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Amish Community Heals, Slowly

Nearly a year after school shootings, town makes peace with the aftermath

By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 13, 2007 12:12 PM CDT

(Newser) – It's been almost a year since the shooting spree at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania in which five girls were killed and five wounded. In the Lancaster New Era, the families talk with stunning directness about the particular pain of losing a child and making peace with the "new normal." "You can wake up one day and think, 'You know what? I'm starting to heal," says one mother.

The schoolhouse that replaced the crime scene has been a source of anxiety but also of hope. One victim's family lives nearby, so close the schoolyard noise carries. "It's been a ray of sunshine for me," her mother says. The community plans no public events for the Oct. 2 anniversary; for the families, every day is a commemoration.

Children play basketball at the newly-reopened schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., Monday, April 2, 2007, built to replace the razed West Nickel Mines Amish School where a gunman killed five students and himself in October 2006. Amish students moved into the new building Monday, six months to the day after...
Children play basketball at the newly-reopened schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., Monday, April 2, 2007, built to replace the razed West Nickel Mines Amish School where a gunman killed five students and...   (Associated Press)
Amish men are seen in front of the schoolhouse where a gunman killed five girls and injured five more before shooting himself, in Nickel Mines, Pa. Oct. 2, 2006. The most severely injured survivor of last year's Amish school shooting is totally dependent on her family for care, but has...
Amish men are seen in front of the schoolhouse where a gunman killed five girls and injured five more before shooting himself, in Nickel Mines, Pa. Oct. 2, 2006. The most severely injured survivor of...   (Associated Press)
Shown is the former location of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, near the tree on the right, in Nickel Mines, Pa., Monday, Aug. 20, 2007. From the moment a gunman began shooting 10 girls in the now-demolished schoolhouse Oct. 2, 2006, two and a half agonizing minutes ticked by...
Shown is the former location of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, near the tree on the right, in Nickel Mines, Pa., Monday, Aug. 20, 2007. From the moment a gunman began shooting 10 girls in the now-demolished...   (Associated Press)
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