The razing of the building is cathartic -- it also serves to help erase the memories associated with the building that once stood there.
The Amish realized this right away -- and that's why they prompty tore down the one-room school in Pennsylvania after the lunatic there barged in and shot several kids.
Of course, the school at Sandy Hook was somewhat larger (but not the size of today's "megaschools", not even close).
To me, what happened there last year was more than 26 ghastly murders. In the aftermath, the legacy of "Sandy Hook" changed into as strong an attempt to destroy our Constitutional rights as was the NSA's spying that has been brought to light by Edward Snowden.
For many of my 32 years on the job, I used to drive through Sandy Hook each night on the way home from work -- come down to the traffic light (near the school) and take a left, and then get on 84 and head home.
But I haven't gone there since the shooting. On my rides, I'd find a way around having to go into Netown. If the school had remained standing, I probably would never have visited Newtown center and Sandy Hook again. Something evil happened there, and that school was the symbol -- of an attack not only on twenty children and their teachers, but upon our very rights.
The townsfolk have done the right thing by tearing that building down. I don't think they should even build another school there -- there's land in the town, build it somewhere else nearby.
Now that it's gone, maybe I'll take a ride into town again, next year....