Somehow, some way, there are still people out there who believe the FBI openly admits that the Sandy Hook massacre never occurred. This isn’t something these folks claim happened once or twice by mistake and was quickly swept under the rug forever. No, they believe that this incredible admission of guilt has been public this whole time, posted for all to see on the FBI’s official website. That would be the very same website in which they also include the twenty-seven killed and two wounded during the attack in their Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013:

And that’s only one of over one hundred and fifty references to the shooting on their site, none of which state that it was just a “drill” or that no one died. Go ahead and check.

So of course the claim never made any sense. Why would the FBI, of all people, purposely and continuously expose one of the worst mass shootings in American history – a shooting they themselves responded to and investigated – as a total fraud? And on their very own website, nonetheless, where the tragedy still looms large otherwise. It’s nonsense.

While such absurdities are to be expected from Sandy Hook deniers, what has managed to catch me a bit off guard is how often they leave comments about it here, on this site, as if they’ve finally stumbled upon indisputable, bombshell evidence that I either haven’t seen yet or don’t have an answer for. The reason this is so baffling is because I thoroughly debunked this hooey back in 2016. It’s not even that long an entry! I guess the “do your own research” crowd is just dogshit at doing theirs.

So, for the sake of increased visibility, I’m going to debunk it again, this time in its very own entry. After all, my previous takedown of this particular claim has only ever been published as part of my series on Jim Fetzer’s rancid “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”. And since Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists have proven themselves unwilling or unable to use the site’s search feature (it’s literally the second result when you search “FBI UCR”), maybe they’ve just never seen it. Regardless, it’s long overdue.

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The claim that Sandy Hook Elementary School’s parking lot was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and as such is further evidence that the school was non-operational in December of 2012 isn’t a new one, but it is relatively minor, which is one of the reasons I haven’t pursued it as doggedly as usual. It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s just that the experts I’ve reached out to over the years – and I like to try and speak with actual experts whenever possible, rather than speculate wildly – never really bothered to get back to me. But I’ve never stopped looking for definitive answers and now, with some help from the New England ADA Center, I finally have some. My persistence – or ability to profoundly annoy, depending on who are you – finally paid off.

Let’s start by taking a look at the actual claims that have made about the school’s lot by some of the usual suspects…

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In what is likely to be my final entry in this series—after nearly seven years, I can’t imagine there’s much more to uncover—I will share various documents that demonstrate Sandy Hook Elementary School’s continuous operation between 2008 and 2012. While some documents have appeared on the site, the majority have not, as they never quite fit elsewhere. I’ve opted not to include nearly one hundred issues of the Sandy Hook Connection newsletter due to the personal information contained within, such as the names and email addresses of teachers and volunteers. Large files that may cause performance issues with your browser will be linked for download instead of being embedded, and sources will be provided when possible.

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The claim that no one died at Sandy Hook School on December 14, 2012, and that it was all just a “drill,” is a logistical nightmare of epic proportions—most of which conspiracy theorists conveniently hand-wave away. However, one particularly ludicrous issue they’ve tried to “solve” is this: What happened to the twenty young victims? Where did they go? If they’re all still alive, why hasn’t anyone seen them in the nearly six years since the shooting?

Enter the Super Bowl XLVII theory, where these geniuses confidently assert that the victims weren’t just hidden away but actually performed at the largest sporting event in the United States—as part of a children’s choir with Jennifer Hudson. Yes, really.

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If we set aside our better judgment and continue indulging the wild-eyed conspiracy theorists, con men, and criminals that make up the Sandy Hook denialist cult—by respecting their claim that the school was closed between 2008 and 2012 (despite not a shred of evidence)—we stumble upon yet another point of interest: the numerous glass display cases in the school’s lobby. Throughout the years, there were typically 3 to 6 of these cases. Most were tall, vertical cabinets just inside the main entrance, often along the front window that Adam Lanza shattered to gain entry. There was also a museum-style table display, moved around depending on what was featured, and a built-in wall display near the office and west hallway.

What’s consistent across all of them (aside from the obvious) is that, in photos published by The Newtown Bee, the Newtown Patch, and the school’s own website (all included below), the contents of these cases change frequently, further proving the presence of normal student activity. Unless, of course, you still believe that secret agents spent four years meticulously decorating a supposedly abandoned school with current magazines, new children’s books, state-of-the-art technology, and pizza—all for some photos most people will never see. That’s what people like James Fetzer, Wolfgang Halbig, and Maria Hsia Chang would have you believe: that a school “infested with asbestos” and supposedly used as storage was secretly outfitted with all of these things—just to pull off an elaborate hoax.

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As I continue to sort through nearly one hundred and twenty additional photographs taken in and around Sandy Hook Elementary during the four years that conspiracy theorists falsely claim the school was closed, I noticed a handful of well-known and accomplished children’s authors who generously took time to meet with the students. Since the dates of these visits can be corroborated, one has to wonder whether conspiracy theorists believe these authors A) are complicit in the “hoax,” B) were somehow lured into a convincingly staged school full of children (which was supposedly being used as “storage,” according to the wild claims of some), or C) will just be dismissed as “fakes” like everything else they can’t twist to fit their narrative.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the guests who passed through the school between 2010 and 2012:

Jacqueline Davies
Author of “The Lemonade War”
October 28th, 2010

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#10 – “There Was An Emergency Preparedness Drill/Exercise Nearby”

Mentioned no fewer than three times in Nobody Died At Sandy Hook, FEMA’s “Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters” is repeatedly mischaracterized as either a “drill” or an “exercise.” In reality, it’s a six-hour independent study course based on materials from this Save the Children document. While FEMA offers the course online, some state organizations occasionally teach it in a classroom environment—which, for the record, looks a lot more like this:

…than this:

If you have even a passing familiarity with reality, you may notice a couple of differences!

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The claim that Sandy Hook Elementary School ceased all “Internet activity” between 2008 and 2012, part of a larger theory that the school permanently closed its doors in 2008, is pure fiction, the result of remarkably sloppy research. In addition to the technical explanation debunking this myth, there is also clear evidence of activity on the school’s website during that supposed gap. One notable example is Sandy Hook’s 2011-2012 “scrapbook,” a series of sixteen online photo albums containing over 200 images of students, faculty, and guests participating in various school events. These photos are just another piece of indisputable evidence proving the school was open and functioning during that time.

If you’re interested in viewing the albums for yourself—and I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve ever entertained any denier nonsense—you can access them here, courtesy of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. I’ll be highlighting just a handful of these photos, focusing on the ones that I believe are the most significant in corroborating the “official” (i.e. correct) account.

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One of the more persistent zombie myths peddled by the Sandy Hook denialist cult is the absurd claim that Sandy Hook Elementary School quietly closed in 2008, leaving it conveniently empty when Adam Lanza (who, depending on which conspiracy enthusiast you ask, may not have even existed) carried out his attack on December 14, 2012. This supposed closure was so stealthy that not a single local media outlet bothered to report it. Impressive, right?

This fantasy appears to have originated with professional conspiracy theorist James Fetzer—a bloated carny who pads his retirement by cranking out increasingly unhinged (and laughably lazy) books like Nobody Died at Sandy Hook. Nearly every word in that masterpiece, by the way, is lifted straight from pre-existing blog entries. Fetzer’s modus operandi? Declare everything—moon landings, the Boston Marathon bombing, you name it—a grand hoax.

Despite an Everest-sized pile of evidence proving the school was open (think: countless photographs of a bustling campus, years of PTA meeting minutes, facilities surveys, news articles, job listings, etc.), Fetzer has staked his ludicrous claim on a shaky foundation of outdated information and a total—and likely willful, though that might be giving him too much credit—misunderstanding of how the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine works. That’s his entire case.

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