2008 Woodie Awards
WPU Remembers Recent Tragedy With a Service
Jonathan Ciccone
Issue date: 11/1/06 Section: Campus Briefs
Tears glistened with candlelight, when more than 20 people gathered in front of William Paterson University's Shea Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 10 to commemorate the five Amish girls killed Oct. 2.
The victims were in class at a small West Nickel Mines, Pa. school when gunman Charles Roberts, 32, stormed the one-room building. He released all of the male students, as well as four adults, but held ten female students hostage. Reportedly tormented by memories of molesting his young relatives 20-years-ago, Roberts planned to sexually assault the Amish girls, police said. But when police would not back down, Roberts shot the girls, five fatally, and then killed himself.
"Their death was just the last straw," said Dr. Arlene Holpp Scala, WPU women's studies chair.
A mother of three girls, Holpp Scala helped plan the gathering at WPU, which also remembered other victims of sexual assault.
"I'm just so sorry for the parents," she said of the Amish families. "It was important that William Paterson (University) did something."
The event attracted professors, students and alumni, all of whom held candles while members of The Feminist Collective, a student group formed to address feminist issues on campus, read the names of the slain Amish girls.
Not lost on the group was the fact that school shootings have been all too common lately.
"I wish I could say I'm surprised by this brutality," sophomore Eric Gross said in a sobering tone. "But this is what society is today."
Gross described his opinion as pessimistic, but rational.
As the half-hour ceremony came to an end and the crowd began to break up, one student, who had cried earlier while reading the names of the dead Amish girls, darted off, still sobbing.
"Are you going to be okay?" Holpp Scala yelled to her.
The student answered, "As okay as I can be."
The victims were in class at a small West Nickel Mines, Pa. school when gunman Charles Roberts, 32, stormed the one-room building. He released all of the male students, as well as four adults, but held ten female students hostage. Reportedly tormented by memories of molesting his young relatives 20-years-ago, Roberts planned to sexually assault the Amish girls, police said. But when police would not back down, Roberts shot the girls, five fatally, and then killed himself.
"Their death was just the last straw," said Dr. Arlene Holpp Scala, WPU women's studies chair.
A mother of three girls, Holpp Scala helped plan the gathering at WPU, which also remembered other victims of sexual assault.
"I'm just so sorry for the parents," she said of the Amish families. "It was important that William Paterson (University) did something."
The event attracted professors, students and alumni, all of whom held candles while members of The Feminist Collective, a student group formed to address feminist issues on campus, read the names of the slain Amish girls.
Not lost on the group was the fact that school shootings have been all too common lately.
"I wish I could say I'm surprised by this brutality," sophomore Eric Gross said in a sobering tone. "But this is what society is today."
Gross described his opinion as pessimistic, but rational.
As the half-hour ceremony came to an end and the crowd began to break up, one student, who had cried earlier while reading the names of the dead Amish girls, darted off, still sobbing.
"Are you going to be okay?" Holpp Scala yelled to her.
The student answered, "As okay as I can be."
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