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Parkland, Fla.

Within 24 hours of the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. high school, there was a sense among survivors and their families here in this south Florida community that this one might be different, if only because they were determined to make it so.

The scale of the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School quickly drew international headlines. It was Valentine鈥檚 Day when Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who鈥檇 been removed from the school the previous year, entered a building that holds freshman classes and opened fire with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, killing 17 students and adults and injuring 15 others, police said.

Students waited out the shooting in locked classrooms and darkened closets. They weren鈥檛 yet born when the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., sparked policy changes that would alter their generation鈥檚 educational experience with lockdown drills, metal detectors, and fears of gun violence.

And now those fears had been realized, setting off an almost immediate movement of student activism, yet another call among politicians for 鈥渁 national conversation鈥� about gun violence, and a cascade of distressing questions that the community鈥攁nd the entire country鈥攚ill likely wrestle with for months and years to come. Chief among them: Could this have been prevented?

鈥淒on鈥檛 tell me there鈥檚 no such thing as gun violence,鈥� said Fred Guttenberg, who spoke at a candlelight vigil in a public park the day after his 14-year-old daughter Jamie was killed in her classroom. His voice got louder as it cracked. 鈥淚t happened in Parkland.鈥�

The next day, the FBI said it failed to investigate a tip last month that someone close to Cruz was concerned about his 鈥渄isturbing social-media posts鈥� and 鈥渄esire to kill people.鈥�

A week later, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said a review of security footage showed an armed deputy assigned to the campus had taken position outside of the building, but he never entered, missing a chance to stop the attack.

Those revelations added to concerns already piling up.

Would tighter restrictions on gun purchases have stopped Cruz? Do schools have the resources to help students like Cruz, who was known by teachers, law enforcement, and mental-health professionals for a pattern of disruptive and disturbing behavior? Were security protocols adequate? Will students and teachers there ever feel safe in school again?

Code Red

Stoneman Douglas students are well-practiced in shooting drills, officials said.

鈥淭he kids knew exactly what to do and where to go and how to get there,鈥� said math teacher Jim Gard.

But they weren鈥檛 prepared for a set of circumstances that would scramble every safety protocol they had practiced in their drills.

A fire alarm had gone off inside Stoneman Douglas High School just as the day was about to end, sending Gard and his students into the hallway. It was strange, the teacher said, because they鈥檇 had a fire drill earlier in the day, but Gard followed the school鈥檚 safety procedures and ushered his students out, taking up the rear to make sure his classroom was empty.

鈥淲e heard all of these popping sounds,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 count how many. There were a lot.鈥�

Then the announcement: Code Red. A shooter on campus.

Gard and his fellow teachers rushed students back into classrooms where they locked doors, turned off lights, and huddled in closets and corners. Some allowed students to put on headphones and call their parents, staying quiet as they sought comfort from a one-sided conversation on the other end of the phone line.

Because students had already started to evacuate the building, many never made it back to their original classrooms for the lockdown. Teachers spent the next several hours emailing each other to track down missing students.

As police responded to the scene, they found hundreds of students fleeing the buildings, walking with teachers to nearby businesses where they would later reunite with their families.

Police said Cruz was among them. Wearing a deep-red shirt, the school鈥檚 color, he discarded his weapon and blended in with the crowd.

Before the shooting, a campus monitor saw Cruz enter the building carrying a backpack and duffel bag and 鈥渞ecognized him as a former troubled student,鈥� court documents show. He radioed a co-worker to warn him Cruz was 鈥渨alking purposefully鈥� toward the freshman building.

Within a minute, the monitor heard gun shots.

鈥淪tuff like this shouldn鈥檛 be allowed to happen,鈥� said a sophomore who did not want to be named. She added that the building was 鈥渨ay too open.鈥�

School safety experts say controlling building access is one of the most important measures schools can take to ensure safety. Many elementary and middle schools limit access to a single set of locked doors that can only be opened with permission from staff members. High schools, usually larger and with multiple buildings, can be more challenging to secure.

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie said access was more open at the time of the shooting because it happened toward the end of the school day, when staff were opening up the campus to dismiss its 3,300 students.

鈥淣othing鈥攏othing in the world鈥攊s going to stop somebody who wants to create mass tragedies like this,鈥� Runcie told 澳门跑狗论坛. 鈥淎ll we can do is minimize it, and that鈥檚 what the training does.鈥�

Beyond physical security, teachers and parents wondered if more could have been done to address Cruz鈥檚 behavior. Orphaned when his mother died recently, he was living with the family of a classmate, who told the Sun-Sentinel they weren鈥檛 aware of his history. That family allowed Cruz to keep an AR-15 in his room if he promised to keep it locked in a gun locker.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the way we have to live our lives in circa 2018,鈥� Israel, the sheriff, said at a news conference the day after the shootings. 鈥淚f we see something, we need to say something.鈥�

But it quickly became clear that many people had spoken up about Cruz.

Israel鈥檚 office said it had received about 20 calls about the suspect in recent years. Deputies got a call in November that Cruz 鈥渃ould be a school shooter in the making,鈥� but did not write a report, Israel said Friday. And two years ago, a deputy warned the school resource officer of a report that Cruz 鈥減lanned to shoot up the school.鈥�

Citing disciplinary records it obtained, the Washington Post reported that Cruz had 鈥渁 long string of escalating disciplinary measures throughout his academic career for insubordination, profanity, disruption, fighting, and assault.鈥�

鈥淚n January 2017, when Cruz was disciplined for an alleged assault, that triggered a call for a threat assessment, a formal process by which the school determines whether a student is dangerous and how that student should be supervised and supported,鈥� the paper reported, adding that it鈥檚 unclear whether such an assessment was ever conducted.

District leaders have refused to discuss Cruz鈥檚 records citing federal privacy laws. Runcie told 澳门跑狗论坛 that that schools need more resources and more community support to address student behavior and mental-health concerns.

Around the country, parents began questioning if their children鈥檚 schools were adequately confronting similar concerns with their own students. And policymakers began asking if there is enough coordination among public-health providers, schools, and law enforcement to ensure that no one slips through the cracks.

鈥楾his Could Happen Anywhere鈥�

As throngs of cameras and satellite trucks descended on their city, Stoneman Douglas students started to ask tough questions of the adults responsible for protecting them.

鈥淚 want them to know this could happen anywhere,鈥� said Michala Christie, 14, a freshman who heard the gunman banging loudly on the locked door of her geography classroom as she waited inside. Two of her friends were killed: Alex Schachter, 14, a trombone player who played alongside her in the school鈥檚 band, and Gina Montalto, 14, who was a member of the marching band鈥檚 winter guard.

A vocal group of teenagers, joined by Runcie and Israel, began calling on lawmakers to rethink gun laws. They stood before countless TV cameras to make impassioned pleas and they barraged social media, some of them tweeting directly to President Donald Trump. Organizing under the name #NeverAgain, they organized calls for nationwide protests and a rally in Washington.

David Hogg, 17, recorded his classmate鈥檚 thoughts about guns on his cellphone as they sat locked in a darkened classroom during the shooting.

鈥淚f I was going to die, I was going to die telling a story,鈥� said Hogg, a senior. 鈥淲e鈥檙e children,鈥� he said in a CNN interview the day after the attack. 鈥淵ou guys are the adults.鈥�

As students lobbied for changes to gun laws, state and national leaders began to discuss proposals related to school safety and firearms. Trump met with school shooting survivors and their families at the White House, including some whose children were killed in the Parkland attack.

鈥淚t should have been one school shooting, and we should have fixed it,鈥� Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, died in the shooting, told Trump. 鈥淚鈥檓 pissed! My daughter鈥擨鈥檓 not going to see again! She鈥檚 not here.鈥�

After the meeting, Trump called for training and arming teachers, suggesting bonuses for those who carry guns. The idea was widely dennounced by educators, Runcie, Parkland leaders, and the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Even as their experiences became the central anecdote in resurging debates about school safety, educators at Stoneman Douglas had to face the reality of a long recovery.

Staff members planned to return to campus late last week. The school planned a voluntary event for students and parents Feb. 25 with hopes of starting classes a few days later. Students have been meeting with counselors throughout the city and gathering in front of a memorial in a city park. The district plans to raze the building where the shooting took place.

English teacher Holly Van Tassel-Schuster has used a homework app to send her students messages of support, like 鈥淚 love you. I miss you guys so much.鈥�

Students lost more than the friends and teachers, said Adeena Teres, a science teacher at the school, who鈥檚 been meeting nightly with her colleagues to prepare for the days ahead.

鈥淭hey lost the sense of school as a safe place,鈥� she said.