Principal among victims in Conn. shooting rampage

This July 2010 photo provided by the Newtown Bee shows Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn. / AP Photo/Eliza Hallabeck/Newtown Bee

NEWTOWN, Conn. The principal at the Connecticut elementary school where a gunman opened fire in a rampage Friday, killing 26 people including 20 children and then himself, was identified as one of the victims.

A well-liked and experienced administrator, Dawn Hochsprung was among those gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary where she had been principal since 2010, said Gerald Stomski, the first selectman of nearby Woodbury. He said police told him of her death.

Hochsprung was a principal in Woodbury schools before taking the job in Newtown, Stomski said. He said people throughout town were mourning her death.

"She had an extremely likable style about her," Stomski said. "She was an extremely charismatic principal while she was here."

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She frequently tweeted photos from her job and wrote upbeat tweets about what was going on at the school. Four days before she died, she posted a photo of two kindergarten girls paying for groceries over a toy cash register in a classroom. She called them "kinders" and saw them as "74 new opportunities to inspire lifelong learning!"

More hauntingly, she wrote a letter before the school year outlining new safety measures including locked doors during school hours, several publications reported, and tweeted a photo of students who'd been evacuated from the building during a safety drill earlier in the school year.

"I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day," she told The Newtown Bee newspaper in 2010 in a story about the hiring of new administrators in the district. She had worked for 12 years as an administrator before coming to Sandy Hook, including six years in nearby Danbury, the newspaper reported.

[saturn05]

It sounds like this gal was a hero from what I read on other sites. People are so quick to call people hereos, but when a person who is not trained as a soldier, police officer or fireman can put themselves in harms way to save other people is a true hero.

[spicemom101]

OMG. My heart is truly sad for those families in Newtown, CT. I pray that you all find strength to get through this.
I'm personally sick of this! As for our country's second ammendment. What part of the word "Ammendment" do this country's gun lovers NOT understand??? By its very definition, it is a CHANGE made to a document. That "Change" can go either way. You want to stick by what you believe are the old reasons?, fine. We'll allow you to carry muskets around ONLY...the choice weapon of the day. You'll have your old ammendment and the musket. Further, many historians believe that gun lovers are wholly wrong in their interpretation of the Second Ammendment, due to the fact that they only use the last part of the ammendment, completely omitting the first half which explains our forefathers' intentions. The Second Ammendment reads:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

-The National Guard IS a well regulated militia. THAT was the Second Ammendmen's actual purpose.

[packardv1650]

The Second Ammendment, What part don't you understand? If anyone at that school was armed this idiot could have been stopped. Those guns were registered and legal. Blame the killers parents for making them accesible to a deranged individual His parents knew he was a problem but did nothing to insure everyones safety.

[saturn05]

I think the fore fhaters never intended that we would have these guns that can kill numerous people in seconds to be protected. If anyone at the school was armed, we would have more dead probably. There is nothing wrong with tough gun laws. No one wants to take away your precious guns, but we need to be better protected from fools like you.

[bwlewis1964]

RIP Dawn Hochsprung

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

We as a country, adults and parents are suppose to be the protectors of our children but republicans and the NRA blocks every attempt to protect them.

My condolences to the families of this tragedy. We have been thru this too many times and we must begin to address this. However, do not expect any help from republicans as they are in the pockets of the NRA and other entities hostile to ordinary Americans. Republicans must be voted out to remove their obstruction to making progress on this and other issues. Elections have consequences, and electing republicans to control congress will result in no movement to begin to address this or other issues America so desperately needs to address.

Please explain why republicans will not allow NO restriction to be placed on guns? And then tell us why the mentally impaired, terrorist and criminals have easy legal access to guns