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Subscribe to RSSOnly one child made it out alive of a first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week — by fooling the gunman into thinking she was dead, the family's pastor says.
NBC News
The Rev. Jim Solomon, seen speaking at an interfaith vigil for the Connecticut shooting victims Dec. 16, 2012, in Newton, Conn., said the little girl 'has wisdom beyond her years.'
The little girl, who is 6½ years old but hasn't otherwise been identified, "ran out of the school building covered in blood from head to toe, and the first words she said to her mom when she got outside was, 'Mommy, I'm OK, but all of my friends are dead,'" the Rev. Jim Solomon, pastor of New Hope Community Church in Newtown, Conn., told ABC News in a report that aired Sunday.
"Of those who were left in the classroom of first graders, she was the lone survivor," Solomon said. (Law enforcement officials and witnesses say seven pupils survived in a second classroom by hiding in a closet.)
"Somehow, in that moment, by God's grace she was able to act as if she was already deceased," said Solomon, who spoke at the community interfaith vigil Sunday night on the same program as President Barack Obama.
Solomon said the little girl couldn't have survived "outside of divine intervention."
"She has wisdom beyond her years," he said.
The girl's parents were understandably relieved and grateful, Solomon said, but her mother told him "she was suffering from what she called 'survivor's guilt,' because so many of their friends no longer have their children, but she has hers."
Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com
Solomon couldn't be reached for comment Monday, and NBC News hasn't been able to verify his account.
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If there's any blame to be cast, cast it down at the feet of your beloved Obama.
http : // www. washingtonguardian. guardian. com / washingtons-school-security-failure
"Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget savings.
Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier."
Funny how the MSM is ignoring this.
The school was locked down and he shot his way in, then killed anyone who tried to stop him.
To blame this on Obama is hugely ignorant.
Dave - Those of you who think a President - ANY President - is responsible for individual acts across the country are just beyond comprehension. A President is NOT a God. They are attempting to lead a country - but they don't have control over everything. Get a grip!
i can only respond to dumb@!$%#s such as dave schaffer with one word
@!$%#......@!$%#....@!$%#...@!$%#....@!$%#...@!$%#...@!$%#....
that would be you dave....and how awesome you are so proud to even place your real name on a post like that....dont you know the power of google
I think I'd blame that crazy kid that shot up his mother's school before I'd try to pin it on the President
You, Dave, are clearly an IDIOT!!! Get your head out of your @$$. The president has NO responsibility in this. Blame the NRA for allowing assault rifles to be in the hands of common citizens. Citizens such as Adam, who are INSANE and have no moral compass. These type of weapons belong only in the hands of trained law enforcement officers and military personnel.
David, blaming the NRA is as crazy as blaming the President. The shooter is the one at fault. He chose to use a firearm, he could have used easily made pipe bombs. The results would have been even more catastrophic.
Let the families have their peace, and wish them well. Arguing like children will not help at all.
wolfpack - Not sure putting your head in the sand and ignoring searching for ways to stop this madness will help anyone!
"Of those who were left in the classroom of first graders, she was the lone survivor", the pastor also added that the little girl couldn't have survived "outside of divine intervention."
I am truly saddened by the incident with so many innocent lives wasted. I share my sympathy for the families affected by the incident. I also wish the pastor hadn't used the occasion to advertise for his faith.
If one is level-headed about what he said, one has to wonder why his God only saved this very child who had a strong instinct to survive by playing dead? Weren't the other 20 kids equally deserved his love? And what about their principal and teachers?
If we are as a people to go past this point with maturity and understanding, we need to separate fact from fiction.
I was about to enter a comment about this instance of "divine intervention." The pastor's comment is shameful and implies that the other innocent children didn't somehow deserve God's grace. You hit the nail on the head. This pastor and Mike Huckabee, for his comments about carnage in schools, are truly idiots.
that's what they do, it's all God's plan, higher purpose/power, blah blah blah
God loves every single one of us, but if we are not serving Him, then why do we blame Him for not protecting us? Maybe that little girl's family actually did ask Him for protection. Maybe that was the reason the one child actually was saved out of the rest. Too many people would rather blame Him when things go wrong than actually turn to Him and stay protected. Doesn't make very much sense. It isn't about a "higher plan"---it is simply about being smart enough to go to God before tragedy hits to possibly prevent you from being a part of it. I have heard lots of instances where people were safe inside of a closet although the whole house went up in a tornado. It is because they already had the relationship with God before it happened. Why blame God for mankind's choices? God loves us so much that He lets us make our own decisions, good or bad.
"Maybe that little girl's family actually did ask Him for protection"
Did you ask the other parents if they opted out of God's protection? Most Americans are still Christians, you know.
Too little, too late, divine intervener.
Perhaps she will grow up to be a counselor, or a doctor or a first responder, or even the president. Maybe that is the higher plan for divine intervention. Whatever the reason, she is alive and for that, be thankful. I pray that she will get the counseling she needs. It's bad enough for seasoned soldiers and first responders to see something like that, but for a child of 6-1/2 .... I pray for her and her family.
The story hasn't even been verified by the parents which leaves you feeling a little uncomfortable and wondering if the pastor is embellishing. I'm not sure where a God plays in all of this. What this man who gets paid to pimp God suggests is that her survival was approved by God because that's what he feels and runs with it. Nothing is mentioned as to the years of psychological damage this poor little girl will endure in remembering that horrid day. What he may suggest as a blessing may be her curse while on this earth if you were to look at it literally. I don't know where any God plays in all of this. It would be cruel to suggest God favored one child over another on Dec 14th 2012. No one truly knows if there even is a God. The book said to be his word is written by humans not by any God. The God spoken of from that book has a real hateful side as well that begs to question why anyone would want to feed it's ego with worship. At times he sounds like an abusive parent that wants to be adored and if not he's real cool with torturing you in hell for eternity. I don't know about you but if I ever hear another adult tell their child to clean their room or else they will physically harm them over and over and over I'm calling social services immediately and getting that child some protection from someone so violent. However, this lovely God from the bible seems to get away with this behavior. It just seems odd anyone would stroke that type of ego. Especially in such a tragic event that has taken place. I have an ironic twist to this whole situation. on this Dec 14th it was the anniversary of my mothers death in 2011. I have huge issues with man telling me what God thinks or feels when the truth is if he exists he doesn't have a clue what the unbearable loss of a loved one is like. It seems he's only interested ( at least those who speak on his behalf suggest this ) if he gets something out of it. If he gets prayer, praise, or positive comments then it's all good. Apparently he wins and thats allegedly the coolest thing. Although you as the one who has lost someone keeps looking around realizing your pain of loss remains and the one you love is still gone. But yeah they probably are in the land of oz playing hopscotch with angels. It's actually nothing more than an accepted form of social schizophrenia.
The media should be barred from close access to the next massacre. They make me sick to my stomach, jamming a microphone into whoever they think will cry or give them the most gruesome details. They're like weathermen who get excited when a CAT 4 hurricane is bearing down. Asking someone if they think the dead child suffered and if so how long. They should be kept at bay for a week.
I so agree with this. It has been sickening to see the media literally drooling to get the most grotesque details possible or the most heartbreaking story available. They pan their camera's around the crowds and if someone is crying you can bet that camera is zooming in for a closeup. It's sick. The media doesn't even get it when that state trooper is giving his press conference and he is reminding everyone to please give the families privacy what he's really saying is... media.. BACK OFF! stop calling friends of friends of these family members and searching for second hand nonsense.
Jack, good point. Most of the people on here just want to widdle away the 2nd admendment and maybe the real problem lays with the 1st admendment because if it was known that if you do something like this you will get very little press maybe there would not be as many copycats. We may want to look a little higher up the constutution and ask the press to have alot more self control if things like this happen and not run the story 24/7 for weeks on end
To say this child survived only because of divine intervention is horrendously insensitive to the families who lost their children.
And maybe MSN should actually confirm the facts before posting a story? That's what real journalists do.
Agree! She was lucky and she was smart to play dead. So glad she survived, but she didn't survive by "divine intervention". If there had been "divine intervention", none of these innocent little children would have died.
No perfect "God" would have a mysterious plan. That is a human trait. No perfect "God" would've intervened on behalf of a person yet let the roomful of other people die. It's absurd. If you can imagine yourself doing better than God (in this case preventing this Lanza kid from doing what he did) then you are better than god potentially and even if you are better than god potentially your are better than god since god failed to act, actively. Rick's analysis is rather crude but his thinking is spot on. It's very insensitive for the clergyman to say what he said but that's his job: to pimp something that has no proof in existence in order to make people feel better. He should've kept his mouth shut because if I had a kid killed in that mess and I heard that I'd be livid.
We MUST stop this carnage somehow, some way. Regardless of the shooters mentality, I just dont understand how he could decide to take out his hatred and problems on innocent little kids!
I am quite angry as to why this time of mourning has evolved into a discussion about God!! There are believers, there are non-believers. So be it. This is a time for prayer for those that want to, that feel the need. If you dont believe that is your decision, your belief. Please, just shut the @!$%# up about debating his existence and allow people to mourn as they see fit. Give it a rest, already!!! How totally inconsiderate. This is not the time, nor the place to criticize those who believe.
Prove that there is NO God!!!! Cite proof that God doesn't exist!!!!
The burden of proof is upon those that make the claim.
It doesn't work the other way around,
(just playing the devils advocate here)
God would not allow 20 innocent children to be killed. There's your proof he doesn't exist!
I believe that God does exist but the problem that most people make is that they do not understand that we as a people have rejected him, but he is still there, he just will not force us to believe in him, he gave us free will.
Prove the tooth fairy doesn't exist.
Those who believe that divine intervention occurred for that little girl, adds to the survivors guilt which she and her family are and will continue to experience. The question of why did she survive and others died? When and if all the facts come out, it will proabobly show that her location in the room at the time the events commenced was fortunate, her falling to the floor as event commenced, perhaps being shielded by her fellow classmates from the shower of bullets and who had no chance of avoiding the asault. I would say that under the circumstances, it was litterally shear luck. She simply beat the odds of the situation. The likelyhood of comming out of that situation alive in her particular position are proabobly 1 in 10,000 and she just happen to hit the lottery and beat the odds. You cannot make order out of chaos...this little girl was just very, very lucky. And somehow putting the view that she is special or different or has a choosen existence will make adjustment back to a normal life very difficult. For she already has the burden as the survivor, the public does not need to add to that burden by giving her and her family some mystical destinty or purpoose for which she must search. If she come to that conclusion based upon her own beliefs, that will be fine, but we the public should not be putting this on her or her family.
It was luck and she was smart to play dead. She did the best thing she could do and the only thing she could do. Good job, little one!
martha, people will worship a piece of burnt toast if the burnt part looks like mary.talking will do no good.
Sweet baby girl! So glad you survived this horrible situation! So sorry you lost all your schoolmates and friends. You did a wonderful job saving yourself. Just know that was all you could do and the best thing for you to do.
Much love to you. I hope you heal and heal well! You did the best thing you could have done, and the ONLY thing you could have done!
If God is responsible for the actions of this little girl, is he not also responsible for the actions of the shooter? How can it be that the shooter was exercising "free will" but the girl's actions were due to a higher power.
Noble actions are attributed to God but despicable actions are the individual.
Im not surprised a child would be smart enough to do this. The will to survive is strong, and playing Possum is a natural instinct. The miracle is, she was not hit, and was able to hit the floor while still alive. Laying still and hoping the killer passes you over, is as natural a reaction as breathing. She hid the fact she was still alive, and she lived. Perhaps it was quick thinking, perhaps she was frozen with fear. Either case, she is a very lucky little girl.
She and her family have nothing to feel guilty about. They should just be grateful. We all should be grateful, very grateful, that the death toll wasnt higher.
this is the happest thing I have read in days :O)
Hopefully, a sick POS like you is posting from prison or currently on your way in!
You make the statement the God doesn't exist. Why don't you have to prove that he doesn't if I have to prove he does. I would call this a double standard. You can't prove to me that he doesn't exist anymore than I can prove that he does to people that refuse to believe
Ill tell you why, because people like you ask others to believe. Those "others" ask for proof. Its only fair. They have no obligation to blindly believe anything, anymore than you do.
No one is asking you to prove it, so you have the right to believe. They are asking you to prove it, before you expect them to believe.
You are entitled to believe whatever you want. You are NOT entitled to demand others believe, especially when you cannot provide proof.
I believe in what can be proved, period.
Well said, Freedom!
Divine intervention. I guess other children did not qualify. What an offensive crock of @!$%#.
What a dreadful thing for this little girl to have gone through. Hopefully the survivor's guilt can be dealt with properly so she doesn't suffer it's effects. What her parents must be going through, the emotions must be great. Call it a miracle or what you say, it's the winds of fate. Poor young girl has to live with this memory now. I agree the divine intervention interpretation is offensive to the young victims.
the winds of fate. i like that.
Please people, this pastor is mourning like everyone...give him a break. he doesn't mean the others were not wortthy, just that thankfully this one was saved. and thankfully so..
let his words be his, believe what you want, but let hs words be his.. he does not want ANY child to die like these poor kids did.
his beliefs, his religiion. if it helps people to deal by believing in God, let them. everyone deserves to grieve as they choose.
this one child was spared. lets relish in that, not attack each other like ccomplete asses.
but we are complete asses, we're americans
Why are 'believers' so threatened by those who don't ~ and agnostics and atheists insulted by other beliefs? Seems to me that if one is secure in their adopted and embraced belief system, what others may choose to hold as truth is irrelevant. That said, the pastor's comment about "divine intervention" was highly inappropriate in that setting. That may be his conviction, but it conveys a subliminal message to the parents of dead children that God's grace didn't extend to their small child. That's pretty difficult to wrap one's mind around and it had to be hurtful to some of the parents. Haven't they suffered enough?
They are very afraid. They know it all doesn't make sense, but it is all they have to "hang onto". Some people cannot simply face the reality of a situation. This awful tragedy with 20 little children killed is too much for them to accept. They feel better by thinking there is a place in the sky for little kids becoming angels, than to accept that they are gone.
I understand that there's several of you that don't believe in God. Here's the sad truth....God does not make these terrible things happen. The devil and his demons are out there wreaking havoc. As far as God goes, the government has banned Him from our schools, so how could He have anything to do with this? It sucks to think that although He has been banned from school, He is still put to blame for it. People in general blame Him for everything although they choose not to serve Him. Put the blame where it should be: on mankind. Man without God is evil, plain and simple. He is the one that teaches us to love folks and fills our hearts with love. I am just saying simply that God is righteous and holy. He is a gentleman and does not force His will on any of us because He loves us so much that He wants us to make the choice to serve Him. He doesn't put His protection where He is not wanted.
Perhaps you should re-read what you posted. It makes no sense at all. This idea of "the devil made me do it." And then "believe in God", so you can make it seem easier, just doesn't cut the mustard for many of us.
Glad to hear God is a gentleman, however.
ms tammy, just a question, god created lucifer( satan ),lucifer started to misfire.if he was gods creation and his right hand man,why did he go wrong? man wasnt his downfall. he was his own.which implies god is falible.then to test adam and eve in the garden shows god wasnt even sure of himself to test them.so technically god is the cause of all the evil.these questions never get answered.i know people will hate me for these questions but i would like to know why his mistakes are dumped on man and he gets off scott free?
YOU CALL 26 DEAD GETTING OFF SCOTT FREE?
Oops. time to wake up.
nancy, i have no idea what type of answer that was.can you answer those questions?
Just keep in mind there is nothing really to say about this incident that will make it better. If you came to this discussion looking for a pickmeup you are bound to be disappointed
From the comments here, I'd argue that no one here is trying to make this incident better in any way - anyway.
If this is turns out to be untrue - since it is reported as unverified - then what does that say about this pastor? It says he's a despicable person using other people's trauma and pain for his own personal gain, and that ain't very Christian now is it?
Ain't very Christian? Ain't? << ???
Proves one thing - EVERYONE likes to be quoted. Especially when the world is watching. Loves the attention.
NO CHILD with blood on them RAN OUT OF THAT BUILDING>... parents were kept far far from the building that the story would have been impossible. ANY child with ANY blood on them was taken immediately to the hospital.
"Solomon said the little girl couldn't have survived "outside of divine intervention.""
Those who attribute wonderful things to God, like the little girl's survival, can't have it both ways. Per their logic, they have to then acknowledge that God declined to intervene to prevent the murders of the other children and adults. That an God capable of intervention picked sides as to which innocents would live and which would not. And allowed the entire event to happen in the first place. Theologians should think more deeply before they make such comments.
NO ONE knows what or why God does anything ----- how WOULD THEY KNOW?
They don't. They just say these things because it makes them feeel better and in this case (fabricated story)...it made it sound really good ----- selling God again... from someone who works for a church...
I'm so surprised.
God loves everyone .... until they hurt someone - sort of (they say)... but you can repent (sometimes) -- they say ----- but it will cost me $15,000 to join the church in my neighborhood ---- ???
stupid They don't know - they just believe without knowing... foolish.
I seriously doubt this "unconfirmed" account is true. NO children were allowed to simply run out of that building. And one covered in blood certainly would not have. Any child with blood on them was taken directly to a hospital.
Nice story - but "unconfirmed" and probably untrue.
I guess what you surmise is the truth? LOL.