Students from Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis are returning to their classrooms Tuesday, weeks after a shooter opened fire during a back-to-school mass.
Two children were killed and 21 people, most of them children, were injured on Aug. 27 when a person with multiple weapons shot students and adults as they worshipped at the start of the school year. Students tried to shield others and took cover under pews as bullets, shrapnel and glass flew around them.
Classes resumed for preschoolers last week. On Tuesday, teachers and staff will welcome more students to the building for some “on-campus activities” and a “modified schedule,” according to the school.
In a statement, Annunciation leaders said they would focus students’ first hours back in the building on “activities centered on support, connection, and play.” Leaders also said they would maintain a “visible” security presence this week.
“We have spent the past weeks preparing for a safe, supportive resumption that is focused on healing and connection. We recognize that, while we walk our path together, some members of our community walk at different paces and with different steps,” Annunciation school leaders said in a statement released over the weekend.
Leaders from Minnesota’s Washburn Center for Children have spent time in recent days attending meetings with Annunciation staff to help them prepare to welcome students back to classes at the school, which teaches pre-k through eighth grade.
“Our initial focus has really been on supporting the school staff and the educators … in terms of educating them on some of the things that the children might be experiencing or displaying,” Washburn CEO Craig Warren told MPR News.
He said Washburn’s message to staff and parents has been “Take care of yourself first and then take care of the kids in your lives.”
Last weekend a memorial service was held for 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, who was killed in the attack. This weekend thousands gathered in Minneapolis to remember 10-year-old Harper Moyski, who was also killed in the attack.
