When St. Margaret of Scotland School principal Shauntae Davis got word early in the morning of May 25 that several of the school’s windows had been shot out, she notified families and offered them the option of keeping their children at home for the day.

“After what happened in Texas, we knew some families might be more comfortable,” Davis said, referring to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 fourth-graders and two teachers dead.

About 30 families kept their children home, and a few more came to pick their children up during the day. Counselors also were available at the school.

Davis said five large windows that face an alley behind St. Margaret of Scotland School, 9833 S. Throop St., were shattered, with glass scattered in four classrooms and bullet holes marking several walls. The rooms are on multiple levels and usually house fourth graders, middle school students and some of the students in the after-school program.

The classrooms will remain empty until the windows and walls can be repaired, Davis said, because she doesn’t want the students to be reminded of the violence all day while they are trying to learn.

By the end of the day May 26, the windows had been boarded up and police and school staff had found eight or nine bullets in the classrooms, some in the seat pockets where students store their books and supplies, Davis said.

The alley that runs behind the school adjacent to the windows is near a border that separates two different gang territories.

“Unfortunately, we are in a gang war zone,” Davis said. “We’ve had to go into lockdown a few times when there was shooting outside in the neighborhood.”

Two cleaners were in the building when the shots were fired, probably sometime after midnight, and took cover, Davis said. They did not come out from  where they were sheltering until the before-school program staff arrived at 5:45 a.m.

Davis said she isn’t sure how the school will repair the windows and replace damaged items inside the rooms, including custom-made blinds that were donated by the school’s alumni a few years ago.

“I don’t know,” Davis said, when asked how the school would pay for everything. “Maybe reach out to donors. Maybe the alumni.”