Read Online Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak - Free Book Online
Authors: Matthew Lysiak
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was different. Something was wrong with him.”
Adam’s older brother, Ryan, obviously noticed the severity of his brother’s differences but dismissed them more nonchalantly. “My brother has always been a nerd,” he explained when he was once asked what was wrong with his younger brother.
But just as it appeared Adam was beginning to slowly adjust to the routine at Newtown High School, right before beginning his junior year, Nancy learned that Richard Novia would be leaving the school. Wary of the rest of the Newtown administration and faculty, Nancy knew the only person she could trust to look out for her troubled son was leaving and decided to take Adam out of the school.
Novia heard the news and pleaded with Nancy to keep Adam in school, believing that removing him could “send him in a tailspin.”
“I told her that Adam was making progress and that taking him out of school could send him in reverse. He had a support network. Without the school, he would fall back into isolation. He would lose all of his interactions. Everything would be stripped from him. He would get worse.”
Nancy wouldn’t budge. “If you are not going to be there, I’m taking him out,” Nancy told Novia in a phone call. “I don’t trust anyone else.” Her intense anger at and distrust of the school overwhelmed any arguments to the contrary and she insisted that Adam be taken out.
“She didn’t trust anyone else. She had a lot of anger at the school administration. She was very unhappy with the entire district,” said Novia. “Nancy didn’t believe Adam would get the attention he needed without me there.”
Novia also noted: “There was just no pleasing Nancy. She wanted Adam watched one hundred percent of the time. She wanted every faculty member to be just as dedicated to her son as she was. She directed her anger at the special ed teacher, the guidance counselor, the administration.”
The school had failed her son, Nancy believed. Adam was angry with the school, too. With no social life or friends, school was all he had and now that was gone.
Nancy pulled her son out of Newtown High School after his junior year and enrolled him at Western Connecticut State University, hoping that Adam would thrive in a more adult environment where there would be less chaos. After passing his GED test in thesummer of 2008, he took a total of seven classes and earned a 3.26 GPA his first year. He took Website Production, Visual Basic, Data Modeling, American History since 1877, and Introduction to Ethical Theory, a course in which he got a C.
But signs of his mental instability were always present. When asked on his college application to indicate a gender, Adam wrote: “I choose not to answer,” followed by the question, “How do you describe yourself?” Even his university ID photo—his brown eyes bulging, his face seemingly devoid of emotion—suggested to some that something about him was off.
Adam always sat alone, toward the back of the class, often wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He never spoke. At Western Connecticut State University, Adam, who was several years younger than his classmates, again didn’t fit in. If a classmate greeted him, Adam acted nervous and avoided eye contact. After an Introduction to German class in spring 2009, two girls asked Adam if he wanted to join them for a drink.
“No, I can’t. I’m seventeen,” he responded.
Still, Nancy had hopes that her son would excel in a more adult environment and didn’t entertain the possibility of enrolling him back at Newtown High School. “Newtown [school] is dead to me,” she told a friend.
D ealing with her son’s condition wasn’t the only issue Nancy had to deal with domestically. Her marriage, which had been acrimonious for years, was finally over. On September 23, 2009, she and Peter finalized their divorce. Whatever their marital problems, the divorcewas by all accounts amicable, the main concern of both being the welfare of Adam. The couple
Adam’s older brother, Ryan, obviously noticed the severity of his brother’s differences but dismissed them more nonchalantly. “My brother has always been a nerd,” he explained when he was once asked what was wrong with his younger brother.
But just as it appeared Adam was beginning to slowly adjust to the routine at Newtown High School, right before beginning his junior year, Nancy learned that Richard Novia would be leaving the school. Wary of the rest of the Newtown administration and faculty, Nancy knew the only person she could trust to look out for her troubled son was leaving and decided to take Adam out of the school.
Novia heard the news and pleaded with Nancy to keep Adam in school, believing that removing him could “send him in a tailspin.”
“I told her that Adam was making progress and that taking him out of school could send him in reverse. He had a support network. Without the school, he would fall back into isolation. He would lose all of his interactions. Everything would be stripped from him. He would get worse.”
Nancy wouldn’t budge. “If you are not going to be there, I’m taking him out,” Nancy told Novia in a phone call. “I don’t trust anyone else.” Her intense anger at and distrust of the school overwhelmed any arguments to the contrary and she insisted that Adam be taken out.
“She didn’t trust anyone else. She had a lot of anger at the school administration. She was very unhappy with the entire district,” said Novia. “Nancy didn’t believe Adam would get the attention he needed without me there.”
Novia also noted: “There was just no pleasing Nancy. She wanted Adam watched one hundred percent of the time. She wanted every faculty member to be just as dedicated to her son as she was. She directed her anger at the special ed teacher, the guidance counselor, the administration.”
The school had failed her son, Nancy believed. Adam was angry with the school, too. With no social life or friends, school was all he had and now that was gone.
Nancy pulled her son out of Newtown High School after his junior year and enrolled him at Western Connecticut State University, hoping that Adam would thrive in a more adult environment where there would be less chaos. After passing his GED test in thesummer of 2008, he took a total of seven classes and earned a 3.26 GPA his first year. He took Website Production, Visual Basic, Data Modeling, American History since 1877, and Introduction to Ethical Theory, a course in which he got a C.
But signs of his mental instability were always present. When asked on his college application to indicate a gender, Adam wrote: “I choose not to answer,” followed by the question, “How do you describe yourself?” Even his university ID photo—his brown eyes bulging, his face seemingly devoid of emotion—suggested to some that something about him was off.
Adam always sat alone, toward the back of the class, often wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He never spoke. At Western Connecticut State University, Adam, who was several years younger than his classmates, again didn’t fit in. If a classmate greeted him, Adam acted nervous and avoided eye contact. After an Introduction to German class in spring 2009, two girls asked Adam if he wanted to join them for a drink.
“No, I can’t. I’m seventeen,” he responded.
Still, Nancy had hopes that her son would excel in a more adult environment and didn’t entertain the possibility of enrolling him back at Newtown High School. “Newtown [school] is dead to me,” she told a friend.
D ealing with her son’s condition wasn’t the only issue Nancy had to deal with domestically. Her marriage, which had been acrimonious for years, was finally over. On September 23, 2009, she and Peter finalized their divorce. Whatever their marital problems, the divorcewas by all accounts amicable, the main concern of both being the welfare of Adam. The couple
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