Amish school opens six months after tragedy
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NICKEL MINES, Pa.—Exactly six months after a shooting rampage left five Amish schoolgirls dead, the doors opened April 2 at the New Hope Amish School, just a few hundred yards from where the shootings occurred.
The new school was built to replace the West Nickel Mines Amish School, where milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV killed the girls and wounded five others on Oct. 2, 2006, before killing himself. The former school in Bart Township was demolished 10 days after the murders.
Herman Bontrager, spokesman for the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, says the new school sits back from the road on a private farm, which Amish leaders hope will provide a measure of security some felt was lacking at the former school. Though discussed, other security measures, such as a telephone or alarm system, were not incorporated in the new school.
“The main precaution is its location on private property,” Bontrager said April 2.
The school, which lacks electricity like most Amish-built structures, also has a steel door, which reports said could be locked from inside.
Bontrager said donations for the five wounded girls who survived the rampage have surpassed $4 million. Provisions are being made to ensure their continued medical and counseling treatment.—Mennonite Weekly Review
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