US

Newtown Report: Mother, School ‘Appeased’ Lanza

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Blake Neff Reporter
Font Size:

Sandy Hook mass shooter Adam Lanza showed signs of severe mental illness throughout his life, but both his parents and educators repeatedly missed opportunities to address them, according to a new follow-up report published Friday by Connecticut’s Office of Child Advocate.

Lanza killed 20 children, six adults, and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, shortly after also murdering his mother at home. The shooting led to calls from President Obama and other Democrats for new gun control laws, in particular universal background checks for anybody seeking to buy a gun.

The shooting also led to demands for increased mental health resources in order to identify and assist afflicted individuals, after it became clear that Lanza was very mentally ill. Over the course of his life, the new report notes, Lanza was variously diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorder. By the time of his death, Lanza was also anorexic, packing just 112 pounds onto his bony six-foot frame. While none of these illnesses is known to have a direct correlation with violent outbursts, the report still faults Lanza’s parents and the school system at large for missing opportunities to spot Lanza’s deteriorating condition and potentially take action to help him.

At various points in his life, expert evaluations of Lanza identified his severe mental issues and recommended extensive special education and therapy. However, Lanza’s parents generally ignored these recommendations, and were enabled by the school system. Among other things, Lanza often resisted taking medication for his various diagnoses, an action that apparently was supported by his mother.

“The school system cared about [Adam Lanza]’s success but also unwittingly enabled Mrs. Lanza’s preference to accommodate and appease [him],” the report says. One major shortfall, the report says, was school officials’ approval of an educational plan that allowed Lanza to engage in independent study and graduate early from high school at age 17. This plan allowed for both Lanza and his parents to avoid any interaction with mental health professionals from 2008 onwards, even as evidence indicates that Lanza’s mental condition was in rapid decline.

The report suggests that Mrs. Lanza may not have fully appreciated the implications of Adam’s disorders and his need for ongoing treatment as an adult. While Mrs. Lanza noticed that her son was “despondent” and increasingly withdrawn from the world (he did not leave his room for three months prior to the massacre), she never sought further treatment for him and did nothing to prevent him from having access to firearms in the house.

The report also suggests that racial and class factors may have allowed Lanza’s mental illnesses to fly under the radar, as teachers were overly willing to accept Mrs. Lanza’s desire that her son be a “normal student.”

“Would a similar family from a different race or lower socio-economic status in the community have been given the same benefit of the doubt that [Lanza]’s family was given? Is the community more reluctant to intervene and more likely to provide deference to the parental judgment and decision-making of white, affluent parents than those caregivers who are poor or minority?” the report asks.

While the report declines to blame any particular person or entity, going forward it suggests that schools, pediatricians, and other groups interacting with children should all assume some responsibility for assessing mental health, in order to avoid mental disorders from being repeatedly ignored as a problem for somebody else to deal with. It also recommends improving the system of mental health oversight, so that both children and adults with disorders can be routinely observed without waiting for “developmental failures” to occur such as homelessness, unemployment, or mass shootings.

Follow Blake on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel