"For years, Alex Jones has claimed that Sandy Hook was all a hoax. Now, the Sandy Hook families are fighting back." --Reeghan Walsh, 8th Grade
Alex Jones is a far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist who has spewed misinformation via his TV show, then podcast for years. Some of his most notable conspiracy theories include the “gay bomb” turning the frogs gay, “pizzagate”, and many other harmful theories. Perhaps the most disturbing of Jones’ conspiracy theories is the conspiracy that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, and was used as a way to promote more restrictive gun control policies. This resulted in years of abuse from Jones and his followers, directed towards the Sandy Hook survivors and loved ones of those who died.
Robbie Parker, parent of Emilie Parker, who was killed during the Sandy Hook shooting, endured online harassment such as death threats for years because of the lies Jones broadcasted. “Every day in that courtroom, we got up on the stand and we told the truth,” Parker told The New York Times. “Telling the truth shouldn’t be so hard, and it shouldn’t be so scary.” Parker is referring to the court case that ended on October 12th, 2022, in which the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims won nearly $1 billion from Jones.
Robbie Parker, parent of Emilie Parker, who was killed during the Sandy Hook shooting, endured online harassment such as death threats for years because of the lies Jones broadcasted. “Every day in that courtroom, we got up on the stand and we told the truth,” Parker told The New York Times. “Telling the truth shouldn’t be so hard, and it shouldn’t be so scary.” Parker is referring to the court case that ended on October 12th, 2022, in which the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims won nearly $1 billion from Jones.
The Sandy Hook shooting victims
The Sandy Hook shooting that occurred on December 14, 2012, killed twenty-six people in all, including six educators, and 20 first graders. The shooter, Adam Lanza, shot and killed himself shortly after police arrived. The shooting shook the community and the US as a whole. It made people rethink the laws and restrictions — or lack thereof — of guns in the US. Alex Jones, however, was not in support of changing gun laws.
“In the immediate aftermath, Jones started sowing seeds of doubt about the massacre during a 50-minute segment on InfoWars,” Daily News stated. Infowars is a fake news website that Jones owns. It features articles, shows (including The Alex Jones Show), and more.
Originally, in 2012, Jones was claiming that the shooting was staged, but the children had actually been killed. But later on, in 2015, he switched his narrative, stating, "Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids.” But then he was wavering on the line of his original claim saying, “The more we look at Sandy Hook, I don’t want to believe it’s a false flag. I don’t know if kids really got killed.” But then in the same broadcast he goes back to saying all of it was fake.
While it is okay to change one’s ideas when presented with new information, the way he went back and forth drew suspicion to the truth of his statements.
“In the immediate aftermath, Jones started sowing seeds of doubt about the massacre during a 50-minute segment on InfoWars,” Daily News stated. Infowars is a fake news website that Jones owns. It features articles, shows (including The Alex Jones Show), and more.
Originally, in 2012, Jones was claiming that the shooting was staged, but the children had actually been killed. But later on, in 2015, he switched his narrative, stating, "Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids.” But then he was wavering on the line of his original claim saying, “The more we look at Sandy Hook, I don’t want to believe it’s a false flag. I don’t know if kids really got killed.” But then in the same broadcast he goes back to saying all of it was fake.
While it is okay to change one’s ideas when presented with new information, the way he went back and forth drew suspicion to the truth of his statements.
Sandy Hook shooting immediate aftermath
Jones goes on to say that Sandy Hook was closed a year before the shooting occurred, that kids walked in circles around the school to fool the general public, and even responded to an open letter to Donald Trump written by Erica Lafferty. Lafferty had lost her mother, Dawn Hochsprung, principal at Sandy Hook, to the shooting. Jones responds by saying that his statements had been taken “out of context,” but then going on to say that the shooting was all fake, once again. “We’ve sent reporters up there, man, and that place is like Children of the Corn or something. I mean it is freaking weird,” Jones explains with little empathy.
While on the subject of Jones lacking empathy, he has repeatedly harassed and encouraged harassment towards the families, specifically the parents, of Sandy Hook victims. Parents of Noah Pozner, Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, were accused of being crisis actors in a broadcast segment titled “Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed.” This broadcast is no longer available for viewing.
While on the subject of Jones lacking empathy, he has repeatedly harassed and encouraged harassment towards the families, specifically the parents, of Sandy Hook victims. Parents of Noah Pozner, Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, were accused of being crisis actors in a broadcast segment titled “Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed.” This broadcast is no longer available for viewing.
| The two filed a defamation case against Jones in Texas in April of 2018, quickly followed by Neil Heslin, whose son, Jesse, was also killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. On June 18, 2017, Heslin was featured in an NBC Megyn Kelly news broadcast about Jones. He recalled, “I buried my son. I held my son with a bullet hole through his head.” He encouraged Jesse’s mother, Scarlett Lewis, to also file a case against Jones. | |
Then, in May of 2018 in Connecticut, six more Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent that responded to the scene sued Jones. Soon after that, two other families followed suit.
In April of 2019, Jones claimed to have had a form of psychosis. “And I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’ve now learned a lot of times things aren’t staged,” Jones admitted. “So I think as a pundit, someone giving an opinion, that, you know, my opinions have been wrong, but they were never wrong consciously to hurt people.” This was Jones’ way of admitting that the Sandy Hook shooting was not staged, and was a real event that took place.
By November of 2021 Jones was found liable in not only the Texas defamation case, but also the Connecticut case. In March of 2022, Jones and his team attempted to settle the case by paying $120,000 to each of the 19 people involved, but were rejected. On August 3rd, 2022, Jones agreed in a testimony, “It’s 100% real.”
In April of 2019, Jones claimed to have had a form of psychosis. “And I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’ve now learned a lot of times things aren’t staged,” Jones admitted. “So I think as a pundit, someone giving an opinion, that, you know, my opinions have been wrong, but they were never wrong consciously to hurt people.” This was Jones’ way of admitting that the Sandy Hook shooting was not staged, and was a real event that took place.
By November of 2021 Jones was found liable in not only the Texas defamation case, but also the Connecticut case. In March of 2022, Jones and his team attempted to settle the case by paying $120,000 to each of the 19 people involved, but were rejected. On August 3rd, 2022, Jones agreed in a testimony, “It’s 100% real.”
| Finally, on October 12th, 2022, the Sandy Hook families won nearly $1 billion in damages against Jones. Parker won the largest sum of money, at $120 million. The amount that Jones now owes the families has proved problematic. Jones recently ran his company, Free Speech Systems, into bankruptcy. But he also said that to fly to Connecticut and testify, he needed $80,000 for security. He then arrived on a private jet and stayed in a rented villa with an entourage. The villa not only had a pool, but a tennis court as well. |  Alex Jones during the trial |
This puts into question whether Jones is bankrupt, or whether he is just using his money for unnecessary expenses. The Sandy Hook families decided to challenge Jones on his bankruptcy, saying the filings were all just an effort to avoid having to pay the awards for the damages.
These cases have brought conversations about misinformation and the spreading of misinformation to light. Maya Mastropasqua, 8th grade student at Oakland School for the Arts says, “If you’re someone with a platform, or you’re saying something on social media, spreading misinformation can ruin people’s lives, it can end people’s lives. It’s such a serious thing.”
Especially for someone with a platform as large as Jones’, spreading misinformation can cause a lot of dangerous things, beyond harassment. It can lead to the wrong medical advice going out into the world, it can lead to death, and much much more.
Fifth grade teacher at Holy Cross Catholic School in Oregon, Jordan Walsh, states, “If we under-educate gun violence and all the issues in our country, we’re not going to learn and grow.” The education of these topics, however, is left to people who shouldn’t necessarily have to teach it. “Unfortunately, I feel like in the world we live in nowadays I do my students a disservice if I don’t teach them about why we do A.L.I.C.E training and why we do school shooting drills, but it’s not necessarily my place to teach them about their family beliefs about guns,” Walsh explains.
A.L.I.C.E is an acronym that teachers and students should follow if a shooter is present on the school premises. A stands for alert (getting the word out that there is a threat). L stands for lockdown (securing a place to hide). I stands for inform (communicating with others in the school via available technology. C stands for counter (countering an attack). E stands for evacuate (getting out of the danger zone).
There are now many precautions schools take to ensure their safety against shooters thanks to the Sandy Hook Promise. Hopefully, the Sandy Hook families will be given their awards from Jones soon, and justice can be restored.
These cases have brought conversations about misinformation and the spreading of misinformation to light. Maya Mastropasqua, 8th grade student at Oakland School for the Arts says, “If you’re someone with a platform, or you’re saying something on social media, spreading misinformation can ruin people’s lives, it can end people’s lives. It’s such a serious thing.”
Especially for someone with a platform as large as Jones’, spreading misinformation can cause a lot of dangerous things, beyond harassment. It can lead to the wrong medical advice going out into the world, it can lead to death, and much much more.
Fifth grade teacher at Holy Cross Catholic School in Oregon, Jordan Walsh, states, “If we under-educate gun violence and all the issues in our country, we’re not going to learn and grow.” The education of these topics, however, is left to people who shouldn’t necessarily have to teach it. “Unfortunately, I feel like in the world we live in nowadays I do my students a disservice if I don’t teach them about why we do A.L.I.C.E training and why we do school shooting drills, but it’s not necessarily my place to teach them about their family beliefs about guns,” Walsh explains.
A.L.I.C.E is an acronym that teachers and students should follow if a shooter is present on the school premises. A stands for alert (getting the word out that there is a threat). L stands for lockdown (securing a place to hide). I stands for inform (communicating with others in the school via available technology. C stands for counter (countering an attack). E stands for evacuate (getting out of the danger zone).
There are now many precautions schools take to ensure their safety against shooters thanks to the Sandy Hook Promise. Hopefully, the Sandy Hook families will be given their awards from Jones soon, and justice can be restored.
