After a shooting that turned the hallways of Apalachee High into a crime scene, school administrators now face the daunting task of restoring it as a place of safety and learning.
The Winder school has been closed since Wednesday, when four were killed and nine were injured, with no word yet on when it will reopen. Educators who faced the same challenge after mass shootings at high schools in Parkland, Florida, and Oxford, Michigan, say it won’t be easy.
School officials will have to make decisions on everything from security to the best ways to provide mental health services. While the experiences of other schools that have experienced gun violence can serve as a blueprint, Barrow County will have to figure out what is best for Apalachee.
A tragedy like this shakes a community, said Tom Donnelly, who was president of the Oxford school board when four students were killed at Oxford High in 2021.
“Ever since the shooting, I’ve just been off. I still do my job, but my insides are twisted,” Donnelly said. “It’s something you never let go of.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Except for Apalachee, schools in Barrow County will remain closed until Tuesday. Officials said they are still working on a reopening plan for Apalachee.
“This last week has been an incredibly difficult time for all of us,” Superintendent Dallas LeDuff said Friday. “We are still grieving but at the same time we must try our best to navigate this uncharted journey ahead together. Please know your trust and your children’s safety remain at the heart of everything we do.”
Apalachee teachers met Thursday, a gathering one described as “cathartic.” They lost two of their colleagues in the shooting, math teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, and a third teacher, David Phenix, was injured.
“We have an immense undertaking in front of us,” wrote the teacher, who allowed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to share their comments but requested they not be named because the district asked staff not to speak with the media. “Children filled with fear and doubt. Parents concerned for their precious children. I make you this promise... we will pour into your children. We will help them find hope again.”
Offering emotional support
Whenever the school reopens, Donnelly stressed the importance of flexibility and sensitivity. Every person will have experienced the shooting differently, whether it was their proximity to the violence or the relationships they had with those killed.
Nearly two months passed before Oxford students returned to their school building. In the interim, the district resumed classes virtually and on a limited in-person basis using another school’s building. And in the immediate days after the shooting, the district found a space in the community and set it up as a gathering place for students.
“We felt the worst thing would be for these kids to be home alone,” Donnelly said.
Students returned in a phased approach after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High where 17 students and staff were killed, former Broward County Superintendent Bob Runcie said. The school was closed for two weeks before students returned to class, though not to the building on campus where the shooting occurred. It remained closed until being demolished earlier this year.
Bringing students back in groups by grade level allowed the district to make sure it had enough support staff available, he said.
Runcie said a school in this situation can’t overdo it in terms of making mental health counselors available. Both the Parkland and Oxford schools also made therapy dogs available.
“You want to go over the top,” he said.
Helping the helpers
The school district in Greenville, S.C. took a similar all-hands-on-deck approach after a 12-year-old was killed in a 2022 shooting at Tanglewood Middle School, Superintendent Burke Royster said.
Administrators opened the school the day after the shooting in order to help preserve as much of students’ routine as possible. It was an optional day for both staff and students.
Every classroom was staffed with two mental health counselors pulled from other schools in the district and community partners. If a teacher became overwhelmed, there were other adults able to take over, Royster said. Faith-based leaders were also present.
About half of the school’s students came that first day, and enrollment ticked up each following day. The principal sent parents daily updates letting them know of progress.
Royster said it’s important to think about how the whole community has been affected, including school support staff and first responders. Schools need to make plans to help the helpers, too.
Parkland gave staff paid mental health days and granted excused absences for students, Runcie said. At Oxford, Donnelly said some students never returned to the building, opting for virtual instruction instead.
Barrow County administrators will also have to make decisions about what to do with the building itself. Some schools that have been the sites of mass shootings, like Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, were completely demolished, while places like Parkland leveled certain areas.
Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
Oxford remodeled, cutting off access to places where the shooter carried out his rampage.
When the building was ready, they invited the families of injured students to come in privately to tour the remodeled space first. They increased the number of staff present in hallways during class changes so that there were extra eyes on students.
Oxford also took the hallway that was most affected and moved some of the classes there to different rooms so that students wouldn’t have to learn in a space they associated with the tragedy.
Security measures
Those fears might necessitate a rethinking of school security procedures, the educators said.
Metal detectors are often requested by parents but some research shows they may not be the most effective way to prevent school violence. The hardening of school campuses can also be counterproductive to making students feel welcome.
Runcie said his district decided to focus on increasing mental health support and developing threat assessment procedures, which is what the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center recommends schools implement.
Threat assessment teams can identify struggling students and get them help before they hurt themselves or others. The accused Apalachee shooter was investigated by law enforcement a year before the shooting for allegedly making threats, a warning that does not appear to have been passed on to school officials.
“We brought in lots of national experts and they’ll tell you, the biggest return on your investment you can make is in mental health and really strong behavioral protocols,” Runcie said.
Oxford opted to install Evolv weapons detectors, a system used by several districts in metro Atlanta. The community wanted to see physical security increased, Donnelly said. Tanglewood also added Evolv detectors, a decision made before the shooting.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Donnelly said his top regret is not seeking an independent investigation of the shooting sooner. To this day, questions linger in his community about what happened and whether it could have been prevented. He said a review of the shooting at Apalachee could help restore the community’s sense of security.
The educators elsewhere stressed patience for the long road ahead.
“The impacts of this are going to be felt for quite some time,” Runcie said.
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