Sandy Hook Heroes

An excerpt from a Daily Mail article

A young teacher displayed astonishing bravery and sacrificed her life saving as many children in her first grade class as she could after she came face-to-face with gunman Adam Lanza.

 

 Victoria Soto, 27, had worked at Sandy Hook Elementary for five years. Her final moments were spent ushering her students into a closet when Lanza entered her classroom and she tried her best to shield the children from the evil gunman.

Vicki Soto

Principal Dawn Hochsprung

School psychologist Mary Schelach

 Soto was a highly regarded young teacher who was popular with her pupils. One young student, Jacob Riley, told Mailonline that Soto was known for chewing gum in class - something not usually allowed for teachers. He said he had often teased her about her habit and she had playfully teased him back.

'She took her kids, put them in the closet and by doing so she lost her life protecting those little ones,' Soto's cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

Lauren Rousseau

'She was found huddled over her children, her students, doing instinctively what she knew was the right thing. I'm just proud that Vicki had the instincts to protect her kids from harm,' he continued.

'It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children and in our eyes she's a hero,' he added.

A deeply distraught 10-year-old boy who is a former student of Miss Soto described her as 'really nice and funny.'

Four teachers were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School trying to save their students from gunman Lanza, the son of a woman who worked at the school.

The other three teachers have been identified as principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, and Lauren Rousseau, 30. Devastated friends of Rousseau said she was having 'the best year of her life' after landing her first full-time teaching job only months ago.

Twenty-eight people died in the shooting rampage, including 20 young children between the ages of five and ten, alleged gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life, and his mother, who was shot before the school massacre.

When Lanza started firing at the school in suburban Newtown, Connecticut, some teachers dove under tables - but Mrs Hochsprung and Mrs Sherlach didn't hesitate.