2-28-18-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Students and teachers passed through tight security cordons of dozens of officers as classes resumed Wednesday for the first time since a troubled teenager with an AR-15 killed 17 people, thrusting them into the center of the nation’s gun debate.
The armed police, designed to make Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School feel secure, were accompanied by comfort animals including a donkey and horses. One of the horses had “eagle pride” painted on its side, while a woman held a sign saying “free kisses.”
Seeing officers carrying military-style rifles had the opposite effect on some students.
“This is a picture of education in fear in this country. The NRA wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm to scare more people and sell more guns,” said David Hogg, who has become a leading voice in the students’ movement to control assault weapons. “I know one of those bullets could be shredding through me if I was misidentified as a school shooter.”
Grief counselors were on campus as well “to provide a lot of love, a lot of understanding” and help students “ease back” into their school routines, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. Officers with therapy dogs also stood outside.
But there was no way around the grim images students and teachers encountered on their first day back. Several students remarked on all the weaponry officers were carrying, and the freshman building where the massacre took place remains cordoned off.
Principal Ty Thomas tweeted that “our focus is on emotional readiness and comfort not curriculum: so there is no need for backpacks.”
And the day’s class schedule began with 4th period, so that teachers and students could first be with the people they were with during the shooting.
“It’s not how you go down — it’s how you get back up,” said Casey Sherman, a 17-year-old junior. She said she was up late working on preparations for the March 14 national school walkout against gun violence, and not afraid to be returning, “just nervous.”
