HOUSTON - After months of waiting, class was back in session at C.E. King High School early Tuesday morning.
Hundreds of students headed back after Harvey heavily damaged the building last August.
In the middle of the hustle and bustle, Principal Dr. Demetrius McCall greeted students as they went to their classrooms.
“It's been a challenging journey, but also an amazing journey,” said McCall. Just three days after the school year began last August, floodwaters ravaged their building.
“Every part of this building was touched by floodwater, every single part of this building, and so when we talk about the large-scale amount of devastation, it was heavy,” said McCall.
From hallways, covered in more than 2 feet of murky water, to the auditorium hit so hard, it's still being rebuilt.
“It was heartbreaking, initially, and then something happens in the human spirit, we've got to do it, we've got to get it done,” he said.
For weeks, students volunteered their time to fix and put it back together. Among them were seniors Pleasant Harris and Ardai Dixon.
“We're home!” said Harris, an 18-year-old volleyball player.
Both students took the transition in stride, despite having to attend different campuses, including an elementary school.
“It was weird, sitting in the chairs, it was hard, I was getting stuck,” said Ardai Dixon, a varsity football player at the school.
And while these kids do have to adjust to an extra 10 minutes each day in the classrooms to make up for time lost, they're now doing it back on their Panther turf.
“It means a lot to be at our school, and graduating from our school,” said Harris.
Principal McCall says a few more sections of the school still need to be fixed, but all classrooms and the cafeteria at the school are now usable.