd fairy tales)—and 2012, the year Adam Lanza broke into the school and murdered 26 people. Many of those photographs were included in subsequent entries, while others provided further proof that Wolfgang Halbig is a liar (spoiler: he never paid me).

Even after all that, I still had over 101 photographs left—collected from The Newtown Bee (which conveniently provides photographic metadata for most of their content) and The Newtown Patch—that were a bit trickier to organize. So, this entry will serve as a kind of “dumping ground,” heavy on photographic evidence of the school’s operation but without the structure or narrative seen in previous entries.

Since there are so many photographs, it doesn’t make sense for me to post every single one. Instead, I’ll share the ones I believe are most important or particularly devastating to the claims that the school was closed during this time, while simply linking to the rest. I’ll also do my best to present them in chronological order and include the corresponding articles whenever possible. Photos with no real significance or that contain personal information (there are about half a dozen of those) will be left out for obvious reasons.

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The Sandy Hook School library was a hub of activity for both students and faculty. There’s plenty of evidence showing it was in use between 2008 and 2012. Some of this evidence has already been discussed in earlier entries. For example, when children’s author Patricia Polacco visited on September 15, 2011 (covered in “Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open,” parts six and seven), she signed copies of her books in the library, as shown in this photo from the 2011-2012 Scrapbook:

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Like the previous seven entries in the series (and those still to come), today we will continue to present even more evidence that Sandy Hook Elementary School was open and fully operational – and had been for fifty-six years – when Adam Lanza shot his way into the school and murdered twenty children and six adults. This of course runs completely contrary to the absurd idea – presented by conspiracy theorists such as James Fetzer and Wolfgang Halbig – that it was quietly shuttered in 2008 due to a non-existent asbestos problem. Or dirty walls. Or whatever the claim is these days.

Throughout the years, the students and staff of Sandy Hook lent their time to a number of charitable causes, from collecting Valentine’s Day cards for American troops every February to Thanksgiving food drives. These photographs represent just some of the events that took place at the school, featured here because they can be corroborated by write-ups in The Newtown Bee and/or on social media. Other examples of the school’s giving spirit can already be seen elsewhere on the site, such as the “small bags, bears, books, and basics” as well as the hats and mittens collection drives seen here. Many more are outlined in this article (“Sandy Hook School 3rd And 4th Graders Focus On Community Service”), published by The Newtown Patch on June 21st, 2012.

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