Sandy Hook, Columbine High School and Pulse nightclub share a shocking history.
On the night of June 12 2016, a gunman shot and killed 49 clubgoers in the Orlando club, injuring many more in massacre. The venue, which was built for music, dancing and celebrating with friends – now stands as a memorial site, closed and covered in flowers, balloons and photographs of those who lost their lives.
Orlando officials are still deciding on the best permanent memorial for those killed in the nightclub shooting – which was the deadliest in modern American history.
This month, almost four years after the shooting at Sandy Hook in December 2012, the new $AU66 million (NZ$69 million) educational facility will be reopened on the same site that 20 first-graders and six staff members were killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
After the horror shooting, parents of children enrolled in the school in Newtown, Connecticut, couldn’t image ever sending their kids back to the site.
But in an 86,000-square-foot school reconstruction, the old Sandy Hook has been replaced with buildings that contain safety features such as impact-resistant windows and state-of-the-art video monitoring.
“Our goal was to create a place of community and learning, a place that would honour those we lost and allow those who were left behind the chance to move forward,” First Selectman Pat Llodra said in a statement.
But they know it will take more than a new building and returning students and staff members with special resources to cope.
COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL, COLORADO
On April 20, 1999, two disgruntled seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed suicide after the deadly rampage, reopened the debate on US gun control and whether tighter controls should be introduced.
After the burials of the 13 deceased, there was the issue of what to do with the school itself and the students who needed to go to class.
Spending more than $US1.2 million on repairs and renovations, officials decided to permanently close the library where many of the victims were killed. Later, it was bulldozed and turned into an atrium.
From the day of the shooting until August 16 1999, the school had its American flag at half-mast. It took four months for students and teachers to return to the school after the massacre.
Before class began on the Monday, principal Frank DeAngelis lead the 2000 students, teachers and staff in a “take back the school” rally.
While students were looking forward to getting back into their school year – some were obviously nervous about going back to the site that now had so many horrific memories.
“I’m really excited to get our school back,” Julie McGinley, who was 15 when she returned to school, told the Guardian in 1999.
‘They took too damn long’: Inside the police response to the Orlando shooting
“But I’m nervous, too. All summer I’ve been trying to live life as normal. Being back there is going to trigger a lot of memories.”
A permanent memorial “to honour and remember the victims of the April 20, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School” was dedicated on September 21, 2007, in Clement Park, a meadow adjacent to the school where impromptu memorials were held in the days following the shooting. The memorial fund raised $1.5 million in donations in the eight years it took to plan and create.
AURORA CINEMA, COLORADO:
On July 20, 2012, 12 people were killed and a further 70 injured after being gunned down by James Eagan Holmes as they watched The Dark Night Rises in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.
The gunman, who confessed to the shooting but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, was convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possessing explosives. On 26th August, 2015, he was given 12 life sentences.
Six months after the shooting, the owner of the cinema decided to renovate the facility and reopen under a new name, Century Aurora. At the time of opening, many people were not supportive – particularly the victims’ families.
Family members of nine of the victims wrote a letter criticising Cinemark for showing “ZERO compassion to the families of the victims whose loved ones were killed in their theatre”.
But officials said that a public vote indicated they were widely in favour of reopening the cinema under a new name.
CHARLESTON CHURCH, SOUTH CAROLINA:
It has been just over a year since nine African-American churchgoers were shot dead by a young, white man who entered their Charleston, South Carolina, church, joined their Bible study for an hour and then opened fire. The shooter, Dylann Roof, blamed his victims because of their skin colour and was charged with 33 federal offences, allegedly telling investigators he wanted to start a race war.In the wake of the shooting, security was increased at the complex with cameras and in some cases, posting armed ushers but the doors reopened.
The Confederate flag came down for good from its pole on the Statehouse grounds. The city of Charleston engraved the names of the dead on libraries and schools, and artists honoured them in portraits and murals. The church, known as Emanuel AME, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
On the one year anniversary of the mass shooting, the church held several services and events in memory of the nine victims. The memorial day, which was held on June 17 2016, had worship services, a community supper and a unity event, which were open to the public.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley praised the resilience of the three people wounded by and the families of the those killed.
“For them, it feels like it does to me,” she said. “I feel like this just happened yesterday.”
Ahead of the main memorial, more than 150 people gathered for the same Bible study where the shooting occurred last year. This time, it was led by Rev. Anthony Thompson, whose wife, Myra Thompson, died at the church shooting.
Despite the horror of what happened in June last year, the church continues to function as normal today.
Hmmm. For some reason I expected there to be some sort of conclusion drawn at the end. My mistake, there really wasn’t anything to lead me to expect that, just the wording of the title, which I obviously misunderstood.
The conclusion is that it was all real and it was all money well spent. Now go back to your football and chips.
Oh, and as for Sandy “hook”: if they actually installed impact-resistant windows and state-of-the-art video monitoring in these buildings, you can bet there is more going on there than reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.
Criminal syndicates have such equipment to protect themselves either from competing criminal syndicates or from the unwashed masses. School children of the unwashed masses don’t have those ‘amenities.’ The PTB don’t give a whit about those school children. The only children who ‘count’ are those who are part of the “American” aristocracy.
Seems appropriate. There’s no place in any public school system for libraries. Heck, those students might develop reason, skepticism, or thought.
Not with the sh*tty books they keep in those libraries.
Reblogged this on Today,s Thought.
They should have named the Aurora multiplex project, the “New American Century Theater” What an obvious psyop.
Apparently journalists at The New Zealand Herald are under the impression people died at these places. They need to do a follow up. Their readers deserve nothing less.
No, no Anne B. Journalists at The New Zealand Herald don’t exist.
As far as The New Zealand Herald’s owners are concerned, the readers are getting exactly what they deserve.
You are right. This article from the NZH is not credited to any one specific. They do have a new fresh faced weekday editor who is accountable to his boss New Zealand Media and Entertainment and the diminishing circulation which has shrunk considerably to about 140,000.
Media and Entertainment – there we have it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11467354
“One of New Zealand’s most respected journalists and newsroom leaders, Otago Daily Times editor Murray Kirkness, is the new weekday editor of The New Zealand Herald.”
Anyone contemplating expatting after the November selection, please cross New Zealand off the list.
Charleston: $29 million “fast tracked” from the US Dept. of Justice to the families of the victims – to help them with recovery from the grief and trauma. Who disbursed that money? How was it done? A bank? An atty? Fed. DOJ office in Charleston? How do they get $29 million into the bank accounts of those people? I sure like to see some media follow-up on that tax money.
You ask many, too many questions.
I lost my parents some years ago to medical malfeasance. Where do I go to collect my check?
Ok, so let me see: 1.2 million to ‘renovate’ the school (Columbine, that is) and 1.5 million to erect a ‘permanent memorial’ in a meadow adjacent to the school.
Hmm. 1.2 million to repaint and patch holes and a team to come in a clean. I would think an honest contractor could have done that for $30K maximum. For 30K and a plane ticket I know people who’d have gone there and done a great job.
And the ‘memorial’: 1.5 million for some plaques or markers, some pavers, and walkways? Again, a good (honest) mason and good (honest) memorial engraver could have erected a nice memorial for about $30K, maximum.
Where in the h^ll did the rest of that money go?
People who donate to this kind of stuff are as dumb as the day is long.
What happened to the fake shooting narrative?
I wonder who won the clean up contracts? They probably paid millions to haul all of the flowers and balloons away.
“I wonder who won the clean up contracts”?
The same people who have “cleaned up” on all the phoney charities totaling in the 100’s of millions of Dollars…
Have you ever noticed when it’s a false flag everybody gets millions of dollars.
But when it’s real nobody gets Jack squat, that’s how you can tell a false flag 101 ha ha ha ha