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Teacher says gunman was loner who didn't feel pain

Adam Lanza
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SOUTHBURY, Conn. (AP) - Adam Lanza had trouble relating to fellow students and teachers at Newtown High School, but that was only part of his problem. He seemed not to feel physical or emotional pain in the same way as classmates.

Richard Novia was the school district's head of security until 2008 and served as adviser for the school technology club that Adam and his older brother belonged to. The group offered students a chance to work on computers, videotape school events and produce public-access broadcasts.

Novia says Lanza clearly "had some disabilities."

He told The Associated Press that if Lanza had burned himself, he would not have felt it physically. He remembered that the boy sometimes had "an episode" and completely withdrew from whatever was happening around him.

Another acquaintance, Olivia DeVivo, who is now a student at the University of Connecticut, recalled that Lanza always came to school toting a briefcase and wearing his shirt buttoned all the way up. "He was very different and very shy and didn't make an effort to interact with anybody" in his 10th-grade English class, she said.