After tornado ravages SC high school, a symbol of strength and hope stands unscathed
A beacon of strength and unity stands unharmed after a devastating tornado tore through a South Carolina high school over the weekend.
Emerging from the wreckage at North Central High School in Kershaw County was the school’s silver knight, its mascot and now a vision of hope for the school community as it regroups and determines how to move beyond the destruction. Several of the knight statues from around the school have survived and now stand watch on the property.
“It’s kind of like a symbol,” said David Branham, the school’s principal for the past six years.
The 500-student high school in rural Kershaw County, north of Camden and about 45 miles outside the state’s capital, was badly damaged by an EF-2 — or “significant” — tornado that touched down late Saturday night. Tornadoes are rated on a scale of 0 to 5, with the 5 the worst, according to the National Weather Service.
Monday was a day of assessment and regrouping. While school district officials and reclamation crews worked on the school property to assess the damage, clean up debris and determine what materials could be saved, North Central teachers and faculty got to work in their temporary home, a newly renovated district vocational center.
Branham met with his staff Monday morning, as they “cried a little bit and laughed a little bit about everything going on.”
Their response has been “kind of like a shock factor, awe. It’s a lot to take in,” he said. “We were upset, and then we started to laugh about some things. And then we said, you know what, what’s most important is that we’re on our A-game for our kids.”
It was an emotional but hopeful day as the school’s leaders made plans to get their kids back to class as soon as Wednesday, all under one stable roof at the vocational center. Branham said they’ll make a final call Tuesday as to whether classes will resume or whether they’ll take advantage of an “e-learning” day.
“For a lot of our kids, (school) is the most stable place they have,” said Branham, a North Central graduate himself. “We may be in a different location, but we’re going to create the same kind of family atmosphere that our school is known for.”
Students haven’t missed any instructional time, as Monday and Tuesday already were scheduled as teacher workdays.
The tornado hit with 130 mph winds at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, officials have said. It left a trail of damage at the 40-year-old school, including gaping holes in brick walls, smashed buses, busted windows, ripped ceilings, collapsed bleachers and debris strewn inside and outside the school.
Despite the destruction, there have been numerous blessings to count in the aftermath, Kershaw County school district spokesperson Mary Anne Byrd said.
The timing of the tornado was fortunate, in a sense, considering that no one was present at the school when the storm hit and that students already were scheduled to have time off this week. A nearby middle school was only minimally damaged by the storm, and students will be able to return there Wednesday, Byrd said. No homes in the area of the school were reported damaged.
And, most significantly, no people were harmed by the tornado or the ensuing damage.
“We were just so blessed that no one was on the campus,” Byrd said. “We’re really super thankful that this didn’t involve any loss of life or any injury.”
It was too soon Monday to estimate the cost of damage and losses at the school, from the structure to its contents.
The school’s main office, library and drama spaces took the hardest hits, Byrd said. Some classrooms suffered significant damage, while others were mostly untouched, she said. Officials were working to salvage technology such as Smartboards along with other materials that might be saved, but the full extent of losses was yet to be calculated.
Immediate priorities at the high school also included assessing damage to school buses — around 30 were damaged, some only partially, and some were complete losses. The state education department has provided at least 27 replacement buses for North Central students and for the local middle and elementary school students who also rely on them.
Ryan Brown, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, said state education officials “are going to do whatever we can to support the teachers and students there.”
In addition to replacing damaged buses, state officials are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure that food service for North Central students is not interrupted. The state also will work with the Kershaw County school district to apply for any available federal funding as well as possibly working with state legislators to procure recovery funds, Brown said. State education superintendent Molly Spearman visited the school Monday morning.
The state will work to replace any state-supplied instructional materials that were lost, Brown said, although the department has been squeezed for cash to buy educational materials in recent years, he added.
“I think they’ve got the entire weight of state government to help them,” Brown said.
Lawmakers including state House Speaker Rep. Jay Lucas, state Rep. Laurie Funderburk, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman have visited the school, Byrd said.
Members of the community also visited the school over the weekend to witness the damage for themselves. The principal of Lugoff-Elgin High School, who formerly led North Central, supplied lunch for the North Central faculty Monday and deployed his school’s band trailer to stand ready for whenever musical equipment is able to be extracted from the damaged building, Byrd said.
“We’ve had a great outpouring of support from our local community as well as across the state. We’ve even heard from counterparts in North Carolina wanting to help,” Byrd said. “It’s been extremely heartwarming to see that. Any of those high school, cross-town rivalries go away when something like this happens.”
Some community members have good-heartedly attempted to begin online fundraising efforts for the school, but those are premature at this time, Byrd said. A GoFundMe account that was set up by a community member has been deactivated while the school continues to determine what its needs are.
“Right now we’re asking people to keep us in their prayers and thoughts,” Byrd said. “We’re still in an assessment to gather what our needs are, and once we know that, we’ll let (people) know.”
