It has been nine years since the lives of 26 innocent children and adults were brutally taken away in Newtown, Connecticut.These are the victims whose lives were cut short far too soon.Charlotte Bacon, 6Daniel Barden, 7Olivia Engel, 6Josephine Gay, 7Dylan Hockley, 6Madeleine Hsu, 6Catherine Hubbard, 6Chase Kowalski, 7Jesse Lewis, 6Ana Márquez-Greene, 6James Mattioli, 6Grace McDonnell, 7Emilie Parker, 6Jack Pinto, 6Noah Pozner, 6Caroline Previdi, 6Jessica Rekos, 6Avielle Richman, 6Benjamin Wheeler, 6Allison Wyatt, 6Rachel D'Avino, 29, behavior therapistDawn Hochsprung, 47, principalAnne Marie Murphy, 52, special education teacherLauren Rousseau, 30, teacherMary Sherlach, 56, school psychologistVictoria Leigh Soto, 27, teacher

CINCINNATI —

Thursday is a big day for students as a new school year starts for some in several local school districts.

It's exciting, but uncertain as COVID-19 protocols continue to be adjusted.

Some schools are still deciding mask and COVID-19 protocols and on Wednesday night, the Forest Hills School District made a decision that came with cheers and jeers from parents.

The meeting was full and at one point, a board member cast the incorrect vote twice.

Parents appeared to have had enough before it ever really started.

"I just felt like (Gov. Mike) DeWine lifted that and said we could take them off and I don't want to put it back on and I don't want my children to put it back on either," parent Shawna Myers said.

Parents, students, and community members all stood outside Nagel Middle School greeting school leaders with signs against masks.

Their signs were on display during a meeting of the Forest Hills School Board, where masks were the task at hand.

"I believe that students should wear masks for their protection and for the protection of others," board member Dee Dee Choice said.

"I don't understand why we would do things differently when our goal shouldn't be to experiment. Our goal should be to make sure every child has the ability to learn in person," board member Dr. Leslie Rasmussen said.

"They struggle to learn when they can't fundamentally interact with each other. So to mask them out of fear of what might happen is outrageous," board Member Elizabeth Maier said.

At the end of the night, the board decided for elementary school students, masks will be required in instructional settings, but not in hallways, restrooms or at recess.

For secondary students, masks are optional.

The big concerns appeared to surrounded quarantines and contact tracing.

Members said last year, about 400 children were out with COVID-19 cases leading to about 4,000 in quarantine who did not get sick.

Parents in masks also took part in the meeting, supporting the mask effort.

Unfortunately, we were unable to catch up with them after the meeting.

They appeared to support any mask policy, with one woman saying she did not want her children near unmasked kids.

But those who were protesting said no mask policy is the right policy.

"I don't believe it'll have any effect at controlling the spread. I think the cases will continue to rise in the cold and flu season. We'll have another failed mitigation strategy," parent Scott Nelson said.

As part of the motion the board passed, the school district will revisit mask protocols for schools on Sept. 13 basing any changes on data and the situation at the time.

The Forest Hills School District includes Anderson and Turpin high schools and Ayer, Maddux, Mercer, Sherwood, Summit and Wilson elementary schools.

It serves more than 7,300 students in Anderson Township and the Village of Newtown.

Video above: SCOTUS Will Allow Sandy Hook Families to Sue Remington

In the volume of pretrial data turned over by bankrupted Remington to nine Sandy Hook families suing for wrongful marketing, lawyers said they found 18,000 random cartoons and 15,000 irrelevant pictures of people go-karting and dirt-biking.

“Having repeatedly represented to the (families) and this court that it was devoting extensive resources to making what it described as “substantial” document productions … Remington has instead made the plaintiffs wait years to receive cartoon images, gender reveal videos, and duplicate copies of catalogues,” reads a complaint filed by the families’ lawyers in state Superior Court last week. “There is no possible reasonable explanation for this conduct.”

The complaint, the latest in the 7-year battle by the Sandy Hook families to hold accountable the maker of the AR-15-style rifle used in the 2012 shootings, does not allege that all 46,000 documents turned over by Remington are irrelevant.

“When the seemingly random cartoons, images, videos, duplicates, and other items noted are accounted for, Remington, it would seem, has spent the better part of seven years producing 6,606 potentially useful documents in response to the plaintiffs’ requests,” the court complaint reads.

Reached on Tuesday for comment, Remington’s lead attorney did not respond specifically to the cartoons, some of which the families submitted to the judge — including images of Santa, a farmer, a weightlifter, and a bowl of ice cream.

“(Remington) will respond to this motion in the coming weeks, and point out what it believes are incorrect representations, numerous half-truths, and important omissions by (families’) counsel,” Remington lead attorney James Vogts said Tuesday.

The families’ attorneys argued that Remington’s purpose seemed clear.

“Remington’s … effort to lard its document production with cartoons and duplicate catalogues sends a strong message about the real motive here,” the families’ attorneys wrote. “Remington is desperate to avoid a true review of the internal and external communications detailing its abusive marketing practices.”

From the start of the lawsuit in 2014, Remington has argued that it manufactured a legal firearm that was distributed lawfully and sold legally to Nancy Lanza, who left the rifle in an unlocked closet. It was her son, Adam Lanza, not the gun-maker, who was responsible for the murders of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Remington said.

Remington made national news last summer when it declared bankruptcy for the second time in two years and was sold for $159 million to Fairfield-based Sturm Ruger and six other companies. A federal bankruptcy judge assured the Sandy Hook families that some of the sale proceeds would be dedicated to keeping the gun-maker’s insurance intact.

The families’ lawsuit, which has been thrown out of state Superior Court, reinstated by Connecticut Supreme Court and turned down for review by the U.S. Supreme Court is back in trial court after Remington’s bankruptcy, with jury selection scheduled for September.

For the moment, the families’ attorneys want a court order compelling Remington to abide by its agreement to turn over all the marketing data they’ve requested.

“Remington has treated discovery as a game,” the families’ lawyers said. “Unwilling to have this case decided by a jury on the merits with a full record, Remington has sought delay and obfuscation at every turn.”