Never Forget Sandy Hook Elementary: Theorizing Public Pedagogies of a School Massacre

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Abstract

The Sandy Hook School massacre drew national attention to gun violence in schools. This paper examines the public pedagogy of Never Forget through the theoretical lenses of desire, haunting, and worlding. Memorializations of the massacre and its victims are read through each other using diffractive methodology. Emergent conceptualizations of the work done by Never Forget are re-membering and dis-membering. This theorization of the impacts of violence and particularly shootings on public schools has the potential to move our society away from essentializing and limiting discourses such as whether teachers and students should carry guns.

Author

• Katherine Doerr Morosky, The University of Texas at Austin