How Sandy Hook Children Can Sue, at Age 18

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

This article looks at the harm that was done to children in Newtown Connecticut or the surrounding area, who were coerced to lie about the false massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES). That is, I begin from the premise that the event of December 4, 2012 was a hoax, arranged by governmental authorities and perhaps private groups. (If I am wrong about that premise, the material here can still be useful, regarding children who are coerced to lie about other things.)

I am sure that all children get fed with various falsehoods. There are socially acceptable falsehoods, e.g., that the Tooth Fairy will reward you for losing a tooth, and natural falsehoods, as when parents tell their kids that their family is more successful or admirable than it really is. in school, including college, the young are fed all sorts of information that may or may not be true.  I shall not try to make a case against the purveyors of myths.

In the Sandy Hook case, where a hoax has occurred, the parents or community leaders may falsely tell children that it really happened and the kid, if young enough, will automatically believe it.  Eventually the adults will also have to teach the kid to purvey the lie. The kid will then purvey it and yet he is not lying as he thinks the facts he is purveying are genuine.

So far this is not something that is “actionable” in court. But let’s now focus on a child who has become aware that the hoax may have been a hoax (no massacre took place at Sandy Hook). He may have read on the Internet that it was a hox and mentions this to his parents, Boy Scout leaders, or neighbors.  They then tell him that he must not say such a thing.

From this point on, she is in a dilemma. She does not want to shut up about the subject but knows it will not go well for her if she blathers about it at the dinner table or in her high school class. Soon she may learn that some classmates also know it was a hoax and they peer-pressure her not to divulge the secret. Maybe one or two friends will join forces with her and they will discuss it underground.

Note: she may be told, as part of the peer pressure, that local loyalty demands that everyone keep the massacre story alive as it has given new hope for gun control throughout the nation. I imagine a few individuals will be put off by that and wish to be rebellious but there again, they would be acting against “the norm” and that is not easy.

How to Redress the Wrong?

This article is about legal action against the wrongdoing of coercing a child to lie. I suppose there are many ways, in this specific case, for kids to get a resolution of the problem. The adults cold apologize, the whole town could meet to express their dissatisfaction with having to be a party to a lie, and so forth. For all I know, such things may come about any day now and thus there will be no urge for court involvement. But maybe that day is not ready to dawn so let’s explore legal possibilities.

Courts have responsibility for sorting out disputes between two parties. Those disputes are called civil actions, typically lawsuits. The other way is for a court to be the venue for a prosecution by the government of anyone who has committed a crime.  Today I am only talking about lawsuits. But note that a prosecution is possible. The relevant crime is child abuse. In Connecticut law, in Chapter 939, Offenses against the Person, sec 53-21 says:

(a) Any person who willfully or unlawfully permits any child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that the life or limb of such child is endangered, the health of such child is likely to be injured or the morals of such child are likely to be impaired, or does any act likely to impair the health or morals of any such child …  such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which five years of the sentence imposed may not be suspended …. [Emphasis added]

Thus if Mr and Mrs Smith told their son Johnny to lie about Sandy Hook, they could be accused of having done “an act likely to impair the morals” of Johnny. Personally I find it pretty uncomfortable to talk about parental criminality, but it’s easier to say it would be prosecutable if teachers, clergy persons, or the aforementioned Boy Scout leader were coaxing children to be dishonest. Imagine the child saying “I want to tell the truth” and the adult saying “No that would be wrong.”

Civil Action: The Tort of IED

Forget prosecution (but it’s nice to know the law recognizes the relevant crime). Now look at the way in which a judicial system is tasked with bringing justice between a plaintiff (that is, a complainer) and a defendant (as in “I didn’t do it”). The law of torts provides that the damaged person will get “damages.”

Certain torts are well established, namely trespass, assault, libel, theft (no matter that these may also be criminalized). IED is the abbreviation for the tort of “infliction of emotional distress.” There are two kinds of infliction of emotional distress, intentional and negligent. An example of negligent IED is where a speeding motorist, hits a pedestrian and almost hits another. That other person may get PTSD or lifelong anxiety as a result. No one would say the driver meant it to happen; the damage will be said to have been caused by his negligence or recklessness.

The civil action I am proposing for the grown-up kids of Sandy Hook is of the negligent type. I think the hoax designers had enough on their mind to plan for this and that but did not go so far as to think about the moral damage that would be done to children coerced to lie.

I shall now sketch a make-believe lawsuit filed by three plaintiffs. The social situation in Connecticut today (December 2022) is such that perhaps no lawyer would be willing to represent these plaintiffs. In that case, they could file on their own as a pro se litigant, but
“pro se” means “for himself” and therefore you can’t have three filing together, just one. in the example below a lawyer is assumed.

I will pretend it is a federal case, in a US court and use fictional names. It could be any child who was a student at Sandy Hook in 2012 or later and who suffered emotional distress from having to lie about the fake massacre. Instead of blaming parents, I will blame the creators of the hoax. plus a priest who taught the lie from the pulpit.

In their initial pleadings, plaintiffs should not submit evidence, nor should they argue the law.  They simply make known what has happened and what relief they will ask for.

United States District Court for the District of Connecticut

Jim Anxiety, Dina Depression, and Bruce Humiliation, plaintiffs

v

Linda Loopish, Director of FEMA for New England States,

Bobby Bluebird, Attorney General of Connecticut

Gary Bull, Official in Charge at the Mandy Brook Fire Station,

all in both their official capacity and their private capacity, and Rupert Murderly, head of Newsamillion, and Newsamillion, and Reverend Holy Shmoley.. also ls keep my Con article page up to date

Jury trial demanded

1. Introduction

An “active shooter drill” was scheduled to take place at the campus of the abandoned Mandy Brook School and its local firehouse on December 13th and 14th, 2012. It was run by a combination of local, state, and federal government personnel. The government secretly planned to create a drama in which a 20-year-old boy, loaded with guns, would be said to have entered the school by breaking a glass door and shot 20 first-graders and 6 staff members. The actual students, families, and teachers were subsequently told to uphold this false story. They were threatened with harm if they spoke out.

1. Jurisdiction and Venue. This is a federal case because the direction of the activity was likely led by Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. If a trial is held, the venue should be at some distance from Mandy Brook district, owing to complicated involvement of local officials, civilians, and churches.

III. The Parties. The Plaintiffs are three children who, on December 14, 2012, were in school at a location to which Many Brook students has been sent when their normal campus was closed for repairs. The Defendants are three persons who held government positions on the day, plus one that is a media corporation and one who heads that corporation., plus a clergyman.

1. Statute of Limitations. Connecticut statute of limitations for civil actions is two or three years. It should begin to toll when the injured party reaches the legal age (18) for suing. Under state law, a cause of action may begin when the injury “is discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered.”
2. Injury. These children were age 8 and 9 in December 2012. Their teachers, parents, and neighbors assured them that story of the killings, as reported in the newspaper and on TV, had a good purpose and they must play along with it. Over the years, Jim, Dina, and Bruce, now age 18 and 19, have been reading in social media that many folks ridicule the Mandy Brook story. And some friends are angry with them for participating in the lie. The whole experience has been embarrassing, and caused them depression, nervousness, and suicidal thoughts. Their future careers and marriages will no doubt be marred by it all.
3. Prayer for Relief. The plaintiffs ask for declaratory relief, by the court’s declaring that the Mandy Brook massacre was not genuine, and for $60,000 each, trebled as punitive damages.

Sworn and signed on _________  at ____________.

Attorney’s name and address: ___________________.

My Motive(s)

I wrote the above case as an appendix in my 2021 book “Unreality: Sandy Hook Messes Minds.” I mainly wanted to load up on ammunition in my attempts to knock the massacre story. I also have hoped that my book will reach a student of Sandy Hook who wants to try it out. I wanted to intimidate those who think they can get away with such a hoax.

But on later reflection, I see that it can also function as a statement about the wrongness of controlling the minds of the young in such a way as to screw up their intellect. This seems to be going on in many ways, not just about a particular lie.

Our overlords (maybe the same who organized a hoax for Connecticut or Hong Kong, or wherever) seem to feel no prick of conscience about this. It’s as though they own everybody’s brain and would like to turn us into robots.  So that should give extra urgency to a lawsuit of this type.

The above lawsuit is asking for a legal ruling on the causing of emotional distress, which is already a tort.  But how did that tort, or the other torts, get established?  Over time, the common law gets built up by court cases, when actual injustices of the world seek redress. It is also possible for a state’s legislature to enact a statute granting the right to sue for some new tort.

For now it would be enough for even one of my named plaintiffs — Jim Anxiety, Dina Depression, and Bruce Humiliation — to go on record with their claim to have been made anxious, depressed, or humiliated by having to live a lie.