dawn hochsprung twitter

That is the last tweet of Dawn Hochsprung, principal at Sandy Hock School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Yesterday she was setting up books and, no doubt, getting ready for her Grade 4’s Winter concert. This morning, as she sat down with a parent and a psychologist to discuss a Grade 2 student, gunshots rang out in her school’s hallway. She, and the pyschologist ran for the door to confront the danger and look after their kids.

They didn’t return.

20 children also died this morning in the halls and classrooms of the school, including an entire kindergarten class.

My son is in kindergarten.

Each day I take him to a classroom that probably looks a lot like the one that Ms Hochsprung presided over in her rounds at Sandy Hook. My son’s teacher is very active on twitter, and the kids have conversations with other classrooms around the world. It could very easily have been the kindergarten class at Sandy Hook.

Dawn Hochsprung appears as a proud educator who chose a picture of her school for her avatar, and tweeted with pride about her school’s events. She could very easily have brought social media to the kindergarteners in her school just as my son’s teacher has done here.

My kids’ school is a continent away from Newtown, Ct but it could just as easily be around the corner. The internet has made us all neighbours. This woman, just from reading a dozen tweets sounds just like my son’s teacher. I don’t know Dawn, yet if you know any elementary school principal or teacher, you do.

To ask and wonder “if it could happen here?” isn’t the question to ask, because it did happen here.

In a social media world, there is here. Near is far. And we all feel the pain.

Dawn Hochsprung was new to Twitter, she only has exactly 100 tweets on her account. This sums her up best, from the first day of school just 4 months ago.

Who knew that “lifelong learning” for many of them would mean just a few more months?

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