Most students in a Georgia district return to class nearly a week after a school shooting

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — Many students in Georgia’s Barrow County headed back to class Tuesday, six days after a shooting killed two teachers and two students at the school district’s Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta.

No return date has been set for the 1,900 students at that high school, but the 13,000 students in Barrow County’s other schools did return, including at the middle school and elementary school that border the Apalachee campus in Winder.

When her 8-year-old daughter said over the weekend that she was scared to go back to school, Shonderi Williams broke down in her bathroom. She has two daughters Yargo Elementary School and one daughter at Haymon-Morris Middle School, the schools next door. She said she tried to put on a “hero face.”

“I’m trying to teach them, I’m here for you. I’m your protector. There’s nobody that’s going to hurt you, ” Williams told The Associated Press while she waited to pick up her two daughters who attend Yargo. “I can’t be around them 24/7, so I know that’s a lie that I told my child. But I have to go and be that strong parent for them.”

Williams had a son who died in 2003 at age 2, and said she was hesitant to send her kids back.

“My kids are still in danger,” Williams said. “It’s a mind-boggling situation that we all have to get through.”

Jamie Love said she was overwhelmed with relief when her daughter, who also attends Yargo, jumped into the car after school.

“I honestly could cry,” she said. “I’m really excited.”

Throughout the day, Love wondered if she would get a phone call from her daughter’s teacher, asking to pick her up. Her daughter struggled with nightmares over the weekend. But she seemed to feel better when Love and her husband explained that the police were there for safety, not because something was wrong.

“We spent a lot of time trying to just make her feel safe and understand that school can go back to being a happy, fun, and educational place,” Love said.

Superintendent Dallas LeDuff said sheriff’s deputies and state troopers would provide extra security when schools reopened, with counseling available at all campuses. He said that if students or employees weren’t ready to return, they should contact their school’s principal for aid.

“We know the days ahead are going to be difficult, and that we have some staff and some students who are not ready to return to school,” LeDuff said. “We also believe as a school system that it is our responsibility to provide a safe space for those who are.”

Sabrina Masters Reed, a third grade teacher at Holsenback Elementary School, said on Monday that she attended grief and trauma training earlier that day. She wasn’t sure how many students would return Tuesday, but said many parents needed their children to go back so they could go to work without having to find child care.

Many in the community remain in shock nearly a week after the shootings, said Reed, who leads the county’s chapter of the Georgia Association of Educators, the state’s second-largest teachers group.

“I know of other coworkers — who are parents — and parents who chose this community because they thought it was safe here,” Reed said of the rapidly suburbanizing county of 90,000 people. “The thing is, I think it is a safe place here in Barrow County. It’s just a sad fact that these tragedies can happen anywhere in any community in the U.S.”

Relatives and friends are mourning the victims, including teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. A memorial service was held Sunday for Aspinwall, while a Romanian Orthodox Church congregation honored Irimie. Her funeral is set for Saturday.

Colt Gray, 14, is charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his 54-year-old father, Colin Gray with second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. Investigators allege Colin Gray gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.

Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire. More of them are going home from hospitals. Doug Griffith said his 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Griffith, was released from a hospital on Monday after being treated for gunshot wounds to her arm and wrist.

Natalie Griffith is a freshman and a flute player in the band. She was shot in her algebra class.

“She’s got an A in algebra, and she’s extremely proud of that,” Doug Griffith said.

Griffith is one of a number of relatives seeking to raise donations through GoFundMe. He said he wants to make sure his daughter has help, as well as to support other victims.

“I just want to make sure that she has the support that she’s going to need because this is uncharted territory,” Griffith said.

Robert Runcie, the former superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, said Tuesday that people in Barrow County should “give each other a lot of grace, love and support” as students return. Runcie was the superintendent when a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

“Make the space and time for doing it, and recognize that you’re not going to have a normal school day, whatever that normal looks like,” he told the AP in an interview. “The recovery process is going to take years, much longer than folks imagine,” he said.

___

Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Jeff Martin contributed from Atlanta.

Jeff Amy And Charlotte Kramon, The Associated Press