School shooting shocks Amish community

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
October 4, 2006

A commercial milk truck driver shot and killed five Amish school girls and then himself in Paradise, Pa. Oct. 2, police said, in the third U. S. school shooting to occur within a week.

“It’s a horrendous crime scene,” said Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller.

In addition to the five girls who were killed, six others were injured in the attack, and were last reported to be in critical condition at various hospitals around Pennsylvania.

Police say that the suspect, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, entered a one-room schoolhouse on Monday morning armed with multiple weapons, including three guns and 600 rounds of ammunition. Roberts, a resident of Bart, Pa., is married and has three children of his own.

According to Miller’s report, Roberts’ wife discovered what seemed like suicide notes written to his children, then called her husband on his cell phone while he was still in the schoolhouse. Roberts spoke with his wife, telling her he was “acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago.”

Recent reports have revealed that Roberts told his wife during their phone conversation about molesting a minor family member 20 years ago, and had dreamed of molesting again.

Although police found KY jelly lubricant inside the schoolhouse where the attack occured, there was no evidence that the children were sexually assaulted.

Roberts lined up all 26 school children, aged six to 13, with the exception of some older teacher aides, along a blackboard. He then dismissed all the boys in the class, along with one adult female who was pregnant, Miller reported.

Roberts bound together the feet of the 11 girls who remained in the classroom before calling 911, telling police that if they “didn’t leave the property, he would start shooting people within 10 seconds,” Miller said.

Seconds later, Miller reported that there were “multiple shots in quick succession.”

Within the past month, three other incidents of school violence have occurred throughout the country, with a 53-year-old man in Colorado killing a student and himself, a Wisconsin teen allegedly shooting his principal and a man in Vermont murdering a teacher in an elementary school.

These crimes have brought school violence back into the news, making safety a primary concern for students, parents, principals and teachers. Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, says that it is difficult to ensure that schools will be secure at all times.

“When you factor in unpredictable outsiders, when you have a roaming monster walking into the schools, we have to be realistic,” Trump said.

Since the deadly shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., school officials have been working to make schools safer, yet experts say chance is a large factor.

“There are some incidents you’re not going to be able to prevent,” Trump said.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu