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(HAZELWOOD, Mo.) — A Missouri elementary school located near a contaminated creek in St. Louis County has closed after a private study found high levels of radioactive waste inside the building and its playground area.

The Hazelwood School District announced this week that Jana Elementary School in Florissant will pivot to virtual learning while school officials work on transferring students to different schools in the district in the coming weeks.

“The Hazelwood School District Board of Education will be working with our legal counsel to communicate to the appropriate agencies responsible, the necessity to immediately clean up and remediate any and all hazardous waste at Jana Elementary and any other District sites,” the school district said in a statement Wednesday.

The closure follows years of requests for testing. The school is located near Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated with uranium and other radioactive waste from a World War II nuclear weapons program, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The school district warned parents in August, weeks before the start of the school year, about potential risks and possible disruptions after U.S. Army Corps of Engineer testing found radioactive contamination on the banks of the creek, at the edge of the school’s property.

The latest findings, from Boston Chemical Data Corp., have sparked calls for cleanup from parents and officials and concerns about potential exposure, while families also figure out next steps.

Creek’s history of contamination

Coldwater Creek, a 19-mile tributary of the Missouri River, passes near sites that were used in the development of nuclear weapons for the Manhattan Project, including radioactive waste storage piles.

The creek is contaminated with “uranium processing residues” that were improperly stored near it, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which in 2019 released a public health assessment report that found an increased risk of certain cancers for residents who “regularly played or lived along the creek for many years in the past.”

Jana Elementary sits on the flood plain of Coldwater Creek. The Corps, which is charged with the creek’s remediation, first detected radioactive contaminants near the school in 2018 and again in 2019, 2020 and 2021, according to the Boston Chemical Data Corp. report.

Following the latest testing, the Corps notified school officials in January that soil sampling conducted on the school’s property “showed the presence of low-level radioactive contamination” on the banks of Coldwater Creek, the Hazelwood School District said in an Aug. 5 letter to the school community.

“They further informed the district that the contamination did not pose an immediate risk to human health or the environment because the contamination was below ground surface,” the letter stated.

The school district gave parents the option for virtual learning while it awaited the results of further testing.

Latest testing sparks closure

The decision to close the school comes a week after the release of the Boston Chemical Data Corp. report, which found radioactive waste in the school and its playground. The report was funded by law firms involved in a class action lawsuit alleging illnesses and deaths caused by the creek contamination.

The school district granted the request for the testing, which was conducted in August, according to the Jana Elementary PTA, which alerted families to the report’s findings on Oct. 14.

Testing of dust and soil samples indicated high levels of radioactive lead in the school, including the library, and playground, according to the report. The levels in the kindergarten play area were “22 times the expected background,” according to the report.

“The most outstanding result of August 2022 testing at the Jana School was that levels of the radioactive isotope lead-210 found on school grounds were entirely unacceptable,” the report stated.

The Corps has not corroborated the findings of the private report.

In a statement Tuesday, the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program for the St. Louis District said the school property has contamination that is “isolated” to the creek bank, and that sample locations in the floodplain between the bank and playground area “aren’t contaminated.”

“The team will evaluate the report that Boston Chemical Data Corp. compiled on Jana Elementary School and the methods used to create these results,” it said in a news release. “That report isn’t consistent with FUSRAP’s accepted evaluation techniques and must be thoroughly vetted to ensure accuracy.”

Calls for cleanup, answers

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has called on the Corps to review the findings of the independent report, conduct further testing on the school grounds and publicly report their findings.

“It should go without saying that hazardous, radioactive contamination has no place in schools, or anywhere near schools, or anywhere near any place where children are. And it should also go without saying the federal government must be honest and transparent about the facts,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Corps Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon on Tuesday.

The senator has also urged President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency and authorize “immediate relief” for all impacted families and to expedite the cleanup.

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush has also demanded an “urgent response” to the emergency.

“The federal government is responsible for this waste, and we need answers from them on their plan to immediately begin cleanup of Jana Elementary and the surrounding areas so our kids’ health and education is not further disrupted by the presence of toxic chemicals,” she said in a statement earlier this week. “Inaction is not an option. The safety of our children and our communities must come first.”

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment has called on the school district to “act swiftly to secure a comprehensive cleanup of all radioactive bomb waste at the school.”

“In the interim, they must provide parents with options to continue students’ education with minimal disruption,” the group said. “We are approaching 80 years since this nuclear bomb waste has been allowed to plague our neighborhoods.”

What’s next for frustrated, worried families

Some 400 students attend Jana Elementary. Amid the remediation, the school will transition to virtual learning starting on Monday, with plans to redistrict students into other schools by Nov. 28 “if feasible,” the school district said.

Two pre-K classrooms will be transferred to another elementary school to continue in-person learning.

“We recognize that you are being faced with a situation not created by anyone in this District, over which you have no control, and that this is causing a disruption to our students’ education and school climate. For that we sincerely apologize,” the school district said in a statement to families. “Please know that Hazelwood School District will work hand-in-hand with you to provide the support that is needed as we transition through these very difficult times.”

Families are now scrambling to figure out next steps. During a packed meeting with the Hazelwood School Board on Tuesday, parents expressed frustration with the district.

“Just communicate with us,” said Patrice Strickland, who said she has two children who have been attending school virtually since August after learning about the contamination. “We don’t blame you all, but we want to hear what’s going on because these are our babies.

“Help us to make the right decisions for us, and we can’t make the right decisions if we don’t know what is going on,” she continued.

Former students and families of students who now attend the school also expressed concerns for their health during the meeting.

Kimberly Anderson told the board she had bloodwork done for her three grandchildren who attend the school to test their lead levels.

“This can cause long-term effects with children,” she said.

Others want to find a way to keep the community intact amid redistricting plans.

“Our kids should not be strung out through the district unless there was absolutely nothing suitable,” Jana Elementary PTA president Ashley Bernaugh said. “You cannot tear our community apart to punish us for something that our kids have no burden for.”

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(PRINCETON, N.J.) — Princeton student Misrach Ewunetie was found dead on campus Thursday nearly one week after she went missing, officials said.

The 20-year-old’s body was found around 1 p.m. “outside on the Facilities grounds behind the tennis courts” by a facilities employee, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.

“There were no obvious signs of injury and her death does not appear suspicious or criminal in nature,” prosecutors said.

An autopsy will be conducted, prosecutors said.

The university said in a statement, “The Department of Public Safety has been working closely with local and state law enforcement and does not believe there is any related threat to campus or the surrounding area.”

“Misrach’s death is an unthinkable tragedy,” the university added. “Our hearts go out to her family, her friends and the many others who knew and loved her.”

Ewunetie was last seen at about 3 a.m. on Friday near Scully Hall on the school’s New Jersey campus, according to the university.

One of her suitemates saw her at home at about 3 a.m. Friday, but when her direct roommate came home around 4:30 a.m., Ewunetie wasn’t there, her brother, Universe Ewunetie, told ABC News.

On Saturday, Misrach Ewunetie was supposed to have an interview about 45 minutes away from campus regarding her U.S. citizenship application, and the family was concerned when she didn’t show up, her brother said.

By Sunday, text messages weren’t getting delivered, and her phone went straight to voicemail, he said.

Her phone’s last ping was at 3:30 a.m. Sunday near an off-campus housing complex that’s about a 30-minute walk from her dorm, according to Universe Ewunetie. The last time her phone pinged to a cell tower was 6 a.m. Sunday, he said.

Law enforcement swarmed the campus searching for her, using helicopters and drones.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted earlier Thursday that he was in touch with officials “who are doing everything they can to find her.”

Later on Thursday, the governor tweeted, “We are heartbroken by the tragic news that missing @Princeton University student Misrach Ewunetie was found dead this afternoon. Our hearts go out to her family, friends, and fellow students who knew and loved her.”

ABC News’ Nick Cirone contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — College enrollment in the United States fell for the third consecutive year, deepening the woes endured by universities nationwide since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report released on Thursday showed.

However, the pace of the decline in enrollment slowed this autumn, suggesting that the pandemic-induced student exodus has begun to wane, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Student enrollment dropped 1.1% this fall, compared with a combined 5.5% decline in 2020 and 2021.

In a key point of concern, the rate of decline in enrollment among freshmen exceeded that of students overall, with implications for universities that could last over the next several years.

The decline in freshmen enrollment befell every category of four-year institutions, whether public or private, for-profit or non-profit, the data showed.

“After two straight years of historically large losses, it is particularly troubling that numbers are still falling, especially among freshmen,” Doug Shapiro, the executive director at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said in a statement.

“Although the decline has slowed and there are some bright spots, a path back to pre-pandemic enrollment levels is growing further out of reach,” he added.

The decline in enrollment extended beyond undergraduate students, as graduate school enrollment fell 1%, reversing a 2.7% gain last fall. Graduate student enrollment fell in 26 states, according to the report.

While the report delivered sobering news for many institutions of higher education, it offered a sign of optimism for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Enrollment at HBCUs grew 2.5% this fall, bouncing back from a decline of 1.7% last year, the data showed. The rise in enrollment owed to a 6.6% increase in freshmen enrolling at HBCUs.

In a sign of shifting educational norms amid the pandemic, undergraduate students enrolled exclusively online grew by 2.5% this autumn.

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(STOCKTON, Calif.) — Police, community members and families of victims of the suspected Stockton, California, serial killer congregated at Stockton City Hall Wednesday night for a vigil to remember the six lives lost.

The six slayings — all fatal shootings of men — spanned from April 2021 to September 2022, according to police. Five of the killings were in Stockton; one was in Oakland, about 70 miles away. All of the shootings were at night or in the early morning.

“My brother was my everything. I’m going to never hear his laughter,” Pia Lopez, sister of the final victim, 54-year-old Lorenzo Lopez Sr., said at the vigil.

The musician — who was shot in the early hours of Sept. 27 — leaves behind six children.

Stockton police chief Stanley McFadden was among those at Wednesday’s vigil.

“Everyone came together to get this person off the street,” the chief said.

In an emotional moment, Lorenzo Lopez Sr.’s mother thanked the chief.

“I want to thank him so much, because he lifted my spirits and he held me up when I felt like I was falling down and falling apart,” she said.

“It hurts deep inside and it never goes away,” she added. “But we got justice.”

The suspected serial killer, 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee, was arrested this weekend while he was allegedly on the prowl for another victim, according to police. Brownlee was apprehended while wearing dark clothing and a mask around his neck, according to McFadden. Brownlee was also armed with a gun, police said.

“He was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden said in a statement. “We are sure we stopped another killing.”

Brownlee appeared in court Tuesday and was charged with three counts of murder, with more charges expected, San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said. He has not entered a plea.

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(NEW YORK) — As Princeton University intensifies its search for Misrach Ewunetie, the undergraduate student who’s been missing for almost a week, her brother says that time is “of the essence.”

“We can take any help we can find. And we just want the law to be faster because time is of the essence,” Universe Ewunetie said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Thursday.

Misrach Ewunetie, 20, was last seen at about 3 a.m. on Friday, the school said. She was last seen near Scully Hall on the school’s New Jersey campus, according to an alert sent to the Princeton community on Monday.

Universe said his sister’s phone last pinged a location near an off-campus residence about a 30-minute walk from her dorm after 3 a.m. on Friday. His sister being at a location like that so late was out of character, Universe said.

“It’s pretty far away,” he said. “And Princeton is a big campus and it’s very insular. Right. So it’s very odd that her phone would be off campus like everything is on campus.”

The university sent an email to students on Wednesday, urging anyone with info to come forward. There’s an increased police presence on campus, the school said.

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(UVALDE, Texas) — In a surprise move, Hal Harrell, the superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, officially retired Wednesday night during a school board meeting. An interim replacement was named as a search for a new district chief continues.

Harrell, a 30-year employee of the school district, stunned the small grieving community two weeks ago when he announced he would retire but said “no defined timelines” had been set.

In a Facebook post shared by Harrell’s wife earlier this month, he wrote: “I will remain here throughout the school year until a new superintendent can be named.”

“My decision to retire has not been made lightly,” he wrote. “My heart was broken on May 24th and I will always and [sic] pray for each precious life that was tragically taken as well as their families.”

Harrell — along with other school officials and local law enforcement — has faced intense scrutiny over the handling of the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

Nearly 400 law enforcement officers rushed to the scene, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in allowing the 18-year-old shooter to remain active inside a classroom for more than 70 minutes before he was finally confronted and killed, according to a damning investigative report released by Texas lawmakers in July.

The Uvalde native announced his departure from the district on the same day that the district reassigned all five UCISD police officers who were on the scene of the shooting from campus security duties, pending an independent review by a private investigation firm out of Austin.

The district-wide statement said that the UCISD administration will “suspend all activities of the Uvalde CISD Police Department for a period of time.”

The series of announcements came after 11 continuous days of a sit-in protest at the UCISD administration building staged by families of the victims, and after news broke that UCISD police hired Crimson Elízondo, who is currently suspended from the Texas Department of Public Safety for her response at Robb Elementary on May 24.

Harrell began working for the district in 1992 as a special education teacher, the same year that his father, John Hal Harrell, was promoted to Uvalde superintendent.

The younger Harrell worked his way up to principal at Uvalde High School and was appointed unanimously by the Board of Trustees as superintendent in October 2018, following in his father’s footsteps.

The elder Harrell, who died in August 2020, was known to many as “Mr. Uvalde” and served at various points as a two-term city council member, mayor of Uvalde, UCISD superintendent and Uvalde city manager.

In 2014, UCISD even renamed the John H. Harrell High School Auditorium, both Harrells’ alma mater, in his honor.

Walsh Gallegos, an education-focused law firm, was hired by the school board to search for the retiree’s replacement.

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(CLEVELAND, Ohio) — The Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion removing a Cleveland Municipal Court judge from the bench, citing multiple “unprecedented” incidents of misconduct.

In a 5-2 vote on Tuesday, the justices voted to indefinitely suspend Judge Pinkey S. Carr’s law license, precluding her from being a judge.

The justices agreed with the court’s Board of Professional Conduct that Carr “ruled her courtroom in a reckless and cavalier manner, unrestrained by the law or the court’s rules.”

Carr, who had been a judge since 2012, was suspended without pay.

According to the board, Carr did not reschedule her cases when the municipal court was closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and issued warrants for defendants who didn’t show up to court and waived court costs and fines for defendants who did appear.

She regularly conducted hearings to “avoid complying with the requisite procedural safeguards” that were in place and referenced the Starz show “P-Valley” which is about a strip club in Mississippi, while in court, according to the justices.

The joked about accepting bribes from defendants and spoke in an “undignified manner in her courtroom,” according to the court.

She also allegedly wore clothes deemed inappropriate by the court’s rules, including T-shirts, shorts, tank tops and sneakers.

According to the justices, Carr, through a forensic and clinical psychologist who evaluated her, said that menopause and sleep apnea exasperated her mental health issues, which caused her professional misconduct.

Rich Koblentz, Carr’s attorney, told ABC News they respect the court, but they’re not pleased about the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision.

“We believe the sanctions were too harsh,” he said.

Short of disbarment, an indefinite suspension is one of the harsher penalties that the Ohio Supreme Court could deliver, according to Koblentz.

Carr must wait two years before applying for readmission to practice law in Ohio since readmission isn’t automatic after an indefinite suspension.

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(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — The Sanibel Causeway will reopen to civilian traffic on Wednesday, three weeks after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s southwestern coast and destroyed portions of the vital link between Sanibel Island and the mainland.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday morning that the causeway would reopen to residents of Lee County following temporary repairs. The causeway is opening ahead of schedule, with repairs previously expected to be done by Oct. 21.

“There was talk about how do we get more people back on to Sanibel,” DeSantis said at a press briefing, calling the damage to the causeway “significant.” “We had an ambitious agenda and ambitious roadmap to get this done by the end of October.”

DeSantis added that the causeway still needs permanent repairs, which will continue.

A DeSantis administration official with knowledge of the project told ABC News that the governor made it a personal priority to reopen the causeway as soon as possible and pushed the Florida Department of Transportation to expedite repairs to keep the project ahead of schedule.

Lee County — home to Fort Myers and the barrier islands Sanibel and Pine — was especially hard-hit by the powerful Category 4 storm.

The Matlacha Pass Bridge, which connects Pine Island to the mainland in Cape Coral, was also destroyed by Ian.

Damage to the causeway and bridge forced first responders to rely mainly on helicopters to conduct search and rescue operations as well as airlift vehicles and other assets onto Pine and Sanibel islands.

A temporary bridge restoring access to Pine Island opened to the public earlier this month.

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(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was shot and killed while working at a Florida gun range on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. at the Trail Glades Range, police said.

“A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer working at the weapons range was critically injured while on duty and pronounced deceased earlier today,” CBP said in a statement.

Officers responded to the range “in reference to a person shot,” police said in a statement. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue airlifted the male officer to a trauma center where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.

The unidentified officer was a firearms instructor at the range and was assigned to the Miami International Airport, according to CBP spokesperson Michael Silva.

“Great officer, a great family, and it’s a tragic loss,” Silva told reporters during a press briefing in Miami. “Just all-around great guy.”

“He had that passion for firearms,” Silva added. “He was a great firearms instructor.”

Officials said they are investigating the incident and do not have details to provide, but local and federal law enforcement are involved.

The Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Bureau is handling the investigation. Investigators are speaking with witnesses, police said.

CBP said it is cooperating with the investigation.

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(NEW YORK) — In another sign New York City is grappling with an increase of migrants entering the shelter system, the city has officially opened a sprawling, 84,000-square-foot emergency shelter on Manhattan’s Randall’s Island.

ABC News and other outlets were given a first look inside the center, opening Wednesday, which has a total footprint of 6.4 acres encompassing dormitories, dining facilities, recreation centers and isolation centers for migrants that may contract COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.

The decision to open the center comes amid an effort spearheaded by Texas Gov. Abbott to bus migrants to Democrat-led cities.

While Abbott’s efforts have been criticized as a political stunt to call attention to a broken immigration system, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News that more than 20,500 asylum-seekers have moved through the shelter system since spring, with a majority of them arriving on buses from Texas.

“This situation is caused by political actors, as you know, and New York City is just having to respond and prepare for more people to arrive,” said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

The center will house nearly 500 single male adults, but capacity can be increased if necessary. Other migrants, including families with children, are being placed at shelters and other temporary housing arrangements throughout the city. Case workers and other resources will be provided to migrants at the Randall’s Island facility so that they can figure out the next steps in their pending immigration cases and how to reach their intended destinations.

The mayor’s office is looking into obtaining funding from the state government to help migrants purchase transportation to where they have family in the United States or where they are required to show up to immigration court to proceed with their asylum claims.

New York City Emergency Management had already started building the facility at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, but severe rains that moved over the region in recent weeks proved the location to be a flood risk, and the facility was moved to Randall’s Island, just northeast of Manhattan.

NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol told reporters Monday that the decision to demobilize that location and install the facility on the island cost roughly $750,000.

Although officials aim to move migrants in and out of the center in under 96 hours, they will be allowed to stay longer on a case-by-case basis until they find more stable housing.

“New York City has had the need to open a welcome center big enough to have the capacity to welcome as many newly arrived immigrants, asylum-seekers,” said Castro. “We want to make sure that we’re able to meet all their immediate needs, which as you saw include medical attention, include an area to rest, take a shower, and most importantly, a way to connect to their loved ones. You want to help them to get to their final destination.”

Adams declared a state of emergency in the city earlier this month and said the migrant crisis would cost the city $1 billion. The city has appealed for help from the state and federal government.

“Although our compassion is limitless, our resources are not,” Adams said Oct. 7. “This is unsustainable.”

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