The school will never return to what it once was.
Its bright blue entrance remains decorated with the familiar images that once greeted students: a map of Iran, oversized pencils, and portraits of celebrated figures from science and literature.
Today, however, the path through the entrance leads visitors past rows of photographs. The images first show children enjoying ordinary moments of life, including birthday celebrations. Further along, those same young faces appear on black mourning banners.
The site is now becoming a memorial for the schoolchildren killed in one of the first attacks of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. The Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was struck during the attacks.
Iranian officials reported that more than 100 students were killed. Months later, the Trump administration has neither directly acknowledged responsibility for the attack nor made the Pentagon’s investigation public. An Associated Press investigation, however, found evidence indicating that at least one U.S. missile struck the school.
Minab came back into focus during the past week after another series of U.S. attacks along Iran’s southern coast hit a wedding and other locations. Some of those wounded were taken to a hospital in Minab.
Media visited the severely damaged two-story school building, where classrooms remain as though the lessons were abruptly interrupted. Desks are buried beneath debris, while sections of the ceilings have collapsed, leaving the building frozen in the aftermath of the attack.