Newtown: An American Tragedy (30 page)

The Richman family founded the Avielle Foundation in the wake of their daughter’s death. It is funded through donations and grants and hopes to remove the stigma for people seeking mental health aid, develop the concept of a “brain health checkup,” and identify behavioral and biochemical diagnostics for detection of people at risk of violent behaviors. Richman, a researcher at the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, has extensive research experience
that spans neuroscience to neuropsychopharmacology. His wife, Jennifer Hensel, is a medical writer with her own company.

“Our immediate response to what happened to our daughter was that we had to do something about this so people don’t have to face what we are facing ever again,” Richman said. “We believe that starts with erasing society’s stigma and misperceptions about brain health. If you are told your child is psychotic and that child is labeled psychotic, there is nothing you can do and as a parent you are going to be in denial. It’s scary not to have hope. But if your child is diagnosed with diabetes or nut allergies, it’s something we can wrap our arms around and everyone wants to help.”

Richman hopes his foundation will enable people to see mental health issues in the same vein as they do more traditionally treated physical problems. “If you are diagnosed with too much dopamine, and as a result have trouble with impulse control, that’s not overwhelming,” he explained. “That can be dealt with.”

Richman wants to see the country shift from mental health to brain health and believes the language itself is counterproductive to helping those who are afflicted. “No doctor would look at your broken arm and call you a broken arm,” Richman said. “You are not your disease.”

What if Adam’s Asperger’s syndrome and sensory perception disorder had been properly treated?

From early childhood, it was clear to those around him that Adam Lanza was a deeply disturbed young man. While still in elementary school, he was diagnosed with mental illness. Always an outsider, he was prone to isolation and saw the world differently from his
peers. His journals were filled with violent drawings, some of which were discovered by his school and his mother. Many of them can be seen as warning signs of potential future violence.

“It was obvious that Adam was not well and wasn’t getting the care he needed,” said Richman. “Once we know what to look for, we can treat these people.”

Shortly after starting the Avielle Foundation, the Richmans were shocked by the outpouring of support they received. Messages began to flood in from parents around the country, all in need of support in coping with their children’s violent tendencies.

I
n reality, none of these solutions might work. In life, people are free to make choices. Nancy Lanza made her choices. Adam made his. This has led some people to choose a simpler explanation for what happened on the morning of December 14—evil. In a planet that is inhabited by seven billion people, no matter how society or culture evolves, a small percentage of those people will always make decisions to commit senseless and seemingly random, unspeakably horrific acts.

“For as long as we have walked the earth, there have always been acts of evil and there always will be,” said Monsignor Robert Weiss.

In confronting a tragedy so unfathomably terrible, people have a need to seek out a reasonable explanation for the senseless loss of life. Attaching a label to it gives back a feeling of control. Without an answer to the question of why, communities are left facing the random chaos of life. They are forced to face the realization that in a world with so many moving parts, it is impossible to have control
over random events and tragedies. It leaves open the possibility that what happened at Sandy Hook could happen one day at their child’s school. It is an uncomfortably reality and one which forces the search for an explanation to go on.

“We have to keep looking for answers. We must keep examining these issues. The conversation must continue,” said Mary Ellen O’Toole, the former criminal profiler for the FBI who has studied mass killers. “The moment we stop asking why is the very moment we give up the future to the next mass killer, who is out there now plotting. We can’t stop believing that we have the power to stop it from happening again. We can’t sit back and just let it occur. The randomness has to be explored because we have to know why.

“We may never get to one final answer, but we have to keep trying.”

T
his book is only possible because of those who graciously shared their stories with me, including families of the victims, survivors, first responders, and friends and family of the Lanzas. Thank you all.

It was the tireless work of my literary agent Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management who believed this was an important story that needed to be told and worked hard to make this book possible. Thank you, Sharlene.

I cannot say enough about the professionalism and expertise exhibited by my editor Tricia Boczkowski and the entire team at Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books—Jen Bergstrom, Louise Burke, Jen Robinson, Elana Cohen—an amazing group of people.

I’ve had many great editors over the years who have all contributed to this book coming to fruition; JoAnne Wasserman, Kirsten Danis, and Robert F. Moore of the New York
Daily News
.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to several other people. Chelsia
Rose Marcius, a great journalist, writer, and friend who helped read through my copy and gave me inspiration in the fragile early days while I was trying to get this project off the ground. Dave Crawford, my seventh-grade English teacher at Danville Middle School, who helped preserve enough of my curiosity to get me through the most boring years of my life (middle school). New York City journalist and author Christina Boyle, whose expert eyes helped me with the manuscript.

My family was also instrumental in the completion of this book. My parents, Gina and Arthur Lysiak, and my mother-in-law Candace Belles, and John Thrash, who all generously opened up their home to my family during my months away in Newtown.

I also want to thank my daughters, Isabel, Hilde, and Georgia Lysiak, who understand that having a dad who is a reporter often leads to an unconventional childhood but always seem to effortlessly roll with it, and my wife, Bridget Lysiak, whose seemingly pathological pursuit to always better herself has proven contagious.

The author is donating 2 percent of his advance and 5 percent of any subsequent royalties to The Avielle Foundation. To learn more about the nonprofit organization, please visit:
aviellefoundation.org

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First Gallery Books hardcover edition December 2013

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lysiak, Matthew

  Newtown : an American tragedy / Matthew Lysiak. — First Gallery Books hardcover edition.

    pages    cm

1. Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, Newton, Conn., 2012.  2. School shootings.  3. Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, Conn.)  I. Title.