ALL of the children DIED that day. Yeah – Good work on that.
The state police hold a ceremony next week to honor more than 200 officers who responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
The state police will also acknowledge several trauma psychologists who worked with officers following the shooting at the school, when 20 first graders and six adults were killed.
The department is not publicizing the ceremony and the public, including family members, is not invited. The ceremony will take place Wednesday at the State Police Training Academy in Meriden.
Meritorious service medals will be awarded to 55 individuals, including three FBI agents, an Oxford police officer who was one of the first out-of-town officers on the scene and Newtown officer Jeffrey Silver, who was that department’s liaison to the state police during the year-long investigation that followed the shooting.
The only other Newtown officer who will get a medal is Thomas Bean, who was assigned to the Statewide Narcotics Task Force at the time of the massacre and responded to the school along with several members of that unit.
Bean, who is getting an Outstanding Service award, has not worked since the incident and is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. His situation became national news when Newtown police officials took steps to fire him before backing away because of the public backlash.
The awards are being given to officers who specifically assisted the state police or were assigned to state police units at the time of the massacre. Officers from nine other departments, including the FBI, will get medals.
State Police spokesman Paul Vance said there is no monetary bonus affiliated with the medals. Vance said the ceremony “is just to recognize all of those officers in the agency who responded that day.”
Among the state police officers getting the meritorious service award are those in the first group of officers who responded to the school and ended up finding shooter Adam Lanza’s body.
Also receiving the meritorious service award are all of the detectives assigned to the three state police crime squads. All three units were needed for the Sandy Hook investigation. The Western District Crime Squad was the lead group on the investigation, the Central District Crime Squad was tasked with identifying the victims and collecting evidence from part of the school and the school parking lot and the Eastern District Crime Squad processed the Lanza home.
Another 131 officers will receive an outstanding service medal, including the 26 troopers who were assigned to each individual family in the weeks after the shooting.
Several members of the administration also will be getting service medals, including Col. Danny Stebbins and Vance, who became the face of the state police following the massacre. State police received mail from around the world praising Vance’s professionalism following the shooting.
There also will be 13 civilians honored, including the five dispatchers on duty that morning, three priests, trauma psychologists from Glastonbury, a licensed clinical social worker from Manchester and Dr. Anne Balboni, the Clinical Director at RI Critical Incident Stress Team, who worked with members of the Western District Crime Squad.