Adam Lanza's mother

The Dec. 14 Connecticut school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School has left many people wondering, “Who could do such a horrible thing?” Unfortunately, there is a group of people who know exactly the type of person who could take a gun to an elementary school and kill a class of kindergarteners. They even fear a future murderer is living right under their roof
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Liza Long blogs at The Anarchist Soccer Mom. She wrote a post titled “Thinking the Unthinkable” on Dec. 14 after learning of the Sandy Hook shooting. In it she wrote, “I am Adam Lanza’s mother.”
Long is the mother to a 13-year old boy suffering from a currently undiagnosed mental illness and violent tendencies. She is struggling to get a diagnosis and proper treatment for her son, who is extremely smart and typically sweet, but sometimes loses control, threating to harm himself and others.

Long’s son reacts with such aggression that the family has had to implement a safety plan to keep the two younger children out of harm’s way. They are instructed to immediately run to the car and lock themselves inside if their brother begins to become threatening.

Three days before the Sandy Hook shooting, Long’s son threatened to kill himself because he wanted to wear navy pants to school when only khaki and black are allowed. He hit and bit his mother repeatedly as she waited for help to arrive.

When he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital that day, Long was asked her expectations for treatment. She simply said, “I need help.”

She was told the only way to get the help her son and family desperately needs is to create a criminal paper trail. She was advised to call the police and press charges each time her son starts to unravel. Involving her mentally ill son in the criminal justice system is simply not the assistance she was hoping to find.

Long and countless other mothers of mentally ill children who are not getting the services they need understand completely what type of person could commit a horrific crime like what happened in Newtown, Connecticut. People who are suffering from serious mental illnesses and aren’t getting the treatment needed to control it do horrific acts that don’t make sense to anyone else.

Read more about the tragedy in Newtown at  http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-west-palm-beach/rachael-moshman.