President's Medal a 'Bittersweet Award' [Video]

Sandy Hook educators who laid down their lives for children are among an elite class of honorees. One was Mary Sherlach, whose daughter and son-in-law live in South Jersey.

WASHINGTON – Receiving an award from the president on her mother’s behalf was a bittersweet experience for Erica Lafferty.  The bitter part is that an award, no matter how prestigious, can never bring her mother back. The sweet part is that all of the national attention will make sure people always remember the great deeds of her mother, Sandy Hook Principal Dawn (Lafferty) Hochsprung. “All of the honors don’t make anything easier,” she said. “But it is nice that the government and everyone else is realizing all of the good she did and all of the efforts those educators put into that school.” Hochsprung was one of the six educators who died Dec. 14 while trying to protect students at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty students also died …

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Newtown School Shooting Victim Mary Sherlach Honored

The Sandy Hook school psychologist was among 26 people killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, school shooting. Her daughter and son-in-law live in Deptford.

The town Mary Sherlach called home is honoring her in a special way.  Town council in Trumbull, CT, voted unanimously Monday night to rename the Trumbull Counseling Center after her. Sherlach, a school psychologist, was killed in the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on Dec. 14, 2012.  Sherlach's daughter, Maura Schwartz, and Maura's husband, Eric Schwartz, are Deptford residents. Eric Schwartz is a regular freelancer for Patch, covering high-school sports in South Jersey.  Sherlach's husband, William Sherlach, attended the Trumbull council meeting Monday night.  Before the vote, First Selectman Tim Herbst said Sherlach gave her life for the students and teachers at Sandy Hook, and deserved the honor. He …

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Vignettes

Christmas After Newtown

We may not feel the tinsel and trimmings of the season, but we still need Christmas.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." – John 16:33 And so it is Christmas. Yesterday, I opened a card from my high school best friend which had a poem inscribed on it. It was a cutesy Hallmark kind of thing, but its last line haunted me like Jacob Marley did Scrooge on that Christmas Eve night. “We are all ready. We hope you are too.” Just a simple reminder that I needed to hang some more mistletoe, buy a few gifts, perhaps bake a cookie or two. But those words stared back at me, and I realized I had never been so “not ready” for Christmas. Well, at least not since 1998, the year my mother died a couple of days before Thanksgiving. …

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WD Schools See Security Changes After Newtown Shooting

Classroom doors will be closed in all schools and additional security cameras will be added in reaction to last week's shooting in Connecticut.

With school security concerns taking center stage at the West Deptford School District's final board meeting of 2012, administrators confirmed they'll take additional safety steps in the wake of the Newtown, CT, school shootings.  Superintendent Kevin Kitchenman gave a detailed statement to the board Monday night that re-iterated the district's current security plan and unveiled a few new measures in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, last Friday. The security changes announced at the meeting are subtle and designed to “tighten up security,” according to Kitchenman. They included having every classroom door closed and locked at every school, adding more security cameras in addition to the ones at the …

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Poll: Should the U.S. Ban High-Capacity Ammo Magazines?

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg will ask Congress to approve a ban on ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds. Do you agree with his proposed bill?

In the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown, CT, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) announced plans to reintroduce high-capacity magazine ban legislation in the 113th Congress. Lautenberg’s bill, the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act, would prohibit the manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. It also would ban ammunition magazines that could be readily converted to accept more than 10 rounds. “In light of yet another horrific shooting tragedy, it is clearer than ever that there is no place in our communities for deadly high-capacity gun magazines and I will keep working to pass my bill to reinstate the ban on them,” Lautenberg said in a statement. “If we don't pass a high-capacity …

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Devilsfan

10:52 pm on Monday, December 17, 2012

And I'm Santa Claus   more ›

Patch Writer's Mother-In-Law Killed in CT School Shootings

Mary Sherlach, the mother-in-law of Patch writer Eric Schwartz, was among 27 people killed in the second-deadliest school shooting in American history.

The deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, claimed the life of a Patch writer's family member.  Mary Sherlach, the school's psychologist, was among 26 people, including 20 children, who died when a gunman opened fire at the school Friday morning. The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also died in the rampage.  Sherlach was the mother-in-law of Deptford resident Eric Schwartz, a longtime Patch freelancer who covers high school sports in South Jersey.  Sherlach, 56, lived in Trumbull, CT. Schwartz and his wife, Maura, arrived in Connecticut on Friday evening to be with their family. They could not be reached for comment.  In the shooting spree, Lanza also reportedly killed his mother, who was a teacher …

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