Amish school shooting survivors back in class
Pastor Dale Morgan
Amish school shooting survivors back in class*
POSTED: 1453 GMT (2253 HKT), April 2, 2007
Story Highlights
• New school has improved locks, is on private drive
• Gunman killed five girls in old school on October 2
• Old school was razed 10 days after shooting
NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Amish children carrying lunch pails
arrived at a new one-room schoolhouse Monday morning, marking a fresh
beginning for students who survived the shooting that killed five
classmates last fall.
The New Hope Amish School sits a few hundred yards from the spot where
the killings took place. Built by the entire community, the school is
protected by more sophisticated locks on its doors and is reachable only
by a private drive.
"For an Amish one-room schoolhouse, this one is spectacular," said Bart
Township zoning officer John Coldiron.
It replaces the West Nickel Mines Amish School, which was torn down
October 12. Ten days earlier, milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV
shot 10 girls inside the school and then committed suicide as police
closed in.
Retired teacher Dan Baughman said students were excited about the new
school.
"They're elated that they have a new school, but nevertheless it's going
to bring back forcefully that day six months ago," said Baughman, 81,
who has lived in the community since the 1960s.
The building does not have electricity or a phone but is bright inside
from skylights and windows, Coldiron said. The phone is notable because
during the rampage, a teacher had to run to a neighboring farm that had
a telephone to call 911.
At the front of the building is a steel door that locks from the inside.
A state police vehicle was parked at the end of the driveway Monday, and
no trespassing signs had been posted along the main road.
The new school's construction costs were paid for in part with a portion
of more than $4 million in donations to the Nickel Mines Accountability
Committee, the primary organization collecting donations on behalf of
the victims.
Donations, some sent directly to the school board, have also helped
provide care for the five wounded girls who survived.
Four of the five have returned to school. The fifth, a 6-year-old, needs
a feeding tube and is not able to communicate, according to Mike Hart of
the Bart Township Fire Department, who is also a committee member.
Roberts' widow, Marie, and their three children have moved from their
home in the village of Georgetown, about a mile from the shooting, to
another community within Lancaster County, according to Hart.
Charles Roberts, apparently tormented by an unconfirmed memory of having
molested relatives 20 years earlier, and by the 1997 death of his own
infant daughter, shot and killed himself. Amish families attended his
burial service.