SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Shannon Elementary, an abandoned school, is becoming a public nuisance, and a group of North Memphians are banding together to demand change from the school district.
For decades, Shannon Elementary served the North Memphis community before closing in 2015. Now, it has seen better days.
Then, KIPP came and took it over before closing last year. Now it sits abandoned, trash piles up and thieves have come through and stripped every last valuable from the walls.
“I went to this school from kindergarten to sixth grade. You can imagine, I got a lot of good memories in this place. I ate in this cafeteria, I used to be in the talent show. Sang and danced. I ate in this place; I lived right across the street,” said community advocate Marvin Coleman.
Coleman is part of a group of Memphians who want to turn the site into a vocational school. They’re hopeful the school board can make good on a promise to restore the building now that a superintendent is in place.
“I believe skills pay bills. We live in a world now where carpenters make $100,000. Good plumbers make that much. Any communities, even Germantown, Cordova and Bartlett. Everybody’s not a doctor or a lawyer,” he said.
During the interview with the group, multiple kids even scaled the building and began playing on the roof, before being coaxed off for their safety.
Currently, the site is the property of MSCS. They are on spring break and did not respond to a request for comment.
The group is planning a clean-up of the site on April 6. Until then, they’re worried about the hazard it presents to the community.
“I hold Memphis-Shelby County Schools accountable for allowing this to happen when they could have secured this building better than that. That's who I hold accountable right now,” Carpenter said.