At 4:45 a.m. Thursday, an excavator equipped with a backhoe began ripping down the one-room schoolhouse in Bart Township where Charles Carl Roberts IV shot 10 young Amish girls Oct. 2. Five of the girls died.

Under bright spotlights that illuminated the entire schoolyard, the excavators reduced the concrete-and-wood structure to rubble in a half-hour. Dump trucks hauled the debris to two Lancaster County landfills.

By 8:15 a.m., there was little evidence the tiny school ever existed, as the heavy equipment left the area and workers began grading the land, blending it with surrounding pastures.

White Oak Road was closed for much of the morning, and members of the media were kept about a quarter-mile from the site.

“The plan was for it to happen quickly,” said Mike Hart of Bart Township Fire Company, which assisted with the demolition. “Everyone’s had a hard time this last week, and it just needed to be over.”

He described the feeling at the site as “somber” and said there was a lot of discussion about the events of the last 10 days.

Hart said the Amish would have been more than capable of tearing down the structure on their own, but enlisted the aid of contractors who could swiftly demolish the school.

Hart said the first contractor arrived at 4 a.m. and removed the white picket fence surrounding the school, which was built in 1976.

Bulldozers, excavators and other machinery rolled in at 4:15, along with an onslaught of local contractors and members of the Amish community.

Hart said 40 to 50 individuals assisted with the demolition, which was planned by members of the Amish community.

Work began in the pre-dawn hours, Hart said, to lessen the inconvenience to neighbors.

But as the sun rose, the site drew many onlookers — both Amish and English — who craned their necks to view the progress of the demolition.

In one horse and buggy that passed, two young Amish children stood and peeked their heads out a window, their eyes wide as they stared down the road toward the place where the school once stood.

Drivers slowed as they traveled through the intersection of White Oak and Mine roads, but were kept moving by fire police.

Donna Rhine drove from her Quarryville home to see the demolition. By the time she arrived, though, workers were tilling the soil where the building once stood.

“I can’t believe it’s just gone,” said Rhine, who said she drove by the small school often on the way to her church on Mine Road.

She said she agrees with the decision to tear down the school.

“I think it will help the Amish community heal,” Rhine said. “It will be better for them and for the children.”

Roberts, a 32-year-old milk truck driver, entered the schoolhouse the morning of Oct. 2 and ordered 15 male students and four adults to leave.

He then proceeded to tie the legs of 10 female students.

When police arrived at the school, Roberts “became disorganized” and opened fire, shooting the girls and then himself, according to police.

Police said Roberts claimed to be seeking revenge for things that occurred in his life, including the loss of his first-born daughter, Elise, who died in November 1997, 20 minutes after her premature birth.

Three of the wounded girls continue to fight for their lives in area hospitals. Two are expected to be well enough to come home soon.

On Thursday, state police Sgt. Douglas Burig said one of the surviving girls told police during a brief interview that Roberts told the students, “I’m going to make you pay for my daughter.”

The girl also said Roberts told them to lie down and place their heads near the blackboard.

“We want to interview both girls,” Burig said. “I think they could give us a glimpse of what was going on.”

Amish leaders decided earlier in the week to raze the school, which has remained boarded up since the day after the shootings.

Classes have resumed in a nearby garage for the young male students, and a new school will be built, said Hart, although the location has not been determined.

“For myself, and I’m sure many others, it’s been a day of closure,” Hart said. “Though, in our hearts, I don’t think that closure will ever truly exist.”


Intelligencer Journal reporter Brett Lovelace contributed to this report. blog comments powered by Disqus