Adam Lanza Case Study

Adam Lanza was a 20 year old male born on april 22nd, 1992. When on December 14th, 2012 he shot and killed 20 first-graders and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The years before the killing Adam went to medical experts at Yale University and was called to drastic measures to help him. But according to those calls they went largely unheeded and they went untreated. Adam had multiple psychiatric and physical ailments. These ailments include anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) He was deprived from all treatments and drugs. On the day of the shooting Adam had shot and killed 28 people in total. He had shot his mother, 20 students between the aged of 5 and 10, 6 adults, and then proceeded to shoot himself when the authorities

When Adam was 8 days old he had episodes of apnea where he stopped breathing. In his early years he avoided touch and had problems with his communication he was extremely active but didn't sleep well. Adam began pre-school in Kingston, New Hampshire in 1995. He attended school several days per week, receiving special education support services, including speech support and occupational therapy as recommended by his Individualized Education Plan. The school district completed its own developmental assessment in May 1997. The report accompanying the assessment noted that the district had previously decided to discontinue speech supports “because the disability didn’t interfere with educational abilities.
The Lanza family moved to Connecticut in 1998 after Mr. Lanza took a job with General Electric. Emails sent by Mrs. Lanza indicate that she was looking for a “fresh start.” then moved to Sandy Hook where he would go to school at Sandy Hook Elementary. Complications with his parents as his dad being a “workaholic” and mother not being happy due to that and other reasons. Records indicate that Mrs. Lanza and Mr. Lanza separated in 2002, though they did not get divorced until

According to Mr. Lanza, Adam made an initial foray back into the public school system in 9th and 10th grade, but Mrs. Lanza later decided that keeping him home would be best. Mr. Lanza later stated that he saw Adam was struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome, and that in some ways, it was a relief to have a diagnosis for him, and something the family could deal with and respond to. Adam officially graduated from Newtown High School in 2009, he further retreated from virtually all structured community activities. He withdrew into a solitary physical and psychological existence, marked by hours in his room, extensive cyber-activities, and markedly decreased communication with family members. The record provides very little sense of his goals and objectives for his life during this time. After Adam began declining to spend time with Mr. Lanza, Mr. Lanza would regularly send emails to him asking him how he was doing. He asked Adam to join him at events or other activities they had previously enjoyed, including arcades, shooting ranges, or coin shows. Adam stopped sending any response to Mr. Lanza’s emails sometime in