US grieves as it buries victims of school shooting

Mourners in Newtown, Connecticut, headed for the first two of 20 funerals of schoolchildren massacred in their classroom as the rest of the nation on Monday anxiously sent children back to school with tightened security.

Tiny caskets marked the first wave of funerals for the 20 children and six adults killed in the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6 years old, will be laid to rest on Monday afternoon.

President Barack Obama, who said in Newtown on Sunday that the 20-year-old gunman acted out of “unconscionable evil,” was heralded by the family of teacher Victoria Soto, 27, who was slain as she tried to protect her first-grade students.

“He really made us feel like she really was a hero and that everyone should know it,” her brother, Carlos Soto, said on CBS on Monday. Obama, addressing an interfaith vigil in the small Connecticut town on Sunday night, spoke forcefully on the country's failings in protecting its children and demanded changes in response to the mass shootings of the last few months.

“We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change," he said, adding that he would bring together law enforcement, teachers, mental health professionals and others to study how to stop the violence. But before those changes, the families of the victims will grieve. Noah, 6 years old just last month, was the youngest victim. Reports describe him as “inquisitive” and as particularly mature for his age.

The family's rabbi has said he encouraged Noah's mother to focus on her other four children amid the grief. Jack, also 6, was a wrestler who loved sports. The New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz played Sunday's football game with the boy's name written all over his cleats and gloves. All the dead children were 6 or 7 years old. The school principal of Sandy Hook Elementary, the school psychologist and four teachers were also gunned down. At Sunday night's memorial, Obama offered words of hope and promises of action to stop any further tragedies.

“We bear responsibility for every child ... This is our first task, caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don't get anything right,” he said. The president kept his emotions in tighter check than he did on Friday, when he cried openly.

Schools in two towns in lockdown

Schools in two Connecticut towns were in lockdown on Monday, the first day children returned to class since Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, reports Reuters. All schools in Ridgefield, Connecticut, were in lockdown because of a suspicious person who might be armed, police said. In nearby Redding, schools were locked down as a precaution, police said. Ridgefield is about 20 miles (30 km) from Newtown, site of Friday’s elementary school massacre where a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “We’re looking for a suspicious person at an elementary school,” said a dispatcher at the Ridgefield Police Department.

State police in Newtown were aware of the situation, and said local police were handling it. “I’m aware of that situation in the town of Ridgefield. ...,” Paul Vance of Connecticut State Police said.