Contributed photo Wagram Primary School art teacher Diane LeCours helps fourth grader Akera Brown, left, to create a pink hand print as Jasmine Locklear and Te'aja McKoy wait their turn.

slideshow

Contributed photo Wagram Primary School second grader Aljuan Jones creates a handprint with the help of teacher Melanie Womble.

slideshow

Students at Wagram Primary School have joined a nationwide effort to help restore a sense of security following the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary

The students and staff at the Scotland County school are taking part in “Helping Hands for Newtown.” The project allows participants to create hand prints on paper and decorate it however they wish. Each student is asked to add his or her name, city or town and school.

Once the helping hands are collected, a team of volunteers will string them together and hang them in the halls of a new school facility.

Organizers say the goal is simple: to let the student of Newton know that they are not alone and are loved and safe.

For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They’re at risk for lingering anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder.

But psychiatrists say most of Newtown’s young survivors probably will cope without long-term emotional problems. The Dec. 14 shootings were mostly in two classrooms of the Connecticut elementary school, which has about 450 students through fourth-grade.

“Kids do tend to be highly resilient,” said Dr. Matthew Biel, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital told USA Today.

The hand prints will likely be hung at the former Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe, about 8 miles away from Newtown. The two-story building has been empty since a new middle school opened next door last year. Newtown Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said classes would commence Jan. 2

In addition to helping hands, gifts of all kinds have been pouring into Newtown, enough to fill up four shipping containers.

Authorities say Adam Peter Lanza, 20, is accused of fatally shooting 20 children and six adult staff members and wounded two at the school.Before driving to the school, officials say he shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their Newtown home After killing the students and staff members, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head as first responders arrived.