Tumbler Ridge school comes down six months after mass shooting
The building where five students and an educator were killed in February is being dismantled as Tumbler Ridge prepares for another school year on a temporary campus.
One of the modular buildings at Tumbler Ridge’s temporary Kodiak Campus, where secondary students are attending classes while a permanent replacement school is planned.
Photo: Government of British Columbia
TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — Six months after a mass shooting devastated Tumbler Ridge, the secondary school where five students and an educator were killed is being dismantled.
Work to remove Tumbler Ridge Secondary School began in July, with most furniture and other moveable materials removed from inside the building before exterior removal began Aug. 17. School District 59 expects the demolition to continue for several more weeks, with work through the fall to restore the property to grass.
The decision to remove the school followed a consultation process examining what students, families and staff would need in the aftermath of the Feb. 10 shooting.
That consultation found strong agreement that returning to the existing school would be psychologically unsafe. Safer Schools Together recommended that the building no longer be used for student learning and that it ultimately be removed through a trauma-informed process.
The report also documented differing views about what should happen to the building. While some participants considered renovation or preservation, others described its continued presence as traumatic. The recommendation for removal placed particular emphasis on the needs of those most directly affected by the shooting.
“We recognize that seeing the building change will be significant for many in the community,” Superintendent Christy Fennell said in an Aug. 11 update.
The demolition is being carried out in stages, and material from the site is being transported to regional landfills rather than disposed of at the Tumbler Ridge landfill.
Eight victims were killed in the Feb. 10 attacks.
At Tumbler Ridge Secondary, 12-year-olds Abel Mwansa, Ticaria Lampert, Zoey Benoit and Kylie Smith, 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield and 39-year-old educator Shannda Aviugana-Durand were killed.
Eleven-year-old Emmett Jacobs and 39-year-old Jennifer Jacobs were killed at a nearby residence.
The 18-year-old shooter was later found dead inside the school with what RCMP described as an apparent self-inflicted injury. Nine people died in total, including the shooter.
Classes have not resumed in the former secondary school since the attack.
Students initially returned to temporary portable classrooms before moving in May to the larger modular facilities now known as the Kodiak Campus. The campus includes eight larger modular classroom units, while five additional modular units are scheduled to be installed by fall 2026 for administrative and common space.
Students are expected to remain on the temporary campus while planning continues for a permanent replacement.
The federal and provincial governments announced in May that a new secondary school would be built at a different location in Tumbler Ridge. No final site or design has yet been publicly announced.
The location and design are expected to be informed by further community consultation and expert advice. Consultation on the replacement school has emphasized the importance of maintaining a separate secondary school in the community, with programming and learning spaces comparable to what students had before the shooting. The process has also identified accessibility, proximity to the community and reasonable walking distance as considerations in selecting a new location.
Ottawa and Victoria have committed a combined $200 million toward infrastructure in Tumbler Ridge, with each government providing $100 million toward construction of a new secondary school and renovations to the local health centre. The governments have not announced how the funding will be divided between the two projects.
For now, the most visible change is happening at the old school site.
The structure will continue to be removed over the coming weeks, while students prepare to begin another school year on the temporary campus. The longer process of deciding where and how Tumbler Ridge's new secondary school will be built is still ahead.
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