Shawnee High School to finish online, athletics to play elsewhere amid heavy storm damage

SHAWNEE — A direct hit from a tornado last week will force Shawnee High School to finish the school year in remote learning, the school announced Tuesday.

Superintendent April Grace said April 19 storms inflicted more than $20 million worth of damage across Shawnee Public Schools, leaving the school district in crisis with a month of classes left.

The same storm system killed three people in or near the town of Cole and damaged more than 2,000 homes in Pottawatomie and McClain counties, according to federal reports.

Shawnee’s elementary schools sustained less damage and will resume face-to-face classes on Thursday. Grace said Shawnee Middle School will spend Thursday and Friday in virtual learning and might reopen next week, depending on the severity of roof leaks.

Parts of the high school campus have been “completely wiped away,” Grace said. Other facilities have a laundry list of major repairs.

More: Shawnee and Cole residents clean up after tornadoes hit

School district staff will spend Wednesday regrouping, contacting families, and distributing internet hotspots and take-home devices for schoolwork.

“It’s exceptionally difficult,” Grace said of the decision not to reopen the high school. “It’s not the call you want to make, but you have to listen to the structural engineers. You have to take into account the safety of the site.”

That decision weighs heavily in a school district where a majority of students live in poverty.

Food insecurity is a daily issue for many Shawnee children, Grace said, not only in a catastrophic event. The superintendent confirmed the middle and high school will maintain meal service even while they are closed.

The high school’s athletic and extracurricular activities will continue, but home games are out of the question in the city 40 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

The tornado left multiple Shawnee High School athletic facilities in disarray, and effects ripple beyond the community.

Tornado in Cole kills 3; damage reported in Shawnee and across Oklahoma

Shawnee baseball field destruction leaves games without homes

For more than 30 years, the Wolves have hosted state tournament baseball games, bringing in programs from across Oklahoma. With Shawnee’s baseball field destroyed, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association is scrambling for a new plan the week before state tournaments start.

Grant Gower, who presides over baseball and officials for the OSSAA, said he contacted numerous schools on the west side of the state in search of a host that can step in.

Shawnee was preparing to host the Class A-B finals on May 6, as well as earlier-round games in Classes 2A-4A the following week.

“(Shawnee has) done so many great things to the campus and so many things to the baseball facility,” said Gower, a Shawnee resident. “And obviously, just to literally see that wiped out in one fell swoop with a tornado was just heartbreaking.

“That being said, that has changed things dramatically, and we’re still working through it, trying to work through all different scenarios with, obviously, them not being in the mix now.”

The district’s wrestling complex is an almost total loss, Grace said. Only the storm shelter inside the building withstood the tornado’s path.

With considerable damage to its football stadium and performing arts center, Shawnee High School is now searching for another location to host its graduation ceremony.

Federal aid: Stitt seeks help for McClain, Pottawatomie county residents affected by tornadoes

Oklahomans offer help

Grace said messages have flooded in from other school districts offering buses and facilities.

Only two months away from retirement, she said the heavy damage will make it difficult to step away from Shawnee schools, where she’s been superintendent for seven years. However, she predicted her successor, Shawnee Assistant Superintendent Aaron Espolt, will have a smooth transition.

“I’m glad I was here to get the ship steady,” Grace said. “It’s a special place. It’s really hard to leave to with all this going on.”

City residents are already beginning to rebound, said Eric Litherland, a math teacher and boys basketball coach at Shawnee High.

FEMA assistance: These two Oklahoma counties can apply for help after severe storms, tornadoes

Litherland drove past the storm wreckage shortly after the tornado passed through. He said it left behind apocalyptic scenes resembling a zombie movie.

It’s “going to be a while to get back” to the way things used to be, but the lights in Shawnee are turning back on and restaurants have begun to reopen.

“You’d expect nothing less from Oklahoma,” Litherland said.

Gower, a lifelong Oklahoman, noticed how volunteers already were gathering on Oklahoma Baptist University’s campus for relief efforts the morning after the storms.

He and his wife, Paula, an associate vice president at OBU, had been at home during the tornado, huddling under their staircase for shelter.

“It was your classic (tornado) — you kind of hear it, you kind of feel the air pressure changing and all those kind of things,” Gower said.

The brunt of the storm hit just west of the Gowers, leaving their home with some damage, but they quickly saw the worst of it in their city. On OBU’s campus, pieces from Raley Chapel’s stained-glass windows were scattered.

The following day, Gower saw the destruction at the high school. Baseball was not his top priority when he spoke to Shawnee athletic director Dax Leone.

“I said, ‘First thing, are you OK?’” Gower said. “‘That’s the first question.’ (Shawnee) is completely devastated.”

Both men were safe, but they had to acknowledge the inevitable future. Leone told Gower the school would not be able to host state baseball games this spring.

The high school baseball team is finishing the season with road games, and the Wolves have received support from schools such as Tuttle, where baseball coach Breck Draper maintains investment in his hometown of Shawnee. Draper said he talked to Shawnee coach Kevin Paxson the night the tornado hit.

More: See what tornadoes in Cole, Shawnee and other storms look like across Oklahoma

A close friend of Paxson, Draper said he can imagine how difficult it would be to see a beloved baseball field wiped away. The Shawnee graduate even offered up Tuttle’s field as a place where the Wolves could play.

He also knows the concerns in the aftermath of a tornado run deeper than sports.

“I guarantee that (Paxson) is more worried about his players having somewhere comfortable to sleep at night and a warm meal to eat and all those things more than he’s worried about his baseball field,” Draper said. “Although it’s all devastating.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shawnee High to finish school year online amid tornado damage