Newtown Victims' Parents Say Need Still Unmet
NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Parents of two six-year-old children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School say the needs of some victims' families are still unmet nearly two years after the shooting.
Jeremy Richman and his wife Jennifer Hensel, parents of Avielle Richman, and Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of Ana Marquez-Greene, appeared before the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which is developing policy recommendations in the wake of the mass shooting.
Newtown Victims' Parents Say Need Still Unmet
They said at a hearing Friday in Newtown they did not receive adequate help in the aftermath of the tragedy and did not know they had been assigned a case worker. The parents say there is still confusion over how to obtain support for mental health care.
They called for the governor's Sandy Hook Advisory Commission to develop a victim-focused response to mass shootings and other acts of violence.
"Until our country changes, and mass shootings become extinct, protecting and helping the survivor victims and the victim families should be paramount," Marquez-Greene said. "A national public tragedy can lend itself to a myriad of responses focused on resilience and recovery, however, if these efforts fail to attend to the most deeply wounded they will fall short."
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy formed the 16-member panel of experts in January 2013. The group is in the final stages of piecing together its recommendations on ways to better address mental health, school safety and gun violence prevention in light of the Dec. 14, 2012 school shooting, which took the lives of 20 first graders and six educators. Other parents of Sandy Hook victims previously have addressed the commission.
Last month, the commission's chairman, Scott Jackson, said the group needed to redouble efforts to communicate with victims' families after some complained that not enough information was reaching them. A subcommittee helped to arrange Friday's meeting.
Jackson said his commission is not likely to finalize any recommendations until after the release of a report from the Office of the Child Advocate, which has been reviewing the shooter's schooling records.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories:
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
