Jessica Rose and Gianna Eisele, sisters of local murder victim Nicholas John Eisele, have issued their own statements in part calling for the reassignment of Newtown High School science educator Jeanette Roderick, who is the mother of Nicholas’s accused killer, Peter Manfredonia.

The Eisele sisters recently reached out to The Newtown Bee to discuss first-hand their concern over the fact that Roderick to date, has not pursued or been offered an option to transfer out of the high school. Jessica Eisele, a current senior, and Gianna, who will be an incoming freshman next August, said they are under constant and often significant duress at the prospect of encountering Roderick.

An online change.org petition started by Nicholas’s twin brother Michael calling for the transfer or removal of Roderick from the high school for the good of his younger sisters had more than 5,100 supporters as of September 30. A competing petition supporting the educator and the notion she should be allowed to stay on at NHS has just over 1,500 supporters.

“On top of my innocent brother being killed, which is still so surreal, my family and I are facing other issues regarding Mrs Roderick,” Gianna said in a prepared statement. “We don’t want her fired because she definitely deserves an income, but do you think it’s fair [that] my sister Jessica Eisele, who is a senior at Newtown High School, has to walk the same halls as the mother of our brother’s murderer. Not to mention I will be attending there myself next year.

“Freshman and senior years [are] supposed to be the years you look forward to, the years you try and find your way around a new school, giggle with your friends, and the years you’re saying goodbye to your childhood and hello to your adulthood,” the local eighth grader continued. “But for my sister and I, we will be walking the halls with a constant reminder that our brother is gone.

“I already have anxiety, so imagine how I will be feeling,” Gianna added. “Every minute of the day is just the thought of ‘Is today the day I’m going to bump into her?’ I know [school administrators are] trying their hardest to keep Mrs Roderick away from my sister, but should that even be a concern or up for discussion? My question is simply why?”

When formulating her thoughts to The Newtown Bee, Jessica confided that any discussion of the topic is “uncomfortable and sensitive.”

A Constant Fear

“It is hard for me to articulate my feelings,” Jessica said in her own statement. “Pulling into the school on the days I go in gets me nervous, walking into the school gets me nervous, even when I’m walking to my classes gets me nervous. I am constantly looking down the halls to make sure Peter’s mother is not walking towards me. I do not want to run into her because it will affect how the rest of my day goes.

“Even when I try to avoid the whole situation I can’t — because it’s what everyone in the school talks about,” Jessica lamented. “Just knowing I’m in the same vicinity as her makes me uncomfortable, being in the same area as her — whether or not I see her makes me uncomfortable and it gives me extreme anxiety. Even though I am not near her classroom and I know she most likely will not walk into my classroom, I can’t focus in any of my classes.”

Jessica stated that the idea of encountering Roderick is “affecting my ability to learn.”

“I can’t even go to the bathroom without worrying if she will walk in because you can’t control what bathroom she uses and when she may need to use the restroom,” Jessica continued.

She said going to school is supposed to provide a safe environment where students are able to learn and can walk the halls without worrying who else they may encounter. Jessica related that when school officials found out about the situation, and that it would not be a healthy learning space for her, “their solution was to take me away from my friends and put me into a new school for my last year” where she would “graduate with kids I do not know.

“If it’s so easy to move me then why can’t they transfer her? We do not want her fired — my family knows she deserves an income just like the rest of the families in this town — but we are simply asking for her to get transferred to a new school so I do not have that constant reminder that my big brother is gone,” Jessica continued.

“People can sympathize about the whole situation. Almost everyone knows how uncomfortable it is to be in a room with someone you have a bad past experience with,” she said, like an ex-boyfriend or ex-spouse.

But what very few people know, Jessica explained, is that being “a 17-year-old in her last year of high school who just lost her brother, and who has to face the fact that he is no longer with us, and will not be there to see me graduate high school, graduate college, get married and have my first child, is hard on a person.”

‘It’s About Empathy’

“The fact that I have to be in the same building [as] the mother [whose] son killed my brother is worse than being in a room with an ex-boyfriend or husband. I am supposed to feel safe in this building and with her here I do not feel safe,” Jessica said. “There are plenty of solutions to this situation. It’s about empathy, remorse, and about respecting that this happened to a minor and that Mrs Roderick should feel for us.

“We all make sacrifices for others around us and it’s not a foreign thing for this town,” she continued. “I am not only thinking about myself in this situation, but I am thinking about my little sister who will be entering the school next year. I do not want her in the same situation I have sadly been put in. My little sister should have a fresh start when she enters high school and not have the same reminder I have when she walks into the school.

“Being in school for me is hard and as time goes on I know it will get better, but right now walking down the halls knowing Peter walked these halls makes me not want to go to my classes knowing he could’ve sat where I am right now,” Jessica said. “But then I realize my big brother walked these same halls and that is what gives me some kind of peace throughout my day.”

A statement on the matter previously released by Board of Education Chair Michelle Embree Ku said: “While we certainly sympathize with the victims and their families in this tragic case, as a school district we cannot and will not reference or comment regarding any individual student or personnel-related matters.”

Roderick declined an offer to comment for the record.

Jessica did not mention in her statement that she is also still dealing with the post-traumatic fallout of being at Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14. But she coincidentally has found comfort in conversations she has with Kelly Murphy, daughter of paraeducator Anne Marie Murphy, who was among the Sandy Hook murder victims. She also finds a great sense of support from a large circle of friends, many of whom she has known since elementary school or through various cheerleading squads that Jessica has participated in since childhood.

As a senior, Jessica said she is also excited and inspired to be among students compiling and designing the NHS yearbook — another reason why she cannot entertain the prospect of leaving the community.

“I know she is there every day,” Jessica said of Roderick. “I am looking for her from the minute I pull into the parking lot until I leave. I don’t feel I should have to be put through that, and I don’t want my sister in that situation, either. Why is it so easy for [the district] to transfer me, and not her?”