Amish school shooting victim may be discharged before Christmas

NICKEL MINES, Pa. -- The last of five Amish girls hospitalized after being shot nearly three months ago in a schoolhouse massacre is scheduled to go home before Christmas, according to a family friend.

Sarah Ann Stoltzfus is expected to be released from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Friday, said Leroy Zook, the father of Stoltzfus' teacher, Emma Mae Zook, and a close friend of the victims' parents.

Five other girls were killed in the Oct. 2 attack at West Nickel Mines Amish School, including Sarah Ann's 12-year-old sister, Anna Mae. The 32-year-old gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, committed suicide as police surrounded the one-room school. The schoolhouse was later razed.

Classes are being held in a temporary facility near where the school was located.

On Monday, Sarah Ann visited the school to hear her classmates entertain their parents with Christmas songs, Zook said.

Daniel Stoltzfus, whose daughter Rachel is back at school after being shot, said he attended the Christmas party with mixed emotions.

"She's doing good, we're doing good -- just trying to get back," he said.

The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, which is coordinating receipt and distribution of donations, had collected about $3.6 million as of last week, said member Mike Hart, also the local fire department spokesman.

The committee has already disbursed money to pay transportation costs and lost wages to the families of victims, and for medical bills and counseling. It also made one payment to a fund for Roberts' widow and three children from money that donors earmarked for them.

Shortly after the school's Christmas party ended, the grandfather of Roberts' widow, Marie, was securing a holiday decoration on the shooter's grave site that had blown over in the wind.

Lloyd Welk said his family is struggling to cope with the pain.

"You can't forget it," he said. "You turn on the TV or you pick up the paper, and there's always something to remind you, something not too nice. I wish they'd let it slide."