Eleven minutes.
That’s all it took for Adam Lanza to shoot his way past the newly installed security system at Sandy Hook Elementary School and kill 20 first-graders and six educators.
But Scarlett Lewis, whose son, Jesse, was shot in the head after he told classmates to run as the killer reloaded, said she will spend a lifetime spreading the message of love her 6-year-old boy left behind.
Jesse wrote “Nurturing, Healing, Love” phonetically on the kitchen chalkboard. Lewis found the phrase days after he died in 2012.
“I knew instantly that I would spend the rest of my life spreading that message,” Lewis told The Daily Item. “It’s a very simple one whose impact is profound, and we need to spread it to the schools.”
Lewis will speak on the “Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement” at the Saint Maria Goretti Church in Lynnfield on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. She founded the nonprofit foundation to encourage schools to adopt a social and emotional learning (SEL) program for teachers and students.
“I do this to honor Jesse and spread the message he left,” she said.
Lewis never got to ask him about the three words he scrawled. And she’s been unable to find anyone who had.
“He died before I could ask him,” she said. “He knew he wasn’t going to be with us for much longer and he wanted to leave a message of comfort for his family and friends, which it was instantly for me.”
Investigators say before Lanza drove to the school, he shot and killed his mother, Nancy, in their Newtown, Conn., home. Minutes later he went on a killing spree in the school with a semiautomatic rifle. Police said the Lanza home was a virtual arsenal, with guns and ammunition everywhere. All had been legally purchased by Nancy Lanza. The shooter committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school building.
A 2014 report by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate described him as a young man with deteriorating mental health and a fascination with guns and mass shootings. Police said he appears to have acted alone.
“If Adam Lanza has been able to give and receive nurturing, healing, and love, the tragedy never would have happened,” Lewis said.
The Choose Love enrichment program is a free, all-ages curriculum that focuses on character values of courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion. Its authors say the program cultivates optimism, resilience and personal responsibility.
It’s been downloaded 20,000 times in the U.S. and is being taught in every state, Lewis said, all by word of mouth.
“Kids who experience social and emotional learning get better grades and test scores, have higher attendance and graduation rates, less stress, fewer behavior issues, and diminished bullying,” she said. “It’s very powerful and it’s been out there, and every child should have access to it.”
Lewis said she is convinced by more than 30 years of research, that SEL is the most proactive and preventative mental health initiative available. It’s a process through which children and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
One of the things Lewis finds comforting is how Jesse managed to save six classmates during one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Jesse’s surviving classmates told her that he shouted for them to run while the gunman was reloading. Nine children ran to safety because of Jesse’s heroism. Eleven boys and girls from Jesse’s class survived. Only one child survived in the classroom next door.
