[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1951-E1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

IDENTIFY TROUBLED YOUTH NEEDING HELP AND SUPPORT

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HON. MARCY KAPTUR

of ohio

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, in our continuing efforts to turn the tragic
events at Newtown to high purpose, I include two articles from the USA
Today newspaper, one entitled ``A Boy Lost in the Shadows'', and
another, ``Newtown Puts Mental Services in Spotlight.''

[[Page E1952]]

These articles remind me of a conversation a few years ago with a
caring grade school teacher from my own district who became quite
frustrated with the local school system's inability to help her manage
the behavior of a child in her elementary classroom. The child, several
times a day, became uncontrollable, moving about the classroom,
throwing tantrums, screaming loudly, often falling to the floor, thus
causing great confusion in the class. Despite the teacher's repeated
attempts to help the child, it became obvious professional help was
needed. A complicating factor became family members who were in denial
that anything out of the ordinary was actually occurring with the
child, despite the constant disruption, acting out, anger, and anti-
social behavior the child was demonstrating. After repeated attempts
that took three years, and let me emphasize three years, the teacher
was able to have the child referred to behavioral specialists and
placed in a more appropriate learning environment. That situation alone
made me wonder about the manner in which we as a society make help
available to children who exhibit destructive behaviors that are
harmful to themselves and potentially to others.
Mr. Speaker, as a society, we seem to lack the methods to identify
troubled youth and put them on a proper path to healing, if healing is
possible. Too often, a child is left floundering due to our collective
inabilities to help them find a constructive path forward. For example,
many of our local boards of education often are not properly equipped
to identify and assist children who are uncivil or who are completely
alienated from their surroundings. Some families, too, seem unaware of
their child's behaviors as unusual or potentially destructive. As the
article I inserted in the Record yesterday reports, some parents are so
overwhelmed in caring for children with special behavioral conditions,
they simply don't know what else to do. Then again, too often there is
no one to call to help.
Through the Commission President Obama proposed be formed to address
the conditions that led to Newtown's tragedy, surely that Commission
should invite a cross section of Americans to share their knowledge
about what led to the mass killings that have harmed so many in our
nation over the past decade, and what we must do as a society to
prevent future tragedies. We can all envision a future where the
incredible intelligence and goodwill of the citizens of our nation can
lead us to a better day if we provide a forum to listen carefully to
the voices among us who grapple with these challenges daily.

[From USA Today, December 17, 2012]

A Boy Lost in the Shadows

(By Donna Leinwand Leger and Yamiche Alcindor)

Sandy Hook, Conn. Adam Lanza left only the faintest
impression on classmates, neighbors and the people of Newtown
before he killed his mother and shot his way into Sandy Hook
Elementary, where he killed 20 children and six teachers
before turning the gun on himself.
Lanza, 20, skulked through the hallways of Newtown High
School in over-sized button-down shirts, eyes perpetually
downcast. His name appears a few times on the honor roll
published in the weekly Newtown Bee, but his picture is
absent from The Newtown Nighthawk yearbook.
``He was very withdrawn,'' said Tracy Dunn, 20, who
graduated from Newtown High School in 2010, Lanza's class.
Dunn, a junior at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and
Health Sciences, said she never saw him talk with anyone or
hang out with friends. He spent time with computers and
cameras in the technology room and belonged to the Tech Club.
``He would always have his head down walking to class with
his briefcase--kind of scurrying.'' she said. ``He never sat
down or said anything to kids at this locker. He was just
there in the background.''
Andrew Lapple, who sat next to Lanza in homeroom their
senior year at Newtown High, told the Hartford Courant that
Lanza ``never really talked at all'' and walked the corridors
at school clutching his laptop.
``He walked down the halls, against the wall almost like he
was afraid of people,'' Lapple said. ``He was definitely kind
of strange, but you'd never think he'd do something like
this.''
Lanza grew up in Sandy Hook in a sprawling colonial house
with his parents, Nancy and Peter, and an older brother,
Ryan, 24. His parents divorced in 2009 after a long
separation, and his father has remarried. Family friends and
relatives say much of his education was home schooling by his
mother.
He attended Reed Intermediate School for sixth grade and
appears in a 2003 yearbook photo. In the a 2005 yearbook for
Newtown Middle School, he's listed with the seventh grade
without a picture under ``camera shy,'' but he isn't listed
in the eighth-grade class the next year. His name surfaces at
Newtown High School in 2008 as a sophomore.
Marsha Moskowitz of Sandy Hook drove the school bus that
took Lanza to Newtown Middle. She remembers him as ``quiet,
shy and reserved.''
His mother clashed with school officials and eventually
removed Adam from public school and home-schooled him, her
former sister-in-law, Marsha Lanza of Chicago, told a CBS
News affiliate.
Lanza had trouble with her youngest son for years, and her
friend Louise Tambascio, owner of My Place Pizza &
Restaurant. He was diagnosed with a disorder on the autism
spectrum called Asperger syndrome, she said. Psychologist
Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the
University of California-Los Angeles, had no knowledge of
Adam Lanza's case but said, ``There really is no clear
association between Asperger's and violent behavior.''
Nancy Lanza stopped into My Place once or twice a week but
rarely talked about her younger son, Tambascio said. Ryan,
the older son, bused table at the restaurant for two years.
He is outgoing and personable, she said. The brothers haven't
spoken in two years, she said.
``Ryan who was the complete opposite of his brother,'' she
said. Adam ``always had his face down. He would never look
you in the eye.''
Police say the three guns used in the massacre were
purchased legally and registered to Nancy Lanza, whom friends
described as a gun and shooting aficionado. Tambascio said
shooting was ``a hobby.''
She ``had nothing to do with what her son did. She's a good
person, goodhearted. She would do anything for you,''
Tambascio said.
Nancy Lanza ``liked the single-mindedness of shooting,''
her landscaper, Dan Holmes told The Washington Post, Holmes
said she mentioned taking her son to the firing range to
practice. Holmes never entered the house or saw her son, but
she did once bring an antique rifle outside to show him, he
told the Post.
The shooter's father, Peter Lanza of Stamford, said the
family is ``in a state of disbelief.''
``We, too, are asking why,'' he said in a written
statement. ``Like so many of you, we are saddened, but
struggling to make sense of what has transpired.''
The Lanzas' neighbors on Yogananda Street say it's puzzling
that on such a close-knit block where residents throw
barbecues for newcomers, so few of them knew Adam Lanza or
had ever seen him.
``It's a mystery. Nobody knows them, which is odd for this
neighborhood,'' Len Strocchia said. ``Everyone knows each
other through the children, the school bus. The community
here is kids.''
Neighbor Dave Lapp said he had little to tell the FBI and
State Police when they called on Friday night. ``We walked by
their house with the dog every day, and we don't know them.
We've never even seen them,'' Lapp said.
Dunn, Adam Lanza's classmate, fears that may have been at
the root of the problem.
``Maybe if someone had tried to reach out to Adam--maybe he
needed a friend. Maybe this wouldn't have happened,'' Dunn
said. ``He's just one kid who slipped through the cracks.''
____

[From USA Today, December 17, 2012]

Newtown Puts Mental Service in Spotlight

(By Liz Szabo)

Families and doctors who treat the mentally ill say they
hope Friday's tragedy in Newtown, Conn., will refocus the
nation's attention on improving mental health services.
Police have not released details about the motives or
mental state of shooter Adam Lanza. But perpetrators of
similar mass shootings--at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois
University and an event in Tuscon for former congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords--all had serious mental health conditions.
``We wait for things like this to happen and then everyone
talks about mental health,'' says Priscilla Dass-Brailsford,
an associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University
Medical Center. ``But they quickly forget.''
There are hundreds of multiple-casualty shootings a year,
says forensic psychologist Dewey Cornell, director of the
Virginia Youth Violence Project. People have become so
desensitized that they pay no attention, he says, yet mental
illness contributes to domestic violence, child abuse, drug
addiction, homelessness and incarceration. Investing in
mental health care could help prevent tragedies, he says.
``Mental health has shrunk down to the level of short-term
crisis management,'' Cornell says. ``We can't think about the
gunman in the parking lot and what to do with him. We have to
get involved a lot earlier.''
Schools and communities ``have cut their mental health
services to the bone. We're paying a price for it.''

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