She Gave Her Life to Protect Her First Graders: Remembering Sandy Hook Teacher Victoria Soto

#KRITICIZM - On the morning of December 14, 2012, 27-year-old Victoria Leigh Soto arrived at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, expecting another ordinary day with her first-grade students.

Instead, that morning became one of the darkest days in American history. Twenty children and six educators were killed in the attack at Sandy Hook. Soto was among the educators who died protecting the children entrusted to her care.

A Teacher Who Loved Her Students

Victoria, often called Vicki, had wanted to become a teacher from a young age. At Sandy Hook, she taught first grade—a classroom filled with children only six and seven years old.

When the attack began, teachers throughout the school were suddenly faced with an unimaginable responsibility: finding a way to protect their students while an armed attacker moved through the building.

Accounts of Soto’s final moments have varied in some details over the years, so some widely repeated specifics—such as exactly what she told the gunman—should be treated cautiously. What is firmly established is that Soto took action to protect her students and was killed during the attack. The White House later honored her alongside five other Sandy Hook educators for giving their lives while protecting children.

Protecting Her First Graders

In the chaos, Soto worked to conceal and protect the children in her classroom.

Some of her students survived.

The story of a 27-year-old teacher putting the safety of young children ahead of her own quickly spread across the country. Her name became associated not simply with the tragedy at Sandy Hook, but with the courage demonstrated by educators who faced extraordinary danger that morning.

Soto was one of six Sandy Hook staff members killed: Dawn Hochsprung, Mary Sherlach, Rachel D’Avino, Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Rousseau and Victoria Soto. The White House said all six had dedicated themselves to their students and community.

President Obama Honors Victoria Soto

Two months after the shooting, Soto received one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.

On February 15, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Soto and the five other educators the Presidential Citizens Medal. Soto’s parents, Donna and Carlos Soto, accepted the honor on her behalf at the White House.

During the ceremony, Obama emphasized that the educators could have concentrated solely on saving themselves when the attack began.

Instead, he said, they gave everything they had to protect the children in their care.

The Presidential Citizens Medal recognizes Americans who have performed exemplary acts of service for their country or fellow citizens and is generally regarded as one of the federal government’s highest civilian honors.

More Than a Victim of Sandy Hook

Victoria Soto was only 27 years old when she died.

She had a family, friends, ambitions and a teaching career that should have stretched decades into the future. But when an unimaginable emergency arrived at her classroom door, her attention remained on her students.

That’s an important part of remembering Sandy Hook.

The six educators who died shouldn’t be remembered only as names on a list of victims. They were adults responsible for rooms full of frightened children, and the federal government formally recognized their extraordinary commitment to protecting those students.

For Victoria Soto, teaching ultimately demanded something no teacher should ever be asked to give.

She entered Sandy Hook Elementary that morning as a first-grade teacher. She is remembered today as an educator who gave her life protecting the children she had promised to teach and care for.