Amish Aftermath

A story in the Washington Post, courtesy of the AP, about the new schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Nickel mines, as you remember, was the Amish community where a gunman killed 5 schoolgirls last October, and wounded 5 others.

The new schoolhouse has:

...a steel door that locks from the inside. It has no phone, but its location behind a row of non-Amish homes provides a way to quickly summon help in an emergency, [Bart Township zoning officer John] Coldiron said. During the rampage, a teacher had to run to a neighboring farm to call 911.

"For an Amish one-room schoolhouse, this one is spectacular," said Coldiron, who inspected it last week.

There are also skylights, sod lawns and a modern whiteboard. Over $4 million in donations were sent to the community, according to the article. I wonder how they spend that kind of money, deal with the logistics of it in a small, simple community?

We don't know. There is a lot of wondering with this story. The reclusiveness of the Lancaster Amish is legendary - reporters seldom spoke with anyone in the community during the entire ordeal of the murders, and then it was often members on the fringes. It has taken some deft journalism. In today's AP story, quotes from the zoning officer and a neighbor. Glimpses of the children walking with their lunch coolers, with state troopers guarding the one lane to the schoolhouse.

Were they guarding the children against another gunman? Probably not. Chances are that they were there to keep the journalists at bay.

How do you report a story like this? Late last year, Matthew Teague wrote a piece for Philadelphia Magazine that is thankfully still online. Check it out here. With only one Amish source - a reclusive man who deals with outsiders at the auction house - he weaves a story about Amish history, our fascination with tragedy, and, finally, the frustration of journalism. Gorgeous stuff.