Fate of Sandy Hook School Still Up in Air
The fate of Sandy Hook Elementary is still up in the air after a town meeting to decide what to do with the building. Many feel it should be destroyed, while others argue that it should be used in a different manner, such as a park or memorial to the 26 who died last month.
"I cannot ask my son or any of the people at the school to ever walk back into that building, and he has asked to never go back. I know that there are children who were there who have said they would like to go back to Sandy Hook. However, the reality is we have to be so careful. Even walking down the halls, the children become so scared at any unusual sound. I don't see how it would be possible," parent Stephanie Carson said at the meeting, according to The New York Times.
Right now the students of Sandy Hook Elementary are attending a neighboring school that has been put together especially for them.
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Chalk Hill Middle School is hosting the students while a decision is made about their former school. Students just returned to classes earlier this month. Teachers, mental health experts, and former principal Donna Page, who came out of retirement just to help students adjust, all greeted the students as they returned the Atlantic Wire reported.
"I have two children who had everything taken from them. The Sandy Hook Elementary School is their school. It is not the world's school. It is not Newtown's school. We cannot pretend it never happened, but I am not prepared to ask my children to run and hide. You can't take away their school," argued Audrey Bart.
The Atlantic Wire pointed out that sites of other mass shootings are still standing and are even in use. Columbine High School turned its library, the site of its attack, into an atrium and Virginia Tech repurposed one of the rooms where the shooting took place.
However, at Sandy Hook, it may be a little more difficult to isolate the location of the shootings. Students and teachers were shot in classrooms and the hallway, leaving behind a larger crime scene that would be unavoidable by anyone using the building.
No decision has been made about what to do with the building, but local officials say they hope to come to an agreement by March.
