CNN
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Students will return to class on Tuesday, months after the devastating mass shooting in Uwald, Texas. But the survivors will never return to the building where 19 of their classmates and two teachers were massacred in May.
Uwald Mayor Don McLaughlin said at a July city council meeting that Robb Elementary School would be demolished, CNN affiliate KSAT-TV reported.
“We can never send kids back, or teachers back to that school,” McLaughlin said.
Demolition of schools after mass shootings has become so common that there is a federal funding process available, according to the Texas senator. Roland Gutierrez.
Gutierrez told KSAT-TV in May that even such a process is frustrating.
“What kind of world do we live in where legislation is meant to raze these schools?” he said.
Other schools have also resorted to destroying buildings in the wake of the massive tragedy.
“In many cases, these schools are closed or completely renovated to reduce the traumatic reminders they serve to members of the community,” said the Center for Violence Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
It is unclear when Robb Elementary School will be razed, if it will be replaced by another school, or if a memorial or other building will take its place.
Meanwhile, survivors of the attack will attend classes at other schools in the district.
The district’s superintendent, Hal Harrell, has a plan to make schools safer.
But some families are still reluctant to return and move to other areas or take classes online. A total of 416 students transferred out of the school district and 136 participated in virtual education, KSAT-TV reported.
Here’s what happened to other schools after the terror attack:
Sandy Hook Elementary School reopens
Date of attack: December 14, 2012
Place: Newtown, Connecticut
Number of victims: 26 people (including 20 children aged 6 and 7 and 6 adults)
What happened at school: The entire school was razed and rebuilt.
Three weeks after the horrific attack, Sandy Hook students headed to the nearby city of Monroe to begin classes at Chalk Hill Middle School, which is no longer used as a middle school.
Four years after the massacre, a new Sandy Hook Elementary School is open to students, including fourth graders who served as kindergarteners during the massacre.
Date of attack: April 20, 1999
Place: Littleton, Colorado
Number of victims: 13 (including 12 students and 1 teacher)
What happened at school: Columbine High School is closed for the remainder of the school year. The attack damaged about 23,000 square feet of the school, officials said, leaving an estimated 900 to 1,000 bullet and shrapnel holes in the walls and ceiling.
Four months later, at the start of the new school year, most of the schools reopened — except for the library, where most of the massacre took place.it It was demolished and replaced by a new school library called Hope Library.
Parkland survivor explains why she won’t be back
Date of attack: February 14, 2018
Place: Parkland, FL
Number of victims: 17 (including 14 students and 3 staff)
What happened at school: Two weeks after the massacre, students returned to campus. However, building 12 of the school where most of the victims were killed was closed off with emergency tape and the windows were covered.
A new building later replaced the makeshift classrooms used by students after the massacre.
Shooting Survivor: I’m Not Surprised
Date of attack: May 18, 2018
Place: Santa Fe, TX
Number of victims: 10 (including 8 students and 2 teachers)
What happened at school: The students returned 11 days after the bloodshed.
Even though there are only two days left in the school year, senior Caitlin Richards says she doesn’t want her high school career to end in a massacre.
“I don’t know if we’re ready to go back to school,” she told CNN affiliate KTRK, where day school resumes.
“But I don’t want that last day to be the last memory of my senior year. I just want to know that I can see all my classmates again.”