LYNN — It was a somber day at Connery Elementary School on Monday, as students and staff were left to process the senseless death of one of their teachers, Vanessa MacCormack, who died in her Revere home two days earlier.
MacCormack, 30, was a second-grade teacher at Connery Elementary School. She was found dead in her Grand View Avenue home on Saturday afternoon. Authorities are calling her death “suspicious” and investigating it as a homicide, as a preliminary examination of her body at the scene revealed signs of trauma.
School began at Connery on Monday with a staff meeting in the library, and then a school-wide assembly to inform students that MacCormack, a beloved teacher, had died. Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham was in attendance for both.
“As a district, we continue to try to comprehend this seemingly incomprehensible tragedy, while providing as much support as possible to the students and staff at Connery Elementary School,” Latham said in a statement. “This morning, Principal Mary Dill notified students of MacCormack’s sudden death at a school-wide assembly.
“Lynn Public Schools social workers and adjustment counselors are at the school to offer counseling. In addition, several other schools voluntarily sent support staff to Connery to provide coverage for (any) school staff that needed it.”
After the assembly, students were given time to design and write cards, which will be given to MacCormack’s family at a later date.
Dill said the decision was made to have an assembly so that students could see the whole staff and counselors in one group setting with one message. Most students learned about the death for the first time at the assembly — there were some kids who had learned about it on the news that morning.
“We’re a very close-knit community here,” Dill said. “We work with the teachers very closely and we’re very close as a staff. So, we wanted the kids to be part of it (Monday) morning and let them know about Vanessa’s passing, and that we were here for them. There are counselors here for them.”
Dill said some of the teachers were really upset, and needed some time, so teachers from Harrington Elementary, Shoemaker Elementary, and Ingalls Elementary schools came to Connery to cover classes. If students needed quiet time throughout the day, they went with the counselors, she said.
Deborah McEnaney, a school adjustment counselor who provided support at Connery on Monday, said every classroom was encouraged to allow the children to have 20 to 25 minutes to draw pictures, write a card, and write something to MacCormack and her family. That way, she said counselors could assess which students really needed more support at that time.
The goal with counseling sessions, McEnaney said, is for kids to work through their feelings and hopefully get them back on task and back to class.
Going forward, McEnaney said the focus will be on continuing to offer support to students and teachers. She said there’s been a lot of questions, “and we don’t have a lot of answers.”
Special attention was given to MacCormack’s second grade class of 24 students. Dill said other teachers were with her classroom for the day. Counselors were also stationed in her classroom for a good portion of the day, said Andrew Morrison, school adjustment counselor. Parents of all of MacCormack’s second-grade students were called individually by a social worker, who explained what had happened to the teacher.
In addition, since MacCormack taught at Connery for five years out of her seven years in the school district, her former students who are now in third, fourth and fifth grade also found out about her death on Monday morning, Dill said. She said some of them wanted to see the counselors because of that, and those students were allowed to come in and out of the classroom as they needed to.
Dill said she thinks the school’s counseling and other efforts on Monday left students with a safe feeling. She said the kids left with the knowledge that the school is going to support them the following day. The counselors will be in the school for the remainder of the week.
“We came back as a group,” Dill said. “We took care of each other. We took care of our kids and I know they went home feeling safe and comfortable to come back tomorrow. We’re a family unit here, everybody, teachers, kids. We know our parents. We know our kids and we take care of our children.”
MacCormack left her mark on the school. Morrison said he would describe her as just very big energy. He said she was exuberant — you knew exactly how she felt every single time you saw her. When she was happy or excited, he said it was on her face and in her walk. If she was frustrated, she wasn’t sitting there stewing about it — she was going to talk to somebody about it and trying to figure it out, he said.
“She was just such an enormous advocate for the kids,” Morrison said.
MacCormack was beyond dedicated and extremely professional, added James Kennison, Connery program specialist. He said she was constantly following up with students, keeping in contact with teachers to check on the kids as they went to the next level.
She was loving, Dill said. “I’m going to miss her very much.”
MacCormack was a St. Mary’s High School graduate, where she played four years of varsity softball. Her former softball coach, Colleen Newbury, said “there are no words to describe how awful this is for her family, friends and all of us that knew Vanessa.”
“Many of the kids that played for me during the time that Vanessa played are devastated, as they are still friends, but have shared many funny stories and memorable moments of our softball games and outings,” Newbury said. “It is always hard to lose a former student, but that much harder to lose a member of the Spartan softball family. We all just have to keep praying for her family, especially her little girl.”
Vanessa was married for two years to Andrew MacCormack and the couple had a 1-year-old daughter. Her sister, Angela Masucci, 28, a teacher at Washington STEM Elementary School said on Sunday that Vanessa’s proudest title was a mother and that she did everything for her daughter. She was the true definition of a family-oriented person, Masucci said of her sister, and added that she was the glue that held her family together.
There were no further updates on the investigation into MacCormack’s death from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office on Monday night. Jake Wark, spokesman for the DA’s office, said previously that “the facts and circumstances do not immediately suggest a random incident,” and the cause and manner of death will be determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
“The investigation remains active and we continue to ask those in the (Grand View Avenue) area to share anything they may have seen or heard through the day on Saturday,” Wark said in an email. “Even the most innocuous observation could prove critical to investigators.”
Revere Police and other emergency crews responded to 93 Grand View Ave. shortly after 3:30 p.m. Saturday and found MacCormack unresponsive. A family member had called 911, Wark said.
No arrests have been made. Anyone with information on MacCormack’s death is asked to contact Revere Police at 781-286-8340 or State Police at 617-727-8817.
