The Amish:

The massacre of six innocents: 2006-OCT-03

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The horrific events:

Ten girls were shot in an Amish school at Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on 2006-OCT-03 by a lone gunman.

Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, a milk delivery person from Bart Township, PA, entered a Old Order Amish one-room school at about 10 AM, carrying a 9 mm handgun, a 12 gauge shotgun, a rifle, a bag of black powder, two knives, tools, a stun gun, 600 rounds of ammunition, KY sexual lubricant, wire, and plastic ties. Perhaps anticipating a long siege, he also brought a change of clothing. He ushered 15 boys, one pregnant woman, and three other women with infants from the school. He bound 11 students who remained -- all girls, aged 6 to 15 -- with plastic flex ties, and prepared to shoot them. Student Marian Fisher, 13, stepped forward and asked that he "shoot me first." in an apparent effort to buy time for the remaining students. Her younger sister, Barbie, allegedly asked Roberts to "shoot me second."  He shot ten young girls. Three died immediately; two others died in hospital by the next morning. As of 2006-OCT-05, the remaining five are still alive in hospital, although one is expected to be taken off of life support. Roberts committed suicide when the police stormed the school.

Police believe that he did not have a grudge against the Amish community itself. Rather, he selected the school because of its lack of security and easy availability to young female students. ₁

Roberts' motivation:

According to Pennsylvania police, Roberts phoned his wife from within the school house before he murdered the children. Ironically, his wife was leading a prayer group at the time that was organized to pray for school children in their community. He said that he had molested two female relatives who were 3 to 5 years of age circa 1986. He would have been 11 or 12 years of age at the time. A suicide note that Roberts left behind allegedly said that he was fanaticizing about molesting children again. It also expressed anger at God because his newborn baby, Elise, had died nine years ago -- only 20 minutes after having been born prematurely.

Exhibition of compassion:

"Yesterday on NBC News, I saw an Amish midwife who had helped birth several of the girls murdered by the killer say that they were planning to take food over to his family's house. She said – and I paraphrase closely – 'This is possible if you have Christ in your heart'."

"This is imitation of Christ at its most naked. If anybody is going to turn the other cheek in our society, it's going to be the Amish. ... I don’t want to denigrate anybody else who says they're imitating Christ, but the Amish walk the walk as much as they talk the talk."

"They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent ... and they know that they will join them in death. The hurt is very great ... But they don't balance the hurt with hate."

Fundraising for the community:

Prayer Vigil:

More than 1,000 mourners attended a prayer vigil at The Worship Center in Lancaster PA on the evening of OCT-03. An overflow crowd watched the service on closed-circuit TV.  Rev. Duane Britton, pastor of Dove Christian Fellowship — Westgate in Ephrata, PA joined other clergypersons in the county to deliver the service. Lancaster Online reports:

"During the service, which lasted just over an hour, heads were bowed and tears flowed for the loss of schoolgirls’ tender lives and for their killer, a man described as a loving husband and father of three young children."

" 'We come here tonight as a grieving community,' said Sam Smucker, a pastor and founder of The Worship Center and himself a former Amish man."

" 'We’ve come here to pray and proclaim the lordship of Christ and to put our arms around each other and the community ... God hears our prayers,' he assured his listeners." ₅

Groups exploiting the tragedy:

Impact on students elsewhere in North America:

Teaching Tolerance, a program of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL, interviewed Tamika Payne,  about recent school shootings, gender and violence. She is the executive director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Reports of shootings in Bailey, CO, and Nickel Mines, PA indicate that the gunmen isolated female students as victims.

Tamika Payne said, in part:

"The tactic reinforces the message young girls in our society receive, which is that they need to fear men, especially men who are strangers. As for male students, the incidents will likely generate a sense of protectiveness and guilt. It is important that educators and parents validate students' feelings and normalize other feelings they may be having regarding the assaults."

She suggested that teachers and parents should discuss sexual violence with all children, both male and female. It should be done realistically, stressing that a person's greatest risk is from someone we know. She said:

"... the reduction of sexual violence will occur only when we change the beliefs and attitudes of a society that sees women as unequal and sexual objects."

The full interview is well worth reading. ₈

A book about the tragedy:

Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher have co-authored a book, "Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy." Jossey-Bass, (2007-SEP)

Some reviews: