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Julio Cortez / AP
This aerial photo shows Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the site of the Dec. 14 shooting that left 20 children and six staffers dead. As residents weigh in on the future of the building, students are attending school at a different facility.
Town leaders in Newtown, Conn., continue to hear from residents about what should become of the building where 20 children and six educators lost their lives in a mass shooting in December.
More than 100 people gathered inside Newtown High School on Friday for the second public hearing on the topic. Some in the crowd voiced their opinions on what they believe should happen to the Sandy Hook Elementary School building. Others watched and listened.
"I think that building should be a memorial. I don't think it should ever be a school again," said Josie Schmidt, a Newtown resident who is also a retired school teacher.
"I know what happened there. I see it. You cannot ask anyone to go back in there," said Todd Keeping, a Newtown resident and Monroe police officer who was at the school in the days after the tragedy.
Besides hearing from the public, town officials are also meeting privately with families of the victims and survivors. They're also meeting with teachers and staff.
"The decision-makers should be the families. I think we all are entitled to our opinions, but I think what they say should go," said Taylor Ansbro of Newtown.
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One staff member, library clerk Mary Ann Jacob, spoke during the meeting and said she was inside the school when the shooting happened. "I'll be there wherever it is, because it's important to me to help the rest of the children in this community heal," Jacob said.
A recommendation on what to do with the building could come by spring, town officials said.
"We are Sandy Hook School and we choose love," said Jacob, to heavy applause from the audience.
For now, Sandy Hook children are learning at the former Chalk Hill school in Monroe, Conn., where they're expected to remain through the next school year, according to First Selectman Patricia Llodra.
As they weigh options for the future, splitting the children up into different schools around Newtown is not one that's under consideration, said Llodra and other officials.
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This was a horrible thing but it can't cloud our vision. People die all over the world every day sooner than they expect. Save just a little time for them as well.
Demolish the building and dedicate the site to perpetual green space, a "living" memorial garden and a children's playground. Let that site forever be filled with children's laughter.
There are things in life, and yes, in death too, which are far more important than money and material objects:
I almost can't believe the comments from the parents and community. There's a lot of money in that building. It is, after all, just a building. It's not going to be a target for the next looney who got his hands on some weapons. You fall off a horse; you get back on the horse. You get bitten by a dog; you don't run away from every dog on the street. You have a massacre in your school; you get back to teaching and learning.
Exactly. Do they not realize the cost of a school?
kountryking….Well said.
Demolishing the building will not bring loved ones back and will not ease the pain. Continue to use it as a learning institution. Make the school an example of our resilience and determination, show the world that we can rise above adversity and prosper.
Good grief Charlie Brown, what are they so scared of...ghosts? I for one don;'t want a dime of my money spent building them a new school they don't need when they have a perfectly serviceable one right there, a school plenty of other communities wish they could afford while they send their kids to rotting, decaying buildings. I for one would rather my federal dollars go to them to fix their dilapidated schools than some nancys who are afraid of ghosts or boogermen. Bad things happen...when did that become news? bad things have happened everywhere, sheesh they are going to put a building on the site of the twin towers and something far worse and more evil happened there with a far higher death toll.
I have to admit I'm shocked at the coldness of the first few comments. Yes, of course money and finances always play a part in decisions, but at times there are other aspects of life that should be more important. The children and teachers have "gotten back on the horse"...they are back in school and working on rebuilding their community. While, I don't know anyone personally, I know several friends of friends and I can tell you that is not an easy chore. MANY of the children (and I'm sure adults, too) are dealing with severe side effects and are in therapy. I'm sure it is something that is going to affect them for years. As an adult I can't imagine having to go into a work environment where several of my friends/co-workers were brutally gunned down. As a parent of three, I can't imagine having to drop my children off at school everyday where their classmates were brutually gunned down. And, I can't imagine subjecting my children to the scene of a nightmare every school day. It's not simply a matter of "getting over it". If your family was gunned down in your home would you be able to simply clean up and go back to living there because it's the right choice financially?? SHES should NOT be used as a school again.
@heavyheartfornewtown
I'm positive that there is nothing Personal here. Everyone feels pain for the families of the ones that lost people. It is just this kind of horrible tragedy can destroy the living as well if you let it. It's things like this that either will destroy us or bring us closer together with the help of others.
There are too many shrines and memorials set up in this world to victims of violence. You didn't see Virginia Tech tear down their classrooms, nor did Columbine High School. Both continued to be used as places of learning within a few weeks after both tragedies.
That being said, these children are much younger than those students and this school shouldn't be used as a school right now -- those little children who survived that massacre would be too traumatized to set foot inside, much less learn.
Use the building as administrative offices, but don't tear it down. If the adults can't handle working in that building, then this tragedy will have defeated Newtown -- and I'm sure they do not want that to happen.
Unless any of you have survived a massacre like this, or had loved ones who were involved, you are commenting from quite a distance, as I am since I have no connection with anything like this. So, we need to take the needs of the survivors into account. There are times when cost should not be the operative determinant of a decision, and this is one of them in my book. I think it would be inhuman to expect small children to go to school where they know other children were mercilessly gunned down. You can say they are wimps "nancys" whatever, or that they are giving in to the tragedy when they should pull up their socks and get on with it. I dont' believe that. They are children.
I beleive the majority of these children will have problems going to any school, especially the Sandy Hook school.
Unless any of you have survived a massacre like this,
I did i hope
Demolish the building and dedicate the site to perpetual green space, a "living" memorial garden and a children's playground. Let that site forever be filled with children's laughter.
There are things in life, and yes, in death too, which are far more important than money and material things
Oops, duplicate post. Sorry about that!
A/noon..for what it is worth a view from another country..the actual classrooms where the children and teachers were shot I would demolish. Then that vacant land I would turn into a grassed area with seats and some type of water feature as a small memorial to those souls lost. I would also plant trees in the area for each person and then quietly leave it at that. The school would be left open. I wonder what those that are gone, what would they say? They all seem to have loved their school dearly and I would imagine they would like to know the next generation will love it as well. You come to terms with the tragedy the best way you can. Not everyone will be happy with the decision when it is made. But with the passing of time, in 20 years who is going to remember what happened there???.....only those that it means the most to...The ones that lost their loved ones, as the bell rings at the start of another school day at Sandy Hook.....
I like that idea. Just tear a few rooms down and make a memorial. You could also give the building a face lift and make it visually different so that it would lessen the trauma of revisiting..
These children are very young too have seen such trauma, but the harm is already done. Now we much teach them how to cope with it.
Everyone should go to youtube.com Sandy Hook hoaxes and come to you own conclusion,
You might also want to take a look at what snopes has to say about the hoax video.
Larry,
Do you think it's all a hoax? I have trouble beleiving the "conspiracy theorys".
I personally do not know what side to stand on here. A lot of good opinions and reasons. Life goes on, like it did for Columbine and Virginia Tech, but also would the kids be able to handle going back after something like that happened? A hard decision.
It would be nice if resources, money, space, etc were not an issue. We could leave places like this everywhere that could be somewhat of a shrine to remember what happened. But like I said, sometimes that just isn't possible.
My idea would be if the children went back, redesign all the classrooms. New paint, rearrange desks, chalkboards, flags, whatever you can. Something like that might help them to not think about what happened. If taxpayers whine about "who is going to pay for it," surely if people are so willing to pay out the ass in taxes for all the gun control crap stirring about, we can help these kids be at ease with something like this.
Are liberals smoking crack again? Did anyone suggest tearing down the school at Columbine, the theater in Colorado, Virginia Tech, or the 1993 WTC building or any of the other schools where there were mass shootings?
If the parents just don't want to deal with reality or want their children to deal with reality, then MOVE, but it won't prevent the memories or help them to be well-adjusted adults in the future.
Just as they destroyed JFK's car after his assassination, they are going to destroy this school as part of a cover-up.
The car that Kennedy was shot in is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
After the Kennedy assassination, Ford sent the car to Hess & Eisenhardt again to make safety and redesign improvements. This first revamping of the car is referred to as "the 1963-64 quick fix."
The Secret Service, and The White House had come to the realization that the vehicle's basic design for visibility as a parade car had been wrong. The new work included fitting with titanium armor, bulletproof glass, run-flat tires that had aluminum rims inside. A permanent hardtop replace the bubble top. SS 100X emerged 2000 pounds above the weight it had on November 22, 1963. It now topped 9,800 pounds.
Continental was being modified.
While the work was being done, President Johnson used a bulletproof limousine owned by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The reconditioned Kennedy Death Car returned to White House service in 1964, and was successively used by presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. A third trip to Hess & Eisenhardt in January 1967 added additional safety improvements. A decade later, the historic and tragic vehicle was replaced by its owner, Ford Motor Company, in 1977.
The SS 100X now resides and is on view at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
let the parents decide? really, how about let the tax payers decide. Mop up the blood and get back to work, stop crying and whining. I'm here in Afghanistan and these kids are just as human as the one's in the US, they've lost limbs, parents, friend and it's just another day. Stop bitching and get back to work, liberal crybabies.
I dont live there, so i certainly have no say.. But if it were up to me, I would want a small park with a memorial. I would never want to be in that building. Bad karma, and bad memories. A memorial make sense to me. But its up to the residents, they are living with it.
The school is fairly old too, so its a good excuse to build a new one.
They should level the building and create a large playground with swings, sliding boards, hop scotch grids painted on the pavement, tether balls, jungle gyms, and more with recycled rubber mulch everywhere. Let it be a memorial park surrounded by benches for parents to sit and watch over their children as they play and bring life to a spot where there was so much death.