Days After Deadly School Shooting, GA Students Return To Classrooms

WINDER, GA — Most Barrow County students returned to school Tuesday after a deadly shooting at Apalachee High School shut down all county schools for three weekdays.

However, Apalachee did not reopen Tuesday, Barrow County School Superintendent Dr. Dallas LeDuff said in a news release. It is unknown when that school will reopen.

As doors reopened Tuesday, LeDuff said therapy dogs and counselors were available to students, and a school crisis support expert would assist staff.

The presence of law enforcement is being increased at Barrow schools for added security, LeDuff said.

Though Apalachee has not reopened, students were able to retrieve their belongings.

"Our Barrow community is stronger together and we thank you for your support," LeDuff said in the release.

RELATED: GA School Shooting Suspect Received Weapon As Gift From Dad: Reports

Barrow families were torn about sending their students back to school, with some people in favor of the reopening, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"I think the kids want and need to be back around their friends and their teachers and back in a learning environment and we can't let situations like this control our lives," grandfather Mike Harris told the news outlet.

Other families were nervous about their students returning to school, Fox 5 reported.

Two students and two teachers were killed in the tragic Apalachee shooting that injured nine other people. Authorities have charged 14-year-old Colt Gray and his 54-year-old father on several charges in connection with the massive shooting.

The deceased were identified as students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Cristina Irimie.

Authorities said of the nine injured, six students and a teacher were shot. It is unknown how the remaining two people sustained injuries.

Colt Gray will be tried as an adult on murder charges, authorities previously said. He was accused of using an AR-15 style gun in the shooting, which he was given as a Christmas present months after investigators asked him about school threats made online, NBC News first reported.

RELATED:

• Threats Of Violence Target GA Schools After Fatal Mass Shooting
• GA School Shooting: Father Of Accused Gunman Also Charged With Murder
• 2 Students, 2 Teachers Killed In GA School Shooting
• Accused GA School Shooter Denied Making Threats In 2023

His mother, Marcee Gray, tried to warn a school counselor the morning of the shooting, asking Apalachee to check on her son, both the Washington Post and CNN reported.

Colt Gray reportedly sent his mother a text apologizing to her, and she called the school regarding an "extreme emergency" of an unknown nature. A counselor told Marcee Gray that her son made comments about a school shooting that morning, the Post reported.

When an administrator went to check on Colt Gray, the Post reported there was a mixup with a student of a similar name.

Thirty minutes passed after the 10-minute call with Marcee Gray before the teenager opened fire and local authorities were alerted, the news outlets reported.

The Apalachee shooting is not the first time Colt Gray has been the focus of a police probe.

Body camera footage retrieved Monday by Fox 5 Atlanta reportedly shows Jackson County authorities interviewing Colt Gray and his father, Colin Gray, after the FBI notified local authorities of an online threat the younger Gray allegedly posted in May 2023.

Colt Gray was a Jackson County middle-school student at the time, Fox 5 reported.

Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said the threats were made on a gaming site.

At the time, the FBI Atlanta office said its National Threat Operations Center received multiple anonymous tips regarding online threats of a school shooting made against an unknown location at an unknown time.

Federal authorities said the threats involved images of guns, and within a day, the FBI traced the threats to Georgia. Ultimately, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office were notified, and deputies interviewed Colt Gray and his father.

Colin Gray acknowledged having hunting guns in the home, but his son had "unsupervised access" to them, the FBI said. Colt Gray denied all claims about the online threats, and Jackson County alerted other schools for monitoring, the FBI said.

However, Mangum said Jefferson City Schools "had no record of being notified of a threat by Colt Gray who was enrolled there" though the former police captain in charge of notifying schools provided an email to an FBI agent, stating “we have made area schools aware and will monitor this subject.”

Schools in Jefferson City were not in session at the time, Mangum said.

Colt Gray, who was then age 13, was not arrested because federal authorities maintained there was no probable cause.

"During the course of this investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated," Mangum said in a news release.

More than a year later, Colt Gray is being charged on suspicion of four counts of felony murder and sits in a regional youth detention center in connection with the deadly Apalachee shooting.

His father, Colin Gray, was charged on suspicion of eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children, two counts of second-degree murder and four counts of involuntary manslaughter. He was taken to the Barrow County Detention Center, authorities said.

U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, GA-D, criticized what he apparently views as a lack of action to protect children.

"Mass shootings as routine aren’t the cost of freedom, they’re the cost of blind obstinance. We don’t have to live this way. If we refuse to act while our children are dying, and in a moment when no one is safe from rampant gun violence, then shame on us," Warnock tweeted.

He followed up with the later tweets:

"Politicians need to realign their values. If we can’t protect our children, what are we doing?"

"Rampant, routine gun violence is not a fact of life—it’s a fact of American life. And we Americans have to ask ourselves, why does this keep happening here? This is not a debate between those who believe in the 2nd Amendment and those who do not. We’re better than this."

The Barrow Community Crisis Fund was established to help organizations support the local community following the shooting. Donations are being accepted through June 30, 2025. Learn how to contribute online.