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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In my previous entry, I was able to objectively demonstrate not only that the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (“The Wayback Machine”) is a thoroughly worthless tool for measuring a public school’s “Internet activity” (let alone its actual operation), but that in using outdated information as part of their “research”, the ghouls responsible for “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook” have shown themselves to be totally inept, if not intentionally deceitful. But there’s still a bit of life left in this horse (and I’m not talking about James Fetzer).

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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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Part I: “Early Indications Something Was Wrong”

Chapter One: “Medical Examiner: More Questions Than Answers” by James Tracy

Chapter Two: “Six Signs Sandy Hook Elementary School Was Closed” by “Dr. Eowyn”

Chapter Three: “Wolfgang Halbig Goes For The Jugular In His FOIA Hearing” by James Fetzer

Chapter Four: “Shannon Hicks Denies Staging Her ‘Iconic’ Photograph”

Part II: “How We Know Sandy Hook Was An Illusion”

Chapter Five: “Top Ten Reasons: Sandy Hook Was An Elaborate Hoax” by Vivian Lee

Chapter Six: “Even Obama Officials Confirmed That It Was A Drill” by James Fetzer

Chapter Seven: “Fixing A Prop: Furnishing The Lanza Home” by Allan William Powell (with Kelley Watt)

Chapter Eight: “Setting The Stage: Refurbishing The School” by Allan William Powell

Part III: “Futher Proof Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”

Chapter Nine: “No One Died At Sandy Hook: The Social Security Death Index” by “Dr. Eowyn”

Chapter Ten: “Sandy Hook: CT Crime Data Confirms FBI Report” by James Fetzer and “Dr. Eowyn”

Chapter Eleven: “Are Sandy Hook Skeptics Delusional With ‘Twisted Minds’?” by James Fetzer and Kelley Watt

Chapter Twelve: “Every Grain Of Sandy Hook: Snopes.com & Plausible Deniability” by Sterling Harwood

Epilogue

Epilogue: “The Nexus Of Tyranny: Tuscon, Aurora And Sandy Hook” by Dennis Cimino

Afterword

Afterword: “Sandy Hook: Analogies With The 7/7 London Bombings” by Nick Kollerstrom

Appendices

Appendix A: “The FEMA Manual For The Sandy Hook Drill”

Appendix B: “The 20 Children And Their Homes” by Nick Kollerstrom

Appendix C: “Sandy Hook School Massacre Timeline” by James Tracy

Appendix D: “Comparing Murder And Homicide Rates Before And After Gun Bans”

“Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”
Chapter Three
By: James Fetzer

This chapter revisits Wolfgang Halbig’s cringe-worthy presentation to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Committee at his first FOIA hearing. CW Wade of Sandy Hook Facts summed the whole fiasco up thusly:

Wolfgang Halbig’s spent about $20,000 raised through his charity, Sandy Hook Justice, for two days worth of hearings. He was awarded no documents and the majority of his complaints where dismissed in their entirety.  It should also be noted that the documents Halbig obtained at a cost of  about $20,000, Sandy Hook Facts obtained for under $100.

Ouch!

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Let’s say – and this strictly hypothetical here, so please don’t get offended – that you’re a Sandy Hook denier, also known as a Sandy Hook hoaxer. Maybe you’re a lifelong conspiracy crank looking for your next hustle, or maybe you just don’t want to believe what took place that day actually happened (which is, in a way, perfectly understandable), but you’re having a very difficult time coming up for an alternate explanation for something so many people experienced firsthand and so many more saw play out in the media. And while it barely makes any sense whatsoever, the story you ultimately bet the farm on involves Mossad death squads a FEMA “Active Shooter” drill taking place at an abandoned school. But there’s a problem: there isn’t really any evidence that supports your claim. Not only does FEMA not host “Active Shooter” drills (let alone at abandoned schools), but this imaginary drill does not appear anywhere on their calendar. So what do you do? You fake it. It’s so easy, a Florida scumbag could do it!

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“Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”
Appendix C
By: James Tracy

At 108 poorly written pages—nearly a quarter of this trainwreck—disgraced former college professor James Tracy’s second contribution to this book manages to stand out as the laziest entry in a collection already notorious for recycling old blog posts verbatim. That’s genuinely impressive!

The chapter is a disjointed compilation of out-of-context snippets from mainstream news articles, presented in something resembling chronological order. There’s little editorializing, leaving me to wonder what exactly crybaby James Tracy believes actually happened at Sandy Hook.

Based on the mishmash of material included here, he seems to endorse a multiple-shooter theory… while simultaneously leaning into the “FEMA drill” narrative. Conveniently for Tracy, this ambiguity helps his claims remain flexible—because when your book’s title (yes, the whole title) is “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook: It Was a FEMA Drill to Promote Gun Control,” there’s not much room for competing hypotheses, is there?

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As we’ve seen a number of times already, deniers gave gotten a lot of mileage out of not understanding how the Internet works. The net result of this ignorance is usually a claim that a website memorializing one (if not all) of the Sandy Hook victims appeared either before or too soon after December 14th, 2012. An ugly variation of this claim incorrectly states that The Avielle Richman Foundation – named for one of the child victims and established by her parents – was founded on the day of the shooting. It makes an appearance in “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”, courtesy of the very anti-Semitic Nick Kollerstrom in Appendix B:

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“Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”
Appendix B
By: Nick Kollerstrom

I’m not sure why these six pages are included as a second appendix rather than as another chapter, but bizarre choices like this are the least of this book’s problems.

Kollerstrom didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in his previous outing, managing to strike out on just about every goofy claim that dripped from his fingertips. Let’s see if he fares any better here. Granted, the bar couldn’t be much lower, so at least he has that going for him.

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