Rebuilding after school shootings: How campuses change after tragedy

School shootings have become a dark reality of American life, and as each new campus is added to the growing list of massacres, more communities are confronted with the question: what should we do with the school?

A recent survey in Colorado asked residents if they wanted to tear down the site of the infamous school shooting in 1999 that left 13 dead. Twenty years later, Columbine High School still attracts unwanted attention: tourists, painful memories… and admirers.

“The morbid fascination with Columbine has been increasing over the years, rather than dissipating,” says Superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools, Dr. Jason Glass, in a statement that emailed the survey to the Jeffco community.

Although all Jefferson County Public Schools have a modicum of security, Columbine High School has the lion’s share. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the most secure schools in the world. Glass describes a sophisticated system of surveillance and protection with extra police and security officer presence. Jeffco public school security officers racked up an additional 6,000 hours last year just at Columbine High School. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office also has a presence at the school — they even maintain a separate budget just for Columbine.

These extra patrols and officers are a huge drain on time and resources, explains Diana Wilson, the Executive Director of Communication Services for Jeffco Public Schools. But they’re necessary. Every year, hundreds of individuals attempt to enter the school grounds illegally. The school averages 190 unauthorized intrusions a month, says Glass. This past year set a record high with 2,401 unauthorized intrusions in 2018.

“I’ve had people call me from Germany to let me know they’re coming to visit the school,” says Wilson. “And I have to tell them, ‘No, you’re not. It’s not a tourist attraction.'”

Usually these macabre tourists are drawn to Columbine with harmless interest, but there are still the malicious few who are inspired by the 1999 murders. The reality of the ongoing danger came to a head in April when Columbine-obsessed Florida teen Sol Pais made a pilgrimage to the school and killed herself in the surrounding mountains.

These unrelenting, and sometimes dangerous, intrusions into the school — where sixteen-year-olds study for math class and eat lunch and go to baseball practice — is a big factor in surveying the community’s interest in demolition.

Since Columbine, there have been 11 more school shootings at the time of writing this article. We define school shootings as attacks on school grounds with 3 or more fatalities. That numbered threshold reflects the decision of a 2013 federal investigation of mass shootings authorized by then-President Barack Obama.

Columbine — and other communities like it — are presented with a choice that won’t satisfy everyone. Glass says there is certainly a contingent of dissenters toward the Columbine demolition agenda. Some want the school to continue to stand as a symbol of overcoming tragedy, while others are concerned about funding the proposed $70 million construction project through taxpayer dollars.

These communities, past and future, must answer the question: do they raze the school to protect the community from unwanted visitors, or do they remain open to demonstrate the community’s perseverance in the hopes that everything returns to normal?

At least in Columbine’s case, the numbers indicate that ‘normal’ is no longer a realistic hope. But why is a demolition discussion only now happening, twenty years later?

That’s because Jefferson County recently passed a $15 million bond for renovations, explained Wilson. Columbine High School is already an old building, so school administrators reason it would be more efficient to put the bond towards a new school, rather than renovate a structure that would need to be torn down in a few years anyway.

“The general feeling is, if we’re going to do it, now’s the time,” says Wilson.

The decision to distribute the demolition survey was in part influenced by how other communities have responded in the wake of school shootings.

“I think we’ve learned a lot of lessons since Columbine — Sandy Hook being one example,” says Glass. Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of the 2012 tragedy that left 26 dead, was rebuilt in 2016. “It was demolished and redesigned knowing it would be the subject of some interest in the future.”

But there was no precedent like that when the shooting rocked Littleton in 1999. Glass explains that at the time, there was a strong public sentiment that the building needed to stand as a testament to the community’s strength.

“Of course, 20 years ago, we couldn’t have known that we would still be confronting these issues of fascination and incursion onto school grounds,” says Glass.

Now, school safety experts recommend razing the school after a shooting takes place, according to Jeffco.

Of the 11 school shootings since Columbine, only two have been demolished and rebuilt. Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, was razed in 2013, one year after its tragedy. The West Nickel Mines School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was torn down just one week after the massacre that left five Amish school girls dead.

Two schools — Umpqua Community College and Marysville Pilchuck High School — built new single structures to replace the buildings where shootings occurred. In the case of Marysville Pilchuck, a new cafeteria was built to replace the site of their tragedy, but the old cafeteria still stands on the school’s campus and has not yet been officially slated for demolition.

Three schools — Northern Illinois University, Red Lake Senior High School, and Virginia Tech — have renovated, but not demolished, the sites of shootings. Northern Illinois’ Cole Hall was completely renovated; the auditorium where the deaths took place is no longer in use. Red Lake renovated their cafeteria, and Virginia Tech renovated the interior of Norris Hall and a residential building.

Oikos University and Santa Monica College haven’t reported any construction projects. The site of the Oikos shooting, a classroom used by nursing students, is not currently in use. In the case of Santa Monica, most of the shooting took place in outdoor spaces on campus.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. announced plans to demolish the freshman building just a few days after 17 students were killed there in February. The rest of the campus will remain standing, although to what extent further renovations might be conducted is not yet known.

Plans for the most recent shooting in May at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas have not yet been announced.