Students return to Bend, Oregon school after deadly shooting

Returning to the classroom after tragedy, today's students at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, went back to school almost a month after a deadly school shooting. Three kids and a teacher were killed. Reporter Joe Diefel was there this morning as parents dropped off their kids. It's obviously a very emotional morning here in Bend. It's been almost a month. October 15th is when that horrific attack took place here at Silver Rail Elementary School. And this morning, students back in the classroom with their teachers. There are some changes that are in place now. As he said, the students head back to class. Obviously, the school had to undergo repairs, so all the doors and locks that have been damaged have been fixed. The special needs classroom where that attack took place, that has now been walled off. That's a wall. It's covered with art. The students that would normally be in that classroom, they are now in a different part of the building. As for what students could expect on their first day back, they were... Essentially kind of eased back into being in Silver Rail, being back in their school. Each teacher worked with mental health professionals and experts from the Mass Violence Center about how to talk to kids and essentially had a script that they would start the school day with to welcome them back, talk about what they've been through, and prepare them for the day ahead. Here's what the superintendent of Bend-La Pine School District, Dr. Stephen Cook, had to say about their approach today. Today is about balancing conversations with... With students about processing kind of re-entry, walking back into a school with some kind of guided talking points on what has happened, I would say kind of grade appropriate, if you will, kind of talking points about processing that, along with validation of students maybe ready to get on with their school and get on with life, and with students that are maybe Maybe still processing, still struggling a little bit with the The significance of the event that this community has experienced in the last month. As you can imagine, this is not going to be your average school day here at Silver Rail. It's going to be an early release day. Tomorrow will be a full school day, but today was early release. Again, they're kind of easing kids back into being in the classroom. And one number that we did get from district leadership is the percentage of kids that are returning to Silver Rail. Because some parents have opted to not have their students return here. We're told over 90% of Silver Rail students are now back in the classroom. The other approximately 10%, some are doing online classes, some are doing homeschooling, some might be transferring to other schools. And the district says they're working with those families on a one-on-one basis. That was Joe Diefel reporting. We'll be right back.