Parents Fear: What their Children Will Hear

While much of the discussion at Sunday's forum on school security focused on keeping children safe, many had another concern: what their children are going to hear today when they return to school, both from other children and from teachers, about Friday's shootings.

Some parents said they had keep the news from their young children, who would be going back to school today with no knowledge of the incident at all. 

Others said they had limited what information their children received and was afraid of what details would emerge today during the school day that they might not want their children hearing.

And the younger the child, the greater the parent's concerns -- especially in situations where children in kindergarten through second grade are riding school buses with fifth and sixth grade students.

One woman said she planned to take today off so she wouldn't have to send her daughter to school.

"Tomorrow morning when the sixth graders on the bus start talking, I'm concerned about those conversations," another parent told Supt. of Schools Fran Rabinowitz.

"We will talk to the bus company and we have talked to administrators," Rabinowitz said. "They are very well skilled in what to say to children."

"Our kids know nothing about this at all," one man told Rabinowitz.

There are no plans to directly address Friday's events with students, Rabinowitz said, but staff will answer questions and concerns that students bring up.

"We are all available to make sure the children feel safe, and we all intend to have a normal day," Rabinowitz said. "We don't intend to have a long drawn-out conversation about what happened."

Another parent expressed concerns about lunch and recess conversations and requested that the aides that oversee those time periods get some advice on how to handle that.

"We will work with the aides to ensure the proper answers are given," Rabinowitz said.

Perhaps the deepest concern came from one father whose son has special needs. His fear is that because Adam Lanza has been widly portrayed as a special needs student, that his son will be unfairly targeted.

"My big concern is he and others like him will be discriminated against and looked at differently because of who they are," the man said. "My concern is to make sure all our chidlren are protected and loved and given all they need."