Canadian high school where deadly mass shooting occurred to be torn down

The school which was the site of one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings will be torn down, officials have announced.

The decision to demolish the Tumbler Ridge secondary school came after meetings between the school board and survivors, family and community members, said British Columbia premier David Eby.

“We want to make sure we’re doing things right by the survivors, by the families, by the people of Tumbler Ridge,” he told reporters. “[The school board] heard overwhelmingly was that the students, the educators, the staff and others wanted to move to a new location,” he said on Thursday.

Nine people were killed and dozens injured after Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old former student at the school, opened fire during a school day in February. The shooter was later found dead from a self-inflicted injury. In an attack that left the country emotionally shattered, police found six people dead inside the school and two more victims – the shooter’s sibling and mother – were later found at a residence connected to the shooter.

When he spoke at a community vigil days after the shooting, Eby promised the community that the youth of Tumbler Ridge would never have to return to the low slung brick building where tragedy struck.

“We will provide a safe place for you to go to school,” he said at the event, which also attended by political leaders from across the country.

The school will be demolished over the summer and a new building will be constructed in a different part of the remote mountain town.

Tumbler Ridge secondary school has remained closed since the shooting, but some students have been attending classes in small portable classrooms on the school grounds.

“As a province, we’re committed to getting this new school built as quickly as possible within our authorities as a provincial government,” Eby said, adding that the federal government will also help fund the project. “When the prime minister was in Tumbler Ridge with me and with the mayor, he committed that the federal government would be part of this effort as well, and they have confirmed that they will also be working with us to replace this school.”

Eby said the community had demonstrated “heroism”, “courage” and “resilience” in the months since the mining town endued unspeakable devastation. He said his government would work to ensure “that the kids of Tumbler Ridge have a safe, comfortable and healing place to return to school”.