Newtown weighs fate of Conn. school where 26 died

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By DAVE COLLINS

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - Talk about Sandy Hook Elementary School is turning from last month's massacre to the future, with differing opinions on whether students and staff should ever return to the building where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators.

Some Newtown residents say the school should be demolished and a memorial built on the property in honor of those killed Dec. 14. Others believe the school should be renovated and the areas where the killings occurred removed. That's what happened at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., after the 1999 mass shooting.

Those appear to be the two prevailing proposals as the community begins discussing the school's fate. A public meeting on the building's future drew about 200 people to Newtown High School on Sunday afternoon, with another meeting set for Friday. Town officials also are planning private meetings with the victims' families to get their input.

Sunday's meeting was an emotional gathering with many speaking in favor of keeping the school. Although opinions were mixed, most agreed that the Sandy Hook children and teachers should stay together. They've been moved to a school building about seven miles away in a neighboring town that has been renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130113/DA3PJNI83.htmlqa

[bluedigger]

1. I think they should donate the property.

Give it to The National Shooting Sports Foundation. http://www.nssf.org/Industry/

They are right in town, after all, and they probably will need additional facilities to fight new gun legislation. What could be more suitable for all concerned?

[GP6971]

2. And tax free to boot.....job creation you know

My post is sarcastic as I'm sure yours is

[libdem4life]

3. Just another of the vast social cost of gun violence. The gun industry must be held accountable

It is empowered by privatizing weapons profits (for sale to and profit from private, national and international buyers) and socializing the results. Put differently, they get the profit and we taxpayers get the proverbial shaft in the form of cleaning up their deadly messes.

That is not capitalism...it is the military-industrial corporatocracy warned against by President Eisenhower.

"Corporatocracy is a term used to suggest an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests.

It is a generally pejorative term often used by critics of the current economic situation in a particular country, especially the United States.

... (beware of oncoming blaming the of Left...just the term, not the condition) The term has been used by liberal and left-leaning critics, but also some economic libertarian critics and other political observers across the political spectrum.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs described the US as a corporatocracy in his book The Price of Civilization. He suggested that it arose from four trends: weak national parties and strong political representation of individual districts, the large U.S. military establishment after World War II, big corporate money financing election campaigns, and globalization tilting the balance away from workers.[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy

[marions ghost]

4. The school building is forever haunted by this...even if you remove the offending part

this cannot be a happy place for those kids.

Make it a park with a memorial where people can come to contemplate and meditate.

[lib2DaBone]

5. Before anything.. there needs to be a true accounting of Newton...

..There was a second shooter arrested who the media never mentioned. SWAT Teams deployed and arrested a 40 year old man at the site of the Newton Shootings.

The Honda Accord that the shooter used.. was owned by the second shooter... why no coverage in the media?

[Historic NY]

7. It was debunked after it was all over the news by most....

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/14/nation/la-na-1215-newtown-school-shooting-20121215

Much of the "second shooter" speculation was spurred by a man who was detained and released after being spotted in the woods outside the school. Numerous witnesses and TV stations reported seeing a man handcuffed and placed in a police car on Friday morning. After he was interviewed and released, police moved on to other matters, but the record was never fully cleared up and the event got lost in the larger story, leading many to believe the arrest was being actively suppressed. We admit it took a bit of digging to discover that others had figured out that the man in question was most likely Chris Manfredonia, the father of a Sandy Hook student, who attempted to sneak into the school after the shooting started. Police can be heard relaying his name over their radios, but few outlets managed to follow up with that detail.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/12/newtown-shooting-conspiracy-theories/60126/

[Skittles]

8. because it is bullshit

[Historic NY]

6. Its a difficult decision for the Community....

to demolish wipes it away. To remodel keeps some memory. A local school had a tragedy unrelated to guns and they chose to rebuild and renovate the area. They built a memorial garden & a playground to the lives lost, laugher returns but the memories were not lost.

They will come to a decision in their own due course.

[MichiganVote]

9. How the hell do they expect the school personnel to continue to work there?

Come on, get real. The staff there is terribly traumatized. Oh, that's right. I forgot, they're Union thugs.

Would any of you work in a setting in which 20 little kids were butchered while their caregivers were shot down?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. Bulldoze the entire campus,

they can't ever use it again, imo. Turn it into a memorial park or something.

[Nihil]

11. After Dunblane ...

... they demolished the gymnasium (where the children & the teacher were killed) and
put a small garden up there with a plaque naming the victims. (Obviously this was
in addition to memorials elsewhere - in the cathedral & cemetery amongst others.)

In Newtown's case, the victims died in several places across the school and so
there isn't such a clear-cut "boundary of sadness" but I'd still suggest retaining the
school as a whole if it is possible to separate the memorial areas.

[Jennicut]

12. Probably should make it into a memorial of some kind.

I don't know if they should take the school down or not. But I don't think the building will ever be used again. My husband's best friend grew up in Newtown and talked to lots of people there. Many people think there should be some kind of memorial.