Newtown School Police: 'It Was So Real It Didn't Seem Real'
Posted: 07/16/2013 7:30 am EDT
ORLANDO, Fla. -- It happened seven months ago Sunday, but remembering details of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting still brings tears to the eyes of Lenny Penna.
"I'm hoping that, you know, it's been seven months, emotions won't set in," Penna said. "But it is what it is."
Penna, a member of the police department in Newtown, Conn., and his colleague Jason Flynn, spoke to an audience of about 800 school resource officers at the National Association for School Resource Officers conference Monday. School resource officers are police specifically trained for working as law enforcement agents and educators in schools. Before the Sandy Hook massacre, Newtown had two -- Flynn and Penna.
Their stories outlined the events of the day in great detail, from start to finish. They also touched on how school-based police officers can be marginalized from the rest of