Colorado's Columbine High School will not be demolished

DENVER, July 25 (UPI) -- Colorado's Columbine High School, the site of a 1999 school shooting, will not be demolished and rebuilt after parents and community members weighed in on the proposal, the Jefferson County School District said.

"It is clear to me that no consensus direction exists to rebuild the school," Jeffco School District Superintendent Jason Glass said in a letter to parents Thursday.

A proposal to demolish and rebuild the school at a new, nearby site near Littleton was floated to parents to discourage unwanted visitors who travel to the site every year as part of a "macabre" subculture, Glass said in June. The so-called "Columbiners" are fascinated by the 1999 incident.

Local law enforcement said about 2,400 curiosity seekers visited the Columbine school grounds in the past year, which was the 20th anniversary of the school shootings that left 13 dead. Other schools where mass shootings have occurred have been torn down, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where 26 students and teachers were killed.

In April, Colorado school districts across the state closed down after the FBI issued a "credible threat" warning and a massive manhunt for an armed Florida teen who flew to Denver and was said to have an "infatuation" with the Columbine killers. Sol Pais, 18, was later found dead in the foothills. Authorities said she died by suicide.

The district proposed spending $60 million to $70 million to tear down the school and rebuild.