A review of the mental-health and educational history of Newtown, Conn., school shooter Adam Lanza paints a picture of repeated missed opportunities—by schools, relatives, and mental-health professionals—to intervene in a downward spiral of isolation, emotional instability, and mental illness.
Mr. Lanza killed his mother in December 2012 before gunning his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide.
Among the findings of the report by the state’s child-advocate office: Mr. Lanza received minimal mental-health observations at school. “Records indicate that the school system cared about [his] success but also unwittingly enabled [his mother’s] preference to accommodate and appease [the young man] through the educational plan’s lack of attention to social-emotional support, failure to provide related services, and agreement to [his] plan of independent study.”
