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Florida school shooting: ‘Abject breakdown at all levels’

Mourners console each other during the funeral service for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School assistant football coach, Aaron Feis. at the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 22. 2018. Football players wearing Stoneman Douglas jerseys carried Feis' casket into the service at the church where family and friends gathered to remember him as loyal and caring. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
Mourners console each other during the funeral service for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School assistant football coach, Aaron Feis. at the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 22. 2018. Football players wearing Stoneman Douglas jerseys carried Feis' casket into the service at the church where family and friends gathered to remember him as loyal and caring. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) Mourners console each other during the funeral service for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School assistant football coach, Aaron Feis. at the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 22. 2018. Football players wearing Stoneman Douglas jerseys carried Feis' casket into the service at the church where family and friends gathered to remember him as loyal and caring. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

By Associated Press 5 min read

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – The Florida high school where a former student shot and killed 17 people with an assault-type rifle is reopening for teachers Friday as the community grappled with word that the armed officer on campus did nothing to stop the shooter.

That failure, plus reports of a delay in security camera footage scanned by responding police and several records indicating the 19-year-old suspect displayed behavioral troubles for years added to what the Florida House speaker described as an “abject breakdown at all levels.”

The Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has reignited national debate over gun laws and school safety, including proposals by President Donald Trump and others to designate more people – including trained teachers – to carry arms on school grounds. Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, have redoubled calls for bans or further restrictions on assault rifles.

Teachers were told they could return to the school Friday to collect belongings from classrooms that have been off-limits since the slayings more than a week earlier. The school plans an orientation Sunday for teachers and students, and to restart classes Wednesday.

“Our new normal has yet to be defined, but we want to get back to it,” said geography teacher Ernest Rospierski, whose classroom is on the third floor of the three-story building attacked Feb. 14. Officials have said that building will be torn down.