Friend, On October 8th, join us as a panel of writers and scholars remembers one of Pennsylvania’s most horrific school shootings, and answers the question: what we can learn from it? |
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 The local community called it “the happening.” On the morning of October 2, 2006, a local man burst into the one-room West Nickel Mines schoolhouse in Lancaster Country’s Amish country, took hostages, and shot ten schoolgirls before dying by suicide. Five of the girls (ages 6–13) also died. This vicious and unprovoked attack shook Central Pennsylvania—and much of the country—to its core. We also saw remarkable acts of forgiveness by the Amish community of Nickel Mines, who comforted the shooter’s family and supported other communities torn by gun violence even as they and their children struggled to cope. Join CeaseFirePA on Zoom next Friday, October 8 at 12:30 PM, as distinguished writers and scholars reflect on the shooting and what we as a nation must do to avert future catastrophes. 15 years later, neither the horror nor the compassion has stopped the deadly culture of gun violence from taking more innocent lives. No sooner had a replacement schoolhouse opened at Nickel Mines than news of the Virginia Tech shooting happened. Later, the Sandy Hook shooter examined this shooting before taking the lives of children and teachers in Connecticut. What have we learned? Why does this keep happening? How do we honor a community’s fortitude and forgiveness, while at the same time working for accountability, justice, and prevention of the next shooting? CeaseFirePA Executive Director Adam Garber will moderate a panel that features Seamus McGraw, author of the new book, “From a Taller Tower: the Rise of the American Mass Shooter”; Donald B. Kraybill, a distinguished professor at Elizabethtown College who wrote a book examining the shooting; and Julia Spicher Kasdorf, PhD, poet and professor of English at Penn State and author of several books on the Amish culture. |
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“Aaron had survivor’s guilt,” said the father of one of the West Nickel Mines schoolchildren in an interview with The Guardian on the tenth anniversary of the murders.[1] “He lost his childhood that day. It bothered him and other boys that they had not done something. Some of them are still struggling with that.” As a nation, we all continue to struggle with the collective trauma of gun violence. We must not become numb to it—and yet we must also move forward. We hope you will join us October 8 to remember and to think about the future. Thank you for your energy and commitment as we face the road ahead together. Adam Garber
CeaseFirePA Executive Director [1] 'The happening': 10 years after the Amish shooting. The Guardian, October 2, 2016. |
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