ST. LOUIS — Central VPA High School will move to virtual learning next Monday after three people were killed and seven were injured in a shooting at the school. There will be no school for students or staff for the remainder of this week.
In a St. Louis Public Schools news conference, Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams said the building is no longer considered a crime scene and has been handed back over to the district.
He also said students and staff are still not allowed back in the building at this time, but the district is working out plans for staff and students to collect their belongings as early as Thursday.
“It is highly likely the building won’t be occupied for the next several weeks until we’re able to do the kind of renovations necessary to put the building back in a position that students could possibly enter the building again," he said.
The district is also working closely with several partners to provide anyone affected with in-person and online counseling services, because the effects of yesterday's shooting will linger for anyone involved.
"Never did I think I would be standing here today having a conversation about a staffer and a student," he said.
Board of Education President Matt Davis said this is a trend that must stop.
"This was the 40th school shooting this year," he said. "It was just a couple of months ago we were having a moment of silence for Uvalde."
He asked, how many hundreds of bills, hundreds of solutions, hundreds of things where people can come together to protect our Second Amendment Rights and protect our kids in school?
He said as they mourn the lives lost and attempt to heal as a school and school district, there is much work to be done.
“Today we begin to try to make sense of this, to try to heal, to try to learn and see how we can stop this from ever happening again," he said.