Florida school may tear down building where shooting took place

The Florida high school that was terrorized by a school shooter this week is considering tearing down the building where the gunman opened fire, killing 17 people and injuring more than a dozen.

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said Friday that the district is considering demolishing the three-story freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and replacing it with a memorial, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

“We’ve received numerous requests from parents, students, community members and local elected officials that they would like the building demolished and some memorial resurrected on the site,” Runcie said.

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The school is closed for the time being as authorities collect evidence. Runcie said that district officials likely won’t reopen the school in the next week because of funerals for the victims and repairs that need to be made on campus.

Officials will also have to determine logistics for holding the 900 freshman students that will now need to occupy other buildings.

“I don’t know how teachers, students could get back in that building,” Runcie told the Sun-Sentinel. “I don’t even know how we’re going to open the whole campus, period.”

“Just looking at that building and talking about it now, I have goosebumps out to my head,” he said.

Runcie said that there are several factors that will determine whether the district is able to demolish the building and how it will pay for a memorial or replacement building.

The building was constructed in 2009, and would require school board and state approval as well as a waiver to tear it down.

The suspected gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, is a former student of the school who was expelled for disciplinary reasons. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The FBI said Friday that it had received a tip earlier this year about Cruz’s intentions, but that it failed to follow protocol and did not investigate. The local sheriff’s office said that it also received approximately 20 calls about Cruz in recent years and it would investigate how those calls were handled.