Canadian high school where deadly mass shooting occurred to be torn down | Tumbler Ridge school shooting
Authorities have announced that the school where one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings took place will be demolished.
British Columbia premier David Eby said the decision to demolish Tumbler Ridge secondary school followed meetings between the school board and survivors, family and community members.
“We want to make sure we do things right by the survivors, the families and the people of Tumbler Ridge,” he told reporters. “[The school board] “On Thursday, we heard overwhelmingly that students, educators, staff and others want to move to a new location,” he said.
Nine people were killed and dozens injured when 18-year-old former student Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire on a school day in February. The attacker was later found dead from a self-inflicted wound. In an attack that left the country emotionally shattered, police found six people dead at the school and two victims, the attacker’s brother and mother, were later found at a residence linked to the attacker.
Speaking at a community vigil days after the shooting, Eby promised the community that young people in Tumbler Ridge would never have to return to the low-rise brick building where the tragedy occurred.
“We will provide you with a safe place to go to school,” he said at the event, which was attended by political leaders from all over the country.
The school will be demolished in the summer and a new building will be built in a different part of the remote mountain town.
Tumbler Ridge middle school has remained closed since the attack, but some students have been attending classes in small portable classrooms on school grounds.
“As a state, we are committed to ensuring that this new school is built as quickly as possible within our authority as a state government,” Eby said, adding that the federal government will also help fund the project. “When the premier was at Tumbler Ridge with me and the mayor, he committed that the federal government would be part of this effort, and they confirmed that they would work with us to replace this school.”
Eby said the community had shown “heroism”, “courage” and “resilience” in the months since the mining town suffered untold devastation. He said his government would work to ensure “children in Tumbler Ridge have a safe, comfortable and restorative place to return to school.”
