Letter from Sandy Hook: Shattered community cannot wait for answers

How does a shattered community like Newtown begin to rebuild itself? By repeating the everyday rituals that animated life before Friday’s massacre, that’s how.

The sight of a yellow school bus in the distance yesterday morning signalled a beginning of sorts, as schools reopened for the first time since the tragedy.

Sandy Hook Elementary remains a crime scene, but students elsewhere returned to class as the town attempted to step out of the shadow cast by Adam Lanza’s fatal assault on some of its youngest citizens.

But even as efforts are made to restore some semblance of normality — a tough task as funerals take place daily — one question in particular continues to weigh on many people’s minds: why the Elementary? The investigation thus far has painted a detailed picture of what transpired on Friday morning. Authorities have established a timeline, and we know how Lanza forced his way into the school.

However, many of the early reports that might have offered some clue as to why he targeted Sandy Hook have proven false. There were suggestions that Lanza’s mother, Sandy, was a teacher at the school, but the police have since clarified that the gunman had no known connection to the institution.

The driver behind the wheel of the taxi that took me out of the town yesterday shook his head as he wondered aloud about Lanza’s motives.

Many in the investigative team are no doubt doing the same. Hopes of an explanation were raised earlier in the week when it was reported that authorities had taken away computer equipment from the Lanza home at Yogananda Street. But now it seems the gunman destroyed a hard drive from his computer before heading out on his killing spree.

In the absence of hard clues, some attention has turned to the possibility that the killer might have suffered from a medical condition. Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, has been mentioned. However, experts have since said the condition could not have had any relation to Lanza’s actions.

“There really is no clear association between Asperger’s and violent behaviour,” Elizabeth Laugeson, a psychologist and an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Associated Press this week.

The Sandy Hook community, of course, cannot wait for the answer. The answer may never come. It has to move on — and that is what they are trying to do , however arduous the task.