Yesterday, a man by name of Charles Carl Roberts IV walked into a little Amish one room school and took the female students hostage, near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. The school normally has 27 students, 11 of them female. The gunman let three women go who had infants and a pregnant woman who I believe was the teacher. The teacher was able to alert authorities. The gunman then boarded up the door with lumber. He lined the girls up against the blackboard and tied them to each other to prevet them running away. When the police arrived, he called them and told them they had 10 seconds to vacate the premises or he'd start shooting. He then started shooting. It is unclear if he let the 10 seconds actually expire. He shot some of the girls point black and many in the head. Three were dead at the scene, one in the arms of a state trooper. He killed himself as police entered through the window. After listening to the entire press conference from the Commisioner of the Pennsylvania State police, things now seem clearer. There were 11 girls but a 9-year-old escaped with her brother. Five have died thus far. Five more remained injured. Initially, they reported that one of the girls who died at the scene was a teacher's aide but she was just an older student.
After the three who died at the scene, the following two died at 1 and 4.30 this morning. Of the five remaining injured, two are at Hershey Medical Center: a 6-year-old remains in critical condition and a 13-year-old has been upgraded to serious. Three girls aged 8, 10, and 12 are also listed as Critical at Philadelphia's Children's Hospital.
According to Pennsylvania State Police, Roberts claimed to have molested young minor relatives 20 years ago. These relatives are unnamed and asserted to have been 3 to 4 years of age at the time. Roberts said he had been dreaming of molesting again. In the school house in addition to his arms and 600 rounds of ammunition, was a bottle of KY Jelly, a personal lubricant. It appears he was planning to molest or sexually assault the young girls.
He rambled in notes left for his family that he was "angry at god" for the death of his premature daughter, Elise, nine years ago. The milk truck driver told his wife on a cell phone during the siege that he was not coming home and that the police were there. There is nothing that I can add to this very horrific episode in American History. Lately, there's been a spate of school violence. Emily Keyes died last week in Bailey, Colorado and Principal Klang died in Wisconsin on Friday. Since only one was perpetrated by a student, it now seems sick, adult men are in need of some serious counselling.
In addition, President Bush wants to holda conference next week to discuss ways to make our schools safer. I honestly think its a waste of time. School violence has now permeated the most sane and obscure level possible: a rural Amish schoolhouse. This is a place where violence is unknown and humility and love are a given. The problem lies not at the school level or security any longer. This is a case of the Wilding of America. From strange cases of children assaulting homeless men to Abu Grahib, we have shown ourselves to be an irrational,violent and sick society filled with all sorts of loathsome problems, diseases and attitudes. We cannot continue to believe that are society is good. There is something substantially broken in our culture. We need to examine this in addition to finding better ways to secure our children from violence and sexual attacks within their schools.
As for my own personal feelings on this, I'm angry. Of all the people in this country, innocent little school girls, Amish or not, should not be exposed to this. And to think he picked a little Amish schoolhouse... Amish people live their lives according to wholesome, God-loving pinciples. They reject modern conveniences and they are quaint but they live this way because of principles. Not for novelty or to make Lancaster County a tourist trap. And they are pacifists. Pacifists!!!!
Words cannot explain how much I feel right now. I can't define it but merely say I feel a huge amount of emotion.
I will pass on the requests of the Amish families: They wish for privacy and prayer. Please be generous with these.
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