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In excerpts from the book "Choosing Hope: Moving Forward from
Life’s Darkest Hours," Kaitlin Roig-Debellis describes quietly
leading her students into a tiny bathroom at the school as
gunfire erupted around them, and waiting until the attack that
ultimately killed 26 people ended.
The book will be published Oct. 6.
The day of the shooting, Dec 14, 2012, "started out as a
typically happy one," Roig-DeBellis wrote in an excerpt
published on Friday in People Magazine. She played "Oh, What a
Beautiful Mornin'," and greeted the children gathered for their
morning meeting with the words "Good morning fantastic friends!"
"The theme that day was Our Holiday Traditions. [The students]
talked about making cookies and visiting Santa and listening for
reindeer," she wrote.
Minutes later the tranquil morning was shattered by the sound of
gunshots. She closed the door of the classroom, turned off the
lights and packed the 15 first graders into a small adjacent
bathroom, fearing death.
"I tell them how much they have meant to me. 'I need you to know
that I love you all very much,' I say. 'Anyone who believes in
the power of prayer needs to pray right now,' I say, 'and anyone
who does not, needs to think really happy thoughts,'" she wrote
in the excerpt.
She said she used a storage unit to barricade the door.
On that day, former student Adam Lanza killed 20 pupils and six
staff, after first shooting to death his mother. Lanza, 20,
later turned the gun on himself as police arrived at the school.
All of Roig-DeBellis' pupils survived.
Roig-Debellis said she wrote the book as a way to put that
traumatic day behind her, and to help others to overcome their
own difficult moments in life.
"Life is all about choice," she told People Magazine. "The
choice is each of ours alone to make. That's really powerful,
especially when dealing with the hard stuff."
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Lisa Lambert)
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