[First Lady]

Dawn Hochsprung: ambitious school principal who wanted children to excel

Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook elementary school who was among the six adults killed in the Friday shooting, had led the almost 700-pupil school according to the values she had long espoused: inclusiveness, creativity, and academic ambition.

As confirmation that she was among the dead circulated in the small community of Newtown, where the school that she had led for the past two years is one of the central pillars, there was an outpouring of emotion from the parents of her charges and friends. "Dawn Hochsprung touched many of our hearts with her professionalism and love for her students," said the first selectman for nearby Bethlehem in Connecticut, Jeff Hamel.

Dawn Czaplicki, who had known the principal since their own high school days, remembered her as "a mature and very smart young lady full of life and always had a smile on her face that could only warm your heart."

In the two years that she led the Sandy Hook elementary, Hochsprung, 47, had emphasised its strong community role. When she sent memos to parents she would address them to the "Sandy Hook family".