They Would Have Graduated Last Year: Moore's 2013 Tornado That Killed 7 School Children Sparks Change

The EF-5 tornado that hit two Moore schools in 2013 sparked demands to put storm shelters in schools. Now 10 years later, we're researching how much progress has been made since Plaza Towers. 

Seven 3rd graders who did everything they had practiced. Seated against a wall inside Plaza Towers Elementary. Bracing for a monster tornado's impact.

Those seven didn't survive.

Now, ten years later Christopher's mom Danni Legg still keeps in touch with many of his classmates.

“I hope they find inspiration and not sadness with me,” said Legg.

If Dani's name sounds familiar it's because she’s been one of the loudest voices when it comes to getting storm shelters in schools.

“That week after Chris died I didn't want this to happen to another person's kid,” she says.

She fought at the state capitol and worked on a ballot initiative to put shelters in every school in the state.

When that failed, she began visiting individual districts.

“I put my grief to work. I didn't want to sit still.”

We reached out to every school district in the state to see what progress has been made since 2013.

Out of 531 districts and tech centers statewide 40 percent of them responded including the nine largest in-person districts in the state.

That accounts for about 60 percent of all Oklahoma students.

We found that through Dani and others' efforts, 65 percent of districts have added more protection for kids.

Based on our sample, before 2013 only 25 percent of schools had adequate shelter, now that number has jumped to 57 percent.

The deaths of Christopher Legg and his classmates have weighed heavily on Moore Superintendent Dr. Robert Romines.

“This last year our 3rd graders lost at plaza towers would have graduated last year - that one was hard. That one was hard,” he said.

Dr. Romines had only been on the job as Moore's superintendent for about a week when the 2013 tornado hit.

At that time, the school district had storm shelters in two of its schools. And that was only because FEMA paid for them after the '99 tornado.

Superintendent Romines said the mindset was that tornadoes in Oklahoma, for the most part, happen after school hours.

Dr. Romines said 2013 changed how they look at kids' safety.

“(It) Changed our tabletop discussions, it changed our approach, changed a lot of decision making in regards to safety,” Dr. Romines said.

Conversations about storm shelters in all of Moore schools happened immediately, and the community decided to fund them. 

“That was probably one of the highest percentages, rate passages for a bond issue in district history,” said Romines.

Now in Moore, all the district's 35 schools have shelters.

As far as the other schools that responded to our survey, 76 percent of them have enough space to shelter the entire student body.

The impact of that protection became clear this past April when a tornado caused extensive damage to Shawnee High School. A safe room added through a 2016 bond issue was still standing strong.

“The great news is that the room is completely intact, so if people had been in there they would have been safe,” said Superintendent Dr. April Grace.  

But according to our sample, about 10 percent of schools have no storm shelters for students and staff, that includes Geary in Canadian County.

"If something were to happen during school hours right now, we're simply hoping that everyone makes it through that safe. And that's kind of scary,” said Geary Superintendent Sean Buchanan.

Right now, all 260 students have to walk outdoors in the storm to get to their safe spots in three separate buildings, funnel down stairs into locker rooms and classrooms.

“Inside the old gymnasium area, there's a downstairs portion, under what used to be a stage,” Buchanan said. “We are underground at this point. This is the space that we have for all of our middle school and high school students.”

That's about 140 kids, plus staff. Superintendent Buchanan said it's a squeeze.

“Directly above us is a wooden stage. That's really all the protection from the outside that we have. So in an event where you have twisting winds hundreds of miles an hour, that is not safe for our students. We're bringing them to this space because it's the lowest space in our school, but at the same time it's actually not a safe space.” 

Buchanan said the district tried, most recently, last August to pass a bond issue for a new school building where all the kids would be under one roof with access to FEMA-rated storm shelters. But nearly 65 percent of the town voted against it due to the cost of property tax increases. Now, the district is looking for new solutions.

“It's not a problem you can just throw your hands up and go ‘well it's okay, you know, it didn't work,’” said Buchanan. “This is something we have to figure out for the benefit of these kids.”

Here are some statistics from the investigation:

Emailed all 531 school districts in the state including tech centers:

-40% response rate

-The districts that responded account for about 60% of students in Oklahoma schools overall

-About 441k out of 736k total students statewide.

Of Those Who Responded:

-76% of schools have shelter for 100% of students 

- 23% of schools do not

-10% have no shelters at all for students & staff 

Moore Schools:

In 2013: 32 schools, only 2 had shelters: 6% of schools  

Now: 35 schools, 35 have shelters:100% of schools

Improvement:

-65% of responding schools have made storm safety upgrades since the Moore tornado in 2013 via bond or FEMA/other grants/funding 

-35% have not made any storm safety upgrades

-Nearly 2% tried to pass a bond issue to upgrade storm safety, but the bond failed 

In 2023:

-959 Schools Statewide

-550 shelters/safe rooms/basements

-57% of schools have shelter (some districts have several buildings on the same campus)

In 2013:

-935 Schools Statewide 

-240 shelters/safe rooms/basements

-25% of schools had shelter (some districts have several buildings on the same campus)