Victoria Leigh Soto

Background

Victoria Leigh Soto, a hero who gave her life to save her students, showed that the young lives were more valuable than her own. She was born to Carlos and Donna Fagan-Soto in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States. Her father is a Puerto Rican native and worked as a crane operator for the Connecticut Department of Transportation. While her mother is an Irish-American who worked as a nurse at Bridgeport Hospital. Her parents raised Soto, her two sisters, Jillian and Carlee, and her brother, Carlos Matthew. She graduated in 2004 from Stratford High School and Eastern Connecticut State University with bachelor’s degrees in education and history. Afterward, she enrolled in graduate studies at Southern Connecticut State University.

Soto died on December 14, 2012, at the age of 27. She was with her first-grade class teaching them at Sandy Hook Elementary School when Adam Lanza entered and began to shoot staff and students in the building. Soto’s class was entered after Lanza had killed two teachers and 15 students in the first class. Upon Lanza’s entrance, Soto had hidden her students in closets and cupboards and informed him that the children were not present and were instead at the school gym. While her 16 students were not harmed, the gunman shot Soto, who leaped in front to cover some students attempting to run from the gunman.

Soto will not be forgotten as scholarships, roads, schools, and even buildings bear her name as a memorial. She represents sacrifice and love. The photograph of Soto’s sister on her mobile phone waiting for the news about her was captured by an associated press photographer, Jessica Hill, and has become iconic and a symbol of the tragedy.