TUMBLER RIDGE — Demolition is underway at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in northern British Columbia, the site of a deadly mass shooting earlier this year.
Photos posted to social media show excavators clawing at the building, tearing down the outside walls and revealing pink insulation, with scraps of metal piled to one side of the school.
Eight victims died in the Feb. 10 mass shooting by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, including her mother and brother who were killed in the nearby family home, then five children and an educational assistant at the school.
Police say Van Rootselaar then killed herself as officers closed in.
The demolition comes after the provincial and federal governments pledged funding for a new secondary school at a different location.
The governments said in a joint press release on May 7 that Peace River South School Board requested help after consulting victims, families, community members and experts.
The release said help was requested to build a new school and “to ensure the current school is removed quickly and in a trauma-informed way.”
Stu Bell, who shared photos of the demolition to social media on Monday, said in the post that he was “feeling a massive amount of relief.”
“The building must go,” said Bell, describing himself as a former student at the school and now a parent of teenagers in the community.
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