Mother whose kids survived Sandy Hook shootings gives advice to school safety workers

The school resource officer program in La Crosse public schools is in effect for another year, following criticism from the public and a reassessment by the school district.  One supporter of the SRO concept of police on school grounds visited La Crosse on Wednesday to talk at a school safety conference. 

Carly Posey’s kids lived through the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut, on the last day of class before the Posey family’s planned move from Connecticut to Colorado. 

Posey says more people need to learn how the SRO system works.

“I think people need to be educated on what SRO’s actually do in schools,” says Posey, who also speaks this week at an SRO conference in Florida. “Everyone has to do right for their own community.”

Posey, who works with The I Love U Guys Foundation, says people who endure traumas such as school shootings and the COVID pandemic can benefit from counseling, and support from family and friends.        

One of her children witnessed the shootings of a teacher and a student in his own classroom at Sandy Hook, before escaping from the room. She says that son, now a teenager, was helped greatly by involvement in football to overcome the trauma of the school attack.