WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Tornado Tags Brandon Elementary School

Tornado Tags Brandon Elementary School

By: Cheryl Lasseter
cheryl@wlbt.net

A busy workday Friday at Brandon Elementary School. But there are no lessons, books or pencils. Staff members and parents are cleaning up after Thursday night's tornado.

"Our cafeteria is pretty demolished, our roof on half the building is off. Offices are in bad shape," says Dr. Sue Townsend, the school's Principal.

Many classrooms sustained damage as well. Decorations and debris litter the floor of the music room. The front hallway is slick with water.

Outside, teacher Donna Evans is picking up fallen branches. Evans breaks some bad news to her student teacher as she approaches. "Your room is no longer. Sorry," Evans says.

Evans is helping clean up the brand-new playground, which hadn't yet been used. The grounds are a mess, but the actual playground equipment is still in place. "This playground has been a dream of our schools for about three years. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars," Evans says, and adds that the teachers and parents spent countless hours raising the money.

We've talked to Evans before; her son Ryan was killed in front of a Jackson convenience store in 2001. "This school building has gone through a lot of tragedy in the past couple years," she says. "We've lost a teacher, a student, my son was murdered (in 2001). And now a tornado. But we keep coming back," she says.

Like the words on the school's marquee Friday morning, the school building is 'Bent but not Broken'; much like the spirit of the Brandon Elementary School family.

Roofers and engineers worked all day Friday making repairs on the school. Part of the building was not damaged, but no word yet on whether classes will be held in any part of the school on Monday.