www.hpe.comHigh Point, N.C.

50 Cents Daily$1.25 Sundays

YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.

INFOCirculation 888-3511Classified 888-3555Newsroom 888-3527Newsroomfax 888-3644

December 15, 2012

130th yearNo. 37

SATURDAY

INDEX

ABBY B4BUSINESS C5CLASSIFIED D3-5COMICS B5CROSSWORD B4FUN&GAMES B4LOCAL B1LOTTERY A2NATION A3,D1-2NOTABLES C6OBITUARIES B2OPINION A4SPORTS C1-4STATE B3TV B6WORLD D2

Erich Hamm was named president of the North Carolina Planned Giving Council, a nonprofit that promotes giving within North Carolina. Hamm is a vice president and trust officer at High Point Bank Trust & Investment Advisors.

WHO’S NEWS

GIVING BACK:Community Foundation issues grants.

A2

INSIDE

Bobby Adams, 56James Clontz, 94Reuben Lovett, 80Earline Lovin, 81Raymond Proctor

Sr., 78Susan Woolsey

B2

OBITUARIES

Partly CloudyHigh 60, Low 46

C6

WEATHER

SCHOOL SHOOTING: Obama calls for action. A3Local schools release statement concerning tragedy. A2

HEARTBREAK

Associated Press/Newtown Bee, Shannon HicksConnecticut State Police lead a line of children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday after a shooting at the school.

n 20 children among deadn Six adults, shooter dead

n Shooter’s mom targetedn President orders flags at half-staff

Associated PressA woman waits to hear about her sister, a teacher, Friday following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., about 60 miles northeast of New York City.

Talking to your kids about the tragedy

TRIAD — It’s yet another conversation about random mass violence at a school in America that local parents and teachers didn’t expect to have, but now will have to endure yet again in shock and sadness.

On Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., more than 600 miles from High Point, a 20-year-old gunman walked into the classroom of his mother, a teacher, and began firing two handguns. Within moments, the shooter killed children and adults in one of the most gruesome outbreaks of mass violence in modern American history.

TV and Internet news reports of the massacre quickly followed, cascading across television screens, computer monitors, tablets and smart phones. The coverage exposed local men and women — as well as children and teenagers — to shocking, disturbing images of and boys and girls in Connecticut fleeing from what should be a place of refuge — an elementary school.

Local parents need to be careful about allowing their children — especially boys and girls of elementary school age and in early middle school — to see images of the carnage.

“Parents need to be very cautious about how much they do expose their children to

the coverage. The news coverage is probably going to be pretty graphic, and young children don’t have a way of processing that the way adults do,” said Amber Kelley, a licensed professional counselor in private practice in High Point.

On the other hand, Kelley said parents shouldn’t ignore or dismiss their children if they ask about the tragedy. Mothers and

SEE KIDS/PAGE A2

BY PAUL B. JOHNSONENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER TIPS

Tips for parents on what to watch for in their children that may indicate a troubling response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre Friday in Newtown, Conn.:

• Change in sleep patterns, such as nightmares or disturbances that awaken a child at atypical times

• Loss of appetite or changes in eating routines

• Unexplained changes in behavior, such as a child becoming more distracted or not as interested in school

• Children who inexplicably isolate themselves from friends

Man kills 27 at Connecticut grade schoolNEWTOWN, Conn. — A man

killed his mother at their home and then opened fire Friday inside an elementary school, massacring 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in fear to the sound of gunshots reverberating through the building and screams echoing over the intercom.

The 20-year-old killer, carrying at least two handguns, committed suicide at the school, bringing the death toll to 28, authorities said.

The rampage, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 33 lives in 2007.

“Our hear ts a r e b r o k e n today,” a tearful President Barack Obama, str ug-gling to maintain his composure, said at the White House. He called for “meaningful action” to prevent such shootings. “As a country, we have been through this too many times,” he said.

Police shed no light on the motive for the attack. The gun-man, Adam Lanza, was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it.

Panicked parents looking for their children raced to Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, a pros-perous New England community of about 27,000 people 60 miles northeast of New York City. Police told youngsters at the kindergar-ten-through-fourth-grade school

SEE SCHOOL/PAGE A2

BY JOHN CHRISTOFFERSENASSOCIATED PRESS

INSIDEMore coverage of the

Connecticut school shooting and its aftermath | Pages A2, A3, D1

“Our hearts are broken today. As a country, we have been through this too many times.”

— President Barack Obama

A1 FRONT