As demonstrated in Parts One, Two, and Three, there is overwhelming evidence that Sandy Hook Elementary School was open and fully operational when Adam Lanza—and Adam Lanza alone—entered the building and murdered twenty-six people. Throughout this series, I have deliberately limited myself to the same exact set of crime-scene photographs that deniers repeatedly cite as proof that the school supposedly closed in 2008 and sat abandoned until it was resurrected four years later for a staged event. Even under those constraints, their claims collapse almost immediately.
And this is before even touching the extensive body of official records—maintenance logs, budgets, staffing documents, board of education materials, and contemporaneous reporting—unearthed and cataloged by me as well as researchers at Metabunk, Sandy Hook: Focus on Facts, and elsewhere. That broader documentary record will be addressed in due time. For now, the photographs alone are more than sufficient.
This entry focuses on another overlooked but deeply inconvenient problem for the “closed since 2008” narrative: the presence of SMART Technologies equipment inside the school. SMART Boards, SMART projectors, and related interactive classroom technology appear throughout Sandy Hook Elementary, including in multiple classrooms and the library, as documented in the official video walkthrough and even acknowledged—though never seriously grappled with—in Chapter Eight of Nobody Died at Sandy Hook.
For the sake of clarity and specificity, I’ll focus on two classrooms in particular: Classroom 6 (special education) and Classroom 8 (first grade). The technology visible in these rooms is not only inconsistent with a school abandoned in 2008—it directly contradicts the timeline deniers insist upon and raises questions they never even attempt to answer.
Beginning with page 246 of Walkley’s crime scene photos (Walkley – scene photos.pdf), taken inside classroom six, we see a large, nondescript gray box. This is not debris or random furniture—it’s a SMART Technologies SMART Table, a detail that receives a brief but explicit mention in Deborah Pisani’s second police interview (Book 5, 00019296.pdf):
“[Redacted] stated that near the door is a smart table and she stated that something or someone hit or kicked the table. She knows this because it makes a ‘boink’ noise.”
The SMART Table visible in classroom six is a model ST230i. For confirmation, here’s a comparison between the unit shown on page 246—located directly beneath a December 2012 calendar—and a promotional image of the ST230i:
For the record, SMART only ever produced two SMART Table models. The other looks like it fell out of a science-fiction movie, so the identification here is unambiguous. Still, I’m including the comparison because leaving even the smallest opening for “you didn’t do your homework” accusations is a denier’s favorite pastime.
I contacted SMART Technologies directly to ask when the ST230i was released. They responded within hours, confirming that the SMART Table ST230i entered the market on February 18, 2009—a full year after conspiracy theorists insist Sandy Hook Elementary was permanently closed.
Now, before the reflexive objection appears—“Well, couldn’t they have planted it?”—consider what that would actually entail. This is a 153+ pound, $6,500–$8,000 piece of specialized classroom technology. Under the conspiracy model, authorities would have had to wheel it into a single classroom, partially conceal it beneath a large sheet of paper, photograph it exactly once, and then… do nothing else with it. All of this would supposedly be done on the off chance that someone years later would identify the table and also happen to know its precise release date.
Meanwhile, these same hyper-competent masterminds allegedly forgot to simulate obvious bullet damage to windows. Believing this requires a leap in logic so extreme it should qualify as an Olympic event.
And the SMART Table isn’t the only SMART Technologies equipment in classroom six. Additional photos clearly show a wall-mounted SMART Board. Page 252 of Walkley’s photos provides an excellent view of a SMART 600i2 interactive whiteboard paired with a SMART Unifi 45 projector. Below is a side-by-side comparison between the crime scene photo and a promotional image of the 600i2 setup:
After identifying the model numbers, I contacted SMART Technologies again. This time, they confirmed that the 600i2 SMART Board with Unifi 45 projector was released in February 2008. Given that deniers claim the school closed later that same year, this raises an obvious question: why would the district invest the time, labor, and expense required to install advanced interactive classroom technology in a building supposedly scheduled for permanent closure within months?
Finally, we move to classroom eight, home to Mrs. D’Amato’s first-grade class. On page 570 of Walkley’s scene photos, the SMART Board is again clearly visible—another 600i2, this time paired with a Unifi 55 projector. Below is a comparison between the crime scene image and a promotional photo of the Unifi 55:
(Also visible on the far right is a December 2012 calendar, showing the 31st falling on a Monday—an easily verifiable detail.)
The Unifi 55 projector was not released until March 2009, again a full year after the school was allegedly shuttered. To accept the conspiracy narrative, one must believe that someone repeatedly returned to a supposedly abandoned elementary school to install thousands of dollars’ worth of specialized electronics—year after year—solely to support a handful of staged crime scene photographs.
At the same time, these same conspirators allegedly failed at far more basic tasks, like convincingly damaging windows or maintaining internal consistency across their own claims. The theory demands omnipotence in trivial details and incompetence where it would matter most.
For more in the “Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open” series, please read:
Part One: The Lobby
Part Two: The Obstinate Pen
Part Three: Holiday Decorations And Calendars
Part Four: SMART Technologies
Part Five: Dawn Hochsprung’s Twitter Feed
Part Six: The 2011-2012 Scrapbook
Part Seven: Children’s Authors Visit Sandy Hook
Part Eight: Charitable Causes
Part Nine: The Library
Part Ten: 92 More Photos From Sandy Hook School
Part Eleven: Over 195 Articles Referencing Sandy Hook School, Written Between 2008-2012
Part Twelve: The Glass Display Cases
Part Thirteen: Google Earth
Part Fourteen: The November 2012 Scholastic Book Fair
Part Fifteen: Sandy Hook School Enrollment For 2008-2017
Part Sixteen: School Documents From 2008-2012
http://education.smarttech.com/en/products/smart-table
That’s a smart table from the last decade, you know schools are paperless now and were in 2012
I honestly have zero idea what you’re attempting to say. I don’t know what a SMART Table does or does not have to do with whether or not schools were “paperless” (as someone who works in a “paperless” office, it means nothing) in 2012. The model seen in the crime scene photos was released in February of 2009, as stated in the article and confirmed by SMART Technologies themselves. Are you attempting to convince me that they’re wrong about their own product?
I am a teacher and I can tell you for a fact my school is not paperless. I have been a substitute teacher in several other schools before I landed my full time teaching job and my daughter has attended two schools in her 10 years and none of them have been paperless.
My office is “paperless” and we stack it up by the pallet on a weekly basis. It’s like food advertising itself as “all-natural”: it doesn’t really mean much. The original comment does make a whole lot of sense anyway as these SMART Technologies products do not use any paper. If anything, seeing these SMART products in every room would be an indication that they’re at least making an attempt to move away from paper.
Are there not records of asbestos contamination, and PCBs under the floor? Request for 4.9 million dollars to make repairs and upgrades? Issues with the roof?
Built in 1956? What about admission records for the wounded, described as not many. I remember very clearly, when broadcast “live”, that there were 3 men in ninja suits in back of SHES, witnessed, running into the woods, behind. I remember responding police were stopped a distance away, for their safety. Many more questions than answers. False flags can and sometimes must have “real” victims and survivors, adding to the credibility. Americans attacking Americans, but blaming a scapegoat or a bogeyman. Give better answers.
Which repairs and upgrades? Which year are you referring to? Provide sources. Furthermore, I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. Are you suggesting that schools (especially fifty-six year-old schools) should always be in such a state that repairs are never necessary? That doesn’t make a lick of sense. Or are you suggesting that there is no such thing as a fifty-six year old school? The alleged “asbestos contamination” has been addressed elsewhere, and when you refer to the PCBs under the floor, I’m pretty positive you’re referring to the issues discovered during demolition. Again, provide sources.
Are you talking about hospital admission records? Why would you – or anyone else – be privy to this information? Do you really believe that we should subject people to such an invasion of their privacy just because you believe some goofy Internet bullshit? Wait – don’t answer that.
Now, if these records were publicly available (and they shouldn’t be), what would stop you from declaring them fakes, much like your kind have done with every other people of information that has been released in the four years since the shooting? You’re able to order certified copies of the death certificates, for Christ’s sake. The victims are listed in the SSDI. Etc.
Even if this is truly what you believe you heard (and I have to admit, three ninjas is a new one to me, and it’s one that I’m struggling not to laugh at), it’s wrong. Three ninjas? Even if you were correct (and you’re not), why in the world would they send three ninjas to kill a bunch of elementary school children? Were cartoon supervillians not available that day? And you suggest that the local police were not involved (at least I assume that’s what you were getting at), yet they responded to an allegedly abandoned building and didn’t think it was at all strange that twenty children were gunned down there? Your theories aren’t even compatible with one another, which makes me wonder whether or not you people actually think about this stuff before you go running your mouths. As I’ve mentioned a number of times, misinformation is an unfortunate yet wholly expected side effect of the twenty-four hour news cycle. All breaking news is rife with misinformation. Maybe next you’ll tell me Dewey really did defeat Truman; you saw it on the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune. So it’s gotta be true.
There’s no shortage of answers; you just refuse to accept them.
Drew, were these the men you believe ran into the woods?
http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/275599/275599_full.jpg
the projector in room eight is not the uf65 its the uf55 smart
Michael, this appears to be correct. At least in the sense that the projector shown here in Walkley’s photo more closely resembles the UF55 than it does the UF65. Thank you for the correction; good eye. I will update this entry accordingly later.
That said, the UF55 appears to have gone on sale in 2009. Again, that is a year after conspiracy theorists falsely claim the school was permanently closed.
Fixed.