The Apalachee High School gathered to mourn those killed in Wednesday's attack, pray for those who were injured, and try come to grips with the atrocity at a makeshift memorial in front of the Winder school on Sept. 6, 2024. (FOX 5)
WINDER, Ga. - Later this week, students at Apalachee High School will get a look at new portable classrooms. These additions are being introduced after some classes were moved off-campus in the wake of a deadly mass shooting last September. Students have been required to take shuttles to a temporary location since the incident.
The portable classrooms will be situated just outside the main school building. This Thursday, the district is inviting parents and students to tour the new facilities.
More than 30,000 square feet of the main school building was closed off following the September 2024 mass shooting, which claimed the lives of two students and two teachers and injured several others.
The Barrow County School System has already implemented several measures to enhance security, including increasing the number of school resource officers. Additionally, the district launched an online school safety survey to gather community input on further campus improvements.
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Meanwhile, the school board is set to present proposed security upgrades and changes during its meeting on Tuesday.
Apalachee High School shooting
Colt Gray, 14, is accused of opening fire inside the Apalachee High School campus, resulting in the deaths of two teachers, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Cristina Irimie, and two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Nine others sustained injuries.
Investigators say Colt used a "black semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle," which his father, Colin Gray, reportedly gave him for Christmas.
Colt Gray faces 55 charges, including four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, four counts of aggravated battery, 25 counts of aggravated assault, and 18 counts of cruelty to children in the first degree.
Colin Gray faces 29 charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say that the Barrow County father was aware that his son was obsessed with school shooters and even had a shrine above his home computer for the gunman in the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida. However, he didn't take any action.