As I sort through nearly one hundred and twenty additional photographs taken in and around Sandy Hook Elementary during the four year period James Fetzer and his brain dead supporters erroneously claim the school was closed, I noticed that a handful of well-known and accomplished children’s authors generously came and met with the students. As the dates of these visits can be corroborated, one is forced to wonder whether Fetzer believes these accomplished authors A) are complicit in the “hoax”, B) were somehow lured into a convincingly staged school full of children (which was simultaneously being used as “storage”, according to Maria Hsia Chang and Allan Powell) for the sake of a couple of photographs quietly published in the local paper. Or maybe he’ll just dismiss them as “fakes”, much like he does with everything else that he can’t twist and manipulate to fit into his narrative.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the guests who have passed through the school between 2010-2012:
Jacqueline Davies
Author of “The Lemonade War”
October 28th, 2010
The book chosen for Sandy Hook School’s 2010 “One School, One Read” event – in which every student reads the same book – was “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davies. In this photo dated October 1st, 2010, school principal and victim Dawn Hochsprung is shown kicking things off with a number of students in the school’s cafetorium:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-of-6/i-Z7dzfr7/A
And much like they did again in 2012 for “Stuart Little” (as documented in Sandy Hook School Was Open, Part Six: The 2011-2012 Scrapbook), the school held a culminating evening ceremony, which included a visit from Jacqueline Davies herself earlier in the day…
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-5/i-kQ5bM9L/A
As well as an evening full of activities with both students and parents:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-5/i-m9ddBmG/A
Eliza Hallabeck of the Newtown Bee briefly wrote about the event in the paper’s November 5th, 2010 issue:
Ms Davies spoke to students during multiple presentation during the school day on Thursday, and later that night parents and students returned to the school to attend a culmination ceremony, complete with activities, like making hats decorated with paper lemons. Volunteers also sold baked goods and more at the event.
Barbara McClintock
May 12th, 2011
Award-winning children’s author and illustrator Barbara McClintock came to Sandy Hook School on Thursday, May 12th, 2011. From that day’s edition of The Sandy Hook Connection:
The Newtown Bee’s Eliza Hallabeck covered the visit in the paper’s May 20th, 2011 issue:
Students at the school prepared for Ms McClintock’s visit by reading some of her published work. Sandy Hook School Media Specialist Yvonne Cech oversaw the day’s event, which focused on the kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students.
During her visit to Sandy Hook Elementary School, Ms McClintock also signed books, held workshops for smaller students groups, was interviewed by the student newspaper, The Footprint Post, and ate at a lunch reception with teachers and PTA members.
The article also included six photos of Ms. McClintock speaking to a large group of the school’s students, five of which I’ve included here:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-33/i-n38bDTL/A.
Notice that the contents of the glass display case have changed (from what is seen in the 2011-2012 Scrapbook) yet again.
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-33/i-zzP7xf6/A
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-33/i-KtRT78X/A
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-33/i-QvT94Cw/A
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-33/i-VSCdXFJ/A
Patricia Polacco
September 15th, 2011
Discussed in a previous entry in this series, Patricia Polacco – who has been writing and illustrating children’s books for nearly thirty years – spent a day with the students of Sandy Hook School in September of 2011. From the September 23rd, 2011 edition of The Newtown Bee:
Saddened by news of the Orlando club shooting (which opportunistic nitwits like Wolfgang Halbig have already declared to be another “hoax”), Patricia recently opened up about her visit to Sandy Hook on Facebook:
The Newtown Bee also covered Patricia’s time at Sandy Hook in the September 23rd, 2011 edition. In an article titled “Author Shares Life Lessons And Lessons Of Love”, Nancy Crevier writes:
Patricia Polacco shared two of the nearly 80 children’s books she has written and illustrated over her 27-year career, Thursday, September 15, during three sessions throughout the day, at Sandy Hook School, as well as a very personal story of triumph over difficulty.
…
The very first book she ever wrote was a wordless book for her young son, newly diagnosed with diabetes, on how to care for himself. Urged by friends to take her stories and drawings around when they saw that book, she did so, and that began her long career as a children’s author and illustrator, said Ms Polacco. The first book she actually published, though, was one of two she shared with the Sandy Hook kindergartners, third and fourth graders, Meteor! Both books emphasized values of caring, respect, and responsibility, attitudes that Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung reminded the group before the program were an integral part of the Sandy Hook School and Newtown communities.
In addition to the fifteen photos already available in the 2011-2012 Scrapbook, the Newtown Bee published three more photographs of the visit along with their article, all of which are timestamped September 15th, 2011:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-48/i-FVNXTHz/A
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-48/i-QjSsDbw/A
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-48/i-Xv5c2vq/A
Tomie DePaola
April 26th, 2012
On Thursday, April 26th, 2012, Sandy Hook School hosted two Skype Q&A sessions with author and illustrator Tomie DePaola, the creator of over 200 children’s books. According to the April 26th, 2012 edition of the Sandy Hook Connection, the video conferencing was a first for the school:
Eliza Hallaback wrote about Tomie’s time with the students of Sandy Hook in the May 4th, 2012 issue of The Newtown Bee:
Two Skype sessions were held on Tuesday to allow all second grade students at Sandy Hook School the chance to speak with Mr dePaola, and before those sessions were held, Ms Cech said a “technology trial” took place to make sure everything was set to go.
While in library class for the weeks leading up the event, Ms Cech said students developed the questions and she later sorted and combined the questions that students were able to ask Ms dePaola during the Skype sessions.
Accompanying the article is the following photograph, showing the children Skyping with Tomie in the school’s library:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-79/i-G6ZpVgm/A
A little less than eight months later, after the tragedy of December 14th, 2012, Tomie took to his personal blog to offer the people of Newtown his thoughts and prayers:
But I suppose all of these authors are lying and the photos are fake, right? After all, they certainly aren’t as convincing as plugging the wrong web address into The Wayback Machine and misinterpreting the results, are they?
For more in the “Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open” series, please read:
Part One: The Lobby
Part Two: The Obstinate Pen
Part Three: Holiday Decorations And Calendars
Part Four: SMART Technologies
Part Five: Dawn Hochsprung’s Twitter Feed
Part Six: The 2011-2012 Scrapbook
Part Seven: Children’s Authors Visit Sandy Hook
Part Eight: Charitable Causes
Part Nine: The Library
Part Ten: 92 More Photos From Sandy Hook School
Part Eleven: Over 195 Articles Referencing Sandy Hook School, Written Between 2008-2012
Part Twelve: The Glass Display Cases
Part Thirteen: Google Earth
Part Fourteen: The November 2012 Scholastic Book Fair
Part Fifteen: Sandy Hook School Enrollment For 2008-2017
Part Sixteen: School Documents From 2008-2012
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