When a Classroom Becomes A Crater
At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, February 28, 2026, dozens of girls gathered at the “Shajareh Tayyebeh” (The Good Tree) school in the city of Minab in southern Iran. No sooner had they greeted friends and settled into another school day, a missile struck the school, destroying the building and causing the roof to collapse on top of the children and their teachers.
Within minutes, their classrooms had turned to rubble.
And so began this week’s war against Iran. Within hours, Iranian authorities began counting the bodies, most of them girls aged between 7 and 12. By the next day, the death toll had reached 165. At least 95 other people were wounded in the attack.
As the images of the carnage spread on social media platforms — including mass graves awaiting the slain students — Israeli and US authorities sought to distance themselves from the attack. Developing news reports, however, suggest that the missile had been aiming for a nearby military facility which, until 2016, had been used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. It is not year clear whether it was an Israeli or an American airstrike and whether the attack on the school was a catastrophic error. (“Who’s Airstrike Hit a Girls’ School in Iran? The U.S. Says It’s Still Investigating,” The New York Times, March 4, 2026)
Yesterday, thousands of residents of Minab held a funeral ceremony for the 165 students killed in the attack. From the images posted on CNN, it looks like the mourners were mostly women. Some held photographs of the daughter they had loved and lost.
A spokesperson for the UN Office of Human Rights recalled the horror of the strike.
Children, little girls…at the beginning of the school day being killed in this manner, backpacks with bloodstains on them – this is absolutely horrific. If there is any image that captures the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict, those are the images.”
UN rights chief Volker Türk called for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation.” “Intentionally attacking a school, hospital or other civilian structure is a war crime, Türk said, “and indiscriminate strikes also violate international law.”
Three days ago, a stunning poem by West Virginian poet Jennifer Keener arrived in my inbox, courtesy of a longtime West Virginian colleague and friend. “The Dawn,” written in a fury of energy the day after the devastating strike, captures the rage and tears of a world gone mad where classrooms filled with young girls fall violently silent. A foster mom and outreach worker amid her state’s opioid crisis, Kenner knows tragedy.
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