HARRISBURG, N.C. — A Cabarrus County charter school plans to offer grief counseling on New Year's Day following the shooting death of a 13-year-old student at Concord Mills.
A.C.E. Academy Public Charter School confirmed Aveanna Propst was an eighth-grader at the school.
She was shot and killed Saturday in a shooting Saturday night outside the Dave and Buster's at Concord Mills Mall.
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Police said two other teenagers were wounded.
Despite the holiday break, the school plans to have availability for counseling for students who need it.
The school's statement reads:
Aveanna was scheduled to graduate from our school this year and this is devastating to all of us. She was a popular girl in the school and the news spread quickly among our school family. She's a baby, she's 13-years-old. This is hard to process, accept, or even understand. We support our families in and out of school and anytime one of our children suffer, we all suffer. We will support Aveanna's family for as long as it takes to get through these painful, unimaginable times.
Our Student and Family Service Coordinator was at the hospital Saturday night once we found out Aveanna was involved. It was chaotic because there were multiple shootings. We did what we could to gather information as quickly as possible. Very early on, our students were contacting their teachers with questions about the tragic incident because so much inappropriate and false information was shared on social media.
We have counseling resources and counseling professionals in place to support our 400 students, 50 staff members and all of their families. Our work began late Saturday night when the news started to circulate.
The media is welcome to come to the A.C.E. Academy Public Charter School property, Wednesday, January 1st for live shots in front of the school. We are working on a temporary memorial on the property as well. Please be respectful and mindful of the gravity of the situation.
Call the school office at 704-456-7153 when you arrive to check in. We ask that you don't approach families who may be on campus.
We ask that you respect our children's privacy and grief and only visit our campus on the designated day, January 1st. We are opening the school during the holiday break for on-campus counseling services and it's imperative that our students have the opportunity to grieve in the comfort of their A.C.E. family. We want our students and families to feel safe coming to the school for counseling.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story said that the charter school planned to open on January 1 for counseling. The school does not have a specific day they are available for counseling.