This is a list of tornadoes which struck primary and secondary schools or post secondary colleges or universities, organized by the tornado's intensity. These scales—the Fujita scale, the Enhanced Fujita scale, and the International Fujita scale—are used to rate and estimate the damage done by a tornado.
F5/EF5/IF5 tornadoes
TornadoF#/EF#/IF# (school)Location (school)Notes1953 Flint–Beecher tornado F0–F5Beecher High SchoolThe school was heavily damaged as it was directly struck.1955 Udall tornado F0–F5Udall Public SchoolThe school building was badly damaged by the tornado, with beams snapped and blown away.1957 Spring Hill–Ruskin Heights tornado F0–F5Ruskin Heights High SchoolThe school was badly damaged.1957 Fargo tornado F0–F5Shanley High SchoolThe school was severely damaged.Sacred Heart AcademyThe school was severely damaged.North Dakota State UniversityBuildings on the university campus were severely damaged.1966 Topeka tornado F0–F5Washburn UniversityWashburn University took a direct hit, and many large stone buildings on campus were badly damaged or destroyed. A 300-pound section of stone wall was torn from one building and thrown two miles away. One vehicle on campus was reportedly lofted over the top of the university's ROTC building, before coming to rest on the 50-yard line of the football field.1968 Hansell-Charles City tornado F0–F5McKinley SchoolThe school was destroyed by the tornado.A school was damaged or destroyed by the tornado.A school was damaged or destroyed by the tornado.1968 Oelwein tornado F0–F5A middle school was destroyed by the tornado.An elementary school was destroyed by the tornado.1968 Tracy tornado F0–F5Tracy Elementary SchoolThe school was completely destroyed by the tornado.1970 Lubbock tornado F0–F5Estacado High SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.Thompson Junior High SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.Arnett Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.Jackson Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.Hunt Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.K. Carter Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.McWhorter Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.North Avenue U Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.Sanders Elementary SchoolThe school was damaged by the tornado.1974 Depauw–Daisy Hill tornado F0–F5Morgan Elementary SchoolThe tornado struck the school, destroying several classrooms and throwing cars on top of the building. Fortunately, the children and faculty, who were huddled in the hallways, were not injured. A woman was crushed by a school bus that flew into a ditch she was sheltering in. 1974 Xenia tornado F0–F5Xenia High SchoolThe school was completely destroyed by the tornado. As the tornado struck the school, it was videotaped and was observed to have "as many as five subvortices merging into one" tornado. Students in the school, practicing for a play, took cover in the main hallway seconds before the tornado dropped a school bus onto the stage where they had been practicing and extensively damaged the school building.1977 Birmingham tornado F0–F5Daniel Payne CollegeThe tornado caused $1,300,000 of damage ($ million adjusted) to Daniel Payne College, which shut down several years afterwards. 1990 Plainfield tornado F4Plainfield High SchoolThe tornado directly struck the high school, killing a science teacher and two maintenance workers. Students who had been out practicing for the fall football programs ran into the high school to take shelter a few minutes before the storm hit. After an alarm was pulled by a dean in the main office, the volleyball players preparing for a game in the gymnasium rushed to the nearest door and took shelter in the hallway. It has been reported that as soon as the last player was through the door, a coach quickly closed it, only for it to be immediately ripped back off by the storm. The gymnasium proceeded to fall apart and crash down, which filled the gap in the doorway. They took shelter in the same hallway as the football team, and once the tornado had passed, that was the only hallway left standing in the building. The tornado then demolished the Plainfield School District Administration building, where the wife of a custodian was killed.St. Mary Immaculate Church and SchoolThe tornado completely destroyed the church and school, killing the principal of the school, a music teacher, and the son of the cook at the rectory.Grand Prairie Elementary SchoolThe school sustained significant damage.1998 Oak Grove-Birmingham tornado F3Oak Grove High SchoolThe high school portion sustained major structural damage, and the elementary school portion was destroyed. The school building was rebuilt two years later and reopened a mile away from the damaged area. No one inside the school was killed, but a group of cheerleaders practicing at the school's gymnasium escaped disaster with only minor injuries when a wall prevented a portion of the roof from falling on them.1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado F4Westmoore High SchoolAn honors ceremony was being held at Westmoore High School at the time of the tornado. Adequate warning time allowed those at the school to seek shelter, however, and more than 400 adults and students attending the awards ceremony at the school's auditorium were moved to the main building, sheltering in reinforced hallways and bathrooms. Ultimately, Westmoore High sustained heavy damage and dozens of cars that were in the school's parking lot were tossed around, some of which were completely destroyed or thrown into nearby homes. No injuries took place at the school, though a horse was found dead between a couple of destroyed cars in this area.2007 Greensburg tornado EF4Delmar Day Elementary SchoolThe school was completely leveled nearby homes were flattened at EF4 intensity.Greensburg High SchoolThe school was mostly destroyed by the tornado, sustaining high-end EF4 damage. One wing of the school was completely flattened, despite being well-built and constructed with triple-thick masonry walls. Numerous homes were swept away across from the high school, four of which were well-bolted to their foundations, warranting an EF5 rating at those residences.2008 Parkersburg–New Hartford tornado EF4Aplington-Parkersburg High SchoolThe school sustained EF4 structural damage, and reinforced concrete light poles near the school were snapped and dragged along the ground by the tornado, indicative of extremely intense low-level inflow winds.2011 Hackleburg–Phil Campbell tornado EF3Hackleburg High SchoolThe school had its roof removed, exposing the interior. Nearby vehicles were tossed up to 200 yards.Hackleburg Middle School.The school was badly damaged but not destroyed. Nearby vehicles were tossed up to 200 yards.Hackleburg Elementary SchoolThe school was badly damaged. Nearby vehicles were tossed up to 200 yards.2011 Rainsville tornado EF4Plainview High SchoolThe school sustained $10 to $15 million (2011 USD) in damage to the main school buildings, gymnasiums, sports fields, cafeteria, as well as the DeKalb County Schools Coliseum. Nearby homes were swept clean from their foundations, their debris having been strewn up to a mile away and a school bus was mangled beyond recognition and stripped down to its chassis. 2011 Joplin tornado EF4St. Mary's Catholic Church and SchoolThe building was almost completely leveled, with the only portions of the church and school remaining being the steel cross and a small portion of the metal roof.Joplin High SchoolPortions of the high school were completely destroyed. A school bus was tossed on top of the destroyed bus garage. Surrounding businesses, homes, and buildings were totally destroyed. Many open fields were covered with boards, limbs, steel beams, fencing, and other materials embedded deeply into the ground. EF3East Middle SchoolThe school had its gymnasium badly damaged and an auditorium demolished, large spans of roof were removed.2013 Moore tornado EF4Briarwood Elementary SchoolThe school was completely destroyed. Right before destroying the school, the tornado heavily scouring an open grassy field. The National Weather Service originally rated the damage to the school EF5, but further evaluation and a 2014 study published by the American Meteorological Society revealed evidence of poor construction at the school, and the rating was downgraded to EF4. Remarkably, no fatalities occurred at the school. Two 12,000-gallon water tanks that were also swept off of the Orr Family Farm grounds were thrown into this area; the roof of Briarwood Elementary was struck by one of them − potentially aiding in compromising the building's structural integrity as it bent the steel girders that held up the roof − shortly before the main vortex struck the building, while the other fell onto and destroyed a home a few blocks east of the school.Plaza Towers Elementary SchoolThe tornado completely destroyed the school at EF4 intensity, where seven children were killed when a cinder block wall collapsed on top of them. More than a dozen homes in a subdivision just to the south of Plaza Towers Elementary were swept cleanly away, though they were revealed to have been nailed rather than bolted to their foundations, and damage to this subdivision was subsequently rated EF4, though the tornado was likely extremely violent as lawns in this area were completely scoured down to bare soil. Entire blocks of homes were flattened, trees were completely debarked and denuded, vehicles were thrown and mangled, and the ground was severely scoured in other residential areas nearby, with the damage also rated EF4 in these areas. Most of the fatalities from the tornado occurred in the Plaza Towers neighborhood of Moore. EF3Highland East Jr. HighHighland East Jr. High's main building was spared, but the separate gymnasium building was completely destroyed at EF3 intensity, and a set of lockers from the structure was lofted and thrown a considerable distance into a nearby neighborhood. EF1Moore Public SchoolsThe Moore Public Schools administration building, a converted former hospital located a few blocks to the east, was struck by the tornado and destroyed at EF1 intensity.
F4/EF4/IF4 tornadoes