According to Time, the school is completely redesigned and contains no obvious memorials to the 26 people who died inside the old school in 2012.
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She spoke about how the community made a decision to move forward with plans to rebuild the school on the same street but on a different location than its predecessor, Sandy Hook Elementary School, which was demolished following the mass shooting that left 27 dead on December 14, 2012.
One of the playgrounds of the newly constructed Sandy Hook Elementary School is unveiled by officials in Newtown, Connecticut, U.S. July 29, 2016. The public got its first glimpse inside the nature-themed building on Friday.
“But, let me state unequivocally that we would trade in a minute this lovely new school for the more familiar and ancient Sandy Hook school, built in the ’50s, if we could just change the past”, said Pat Llodra, the town’s first selectman.
“We’ve offered the opportunity for the Sandy Hook family, the community at large, and for anybody in the Newtown area to be comfortable with the school…see the school and join hands with us to make sure that the first day, we are all set to go”, Newtown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Erardi said.
“Despite its birth from a disgusting tragedy, Sandy Hook School will be a place full of laughter, love, and learning”, Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra said.
The community was given the opportunity Friday to tour the new 86,000 square-foot building.
Prospective parents and the media were given a chance to look around the old school’s $US50m replacement, which is on the same spot but is built to a different footprint.
It’s built on the same grounds as the previous school but isn’t in the same spot.
While the new school may never erase the pain of that day, officials believe its state-of-the-art safety features will keep the young students of this small CT town safe from any threat.
Among the unique features of the new school are a pair of tree house spaces, breakout spaces nestled at the corner of the building that give an overhead view of the nearby forest. The windows are bullet-proof. About 35 of them were in the building at the time, he said, attending the morning kindergarten session.
Construction of the new school was completed in 2015. The school will be more about the future than the past.
The communal garden. Reuters The entrance to the school is via a moat.
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Paintings created by students are part of the overall decorating scheme, including a mural in the school’s colors of green and white that reads “Be Kind”.
