School district responds to death of Addison children
As mourners began saying goodbye to a family who died at the hands of their husband and father, school officials in Addison were helping students and faculty cope with the losses.
Following a Monday evening visitation, a funeral Mass is set for 10:30 a.m. today at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church at 1233 W. Holtz Ave. in Addison.
All eight schools in Addison Elementary District 4 received additional counseling and other support Monday, but the lion's share went to Indian Trail Junior High and Fullerton Elementary schools. District officials said 12-year-old Angelo Mangiantini was a sixth-grader at Indian Trail while his 8-year-old brother Thomas Jr. was a second-grader at Fullerton.
The boys were shot to death Wednesday, along with their 46-year-old mother Elizabeth before Thomas Mangiantini Sr. turned the gun on himself. Authorities have not disclosed a motive in the slayings, but said a note was found in the father's pants pocket in which he detailed his intention to kill his family.
All of the students at both schools were notified of their classmates' deaths by teachers Monday morning, officials said. While most had already heard the news, some students weren't aware because school was out all last week.
"Some parents had asked us what we were going to say because they didn't know how to tell their children," said Indian Trail Principal Terry Sliva.
The morning prep time at Indian Trail was used by teachers to discuss the boys' deaths with every student, and the youngsters were told what resources were available to help them deal with the news. About 30 students had visited grief counselors duringthe morning, while five or six asked to go home and were picked up by parents, Sliva said.
Tommy's classmates at Fullerton received what district officials called a "simplified message" about the boy's death, and their teacher read stories about dealing with death to the children, District 4 Superintendent John Langton said.
Angelo Mangiantini's teachers also were being shadowed by another teacher for the day in case they were overwhelmed by the tragedy and needed to step outside.
"The reason it's so hard for his teachers is because Angelo was the kind of kid who loved learning and was very outgoing," Sliva said. "His teachers said if you had Angelo in class, you knew Angelo."
Langton said faculty at Fullerton were just as shaken by the younger boy's death.
"Everyone loved him," he said. "He was a very dynamic child."
The district will continue offering support for students and faculty in the coming days, Langton said.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=340312">Funeral arrangements set for Addison family <span class="date">[11/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=340178">Addison police say motive for slayings may never be known <span class="date">[11/27/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=340037">Addison tragedy a murder-suicide, coroner says <span class="date">[11/26/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=339733">Cops search for answers behind Addison family tragedy<span class="date">[11/26/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience52626082001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="255" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="52626082001" /> </object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player -->