Reporting from PARKLAND, Fla. — Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida focused their anger Sunday at President Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive.
“You’re the president. You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“How dare you?” he said.
Hogg was responding to Trump’s tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn’t passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI’s failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau’s focus on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
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Trump was at his Florida estate Sunday but did not mention the attack in a series of tweets. After more than a day of criticism from the students, the White House said the president would hold a “listening session” with unspecified students Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday.
Florida politicians, meanwhile, scrambled to produce legislation in response to Wednesday’s attack, which killed 17 people. Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from the school, is being held without bail in the Broward County Jail, charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder.
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Abigail Avioa, a senior at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, her back to camera, is prayed over in front of the school on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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People come to pay their respects and leave flowers at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students were killed in a mass shooting last week.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Bicycles still remain on campus as people come to pay their respects and leave flowers at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students were killed in a mass shooting last week.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Brandon Sanchez, 9, prays with his father Victor Sanchez, center, of Coral Springs, Fla., along with other family members and friends in front of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Hearts with the names of some of those killed are hung on the fence at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Lauren Fitzsimmons, 12, left, and Ed Staszeski pray during a service at First Church Coral Springs where prayers were said for the victims of the high school shooting.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Pastor Vance Rains leads prayers for the victims of the school shooting at First Church Coral Springs.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Students gathered at the memorial crosses at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Florida to remember those where were killed and injured in the shooting.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Isabella Cristancho, 14, left, Valentina Piedrahita, 14, and Paula Mantilla, 13, far right, protest on a corner not far from Marjorie Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a gunman killed 17 dead and injured 14 in a school shooting.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Family members greet one another as they arrive for the memorial and burial for Meadow Paddock, age 18, one of the shooting victims at Marjorie Stonemason Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Sarah Cardenas, age 38, brings some of her students from Classical Conversation (home school) in Boca Raton to the memorial for the victims of the shooting at Marjorie Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a gunman killed 17 dead and injured 14 in a school shooting. “We came to pay our respects and pray,” says Cardenas. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Isaah Jean, age 14, is a freshman at Marjorie Stonemason Douglas High School and was in the freshman building and saw the gunman. The only thing he thought to do was throw his phone at the gunman. He fractured his ankle trying to run from the shooting and is now on crutches.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners hold a prayer vigil for victims at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Fla.
(Rhona Wise / AFP/Getty Images)
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Thousands gather for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla. to remember those killed and injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Thousands gather for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla. to remember those killed and injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Thousands gather for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla. to remember those killed and injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Thousands gather for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla. to remember those killed and injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Antonina Messina, 17, a student at Marjorie Stonemason Douglas High School, left, attends a vigil with her mother Clara Messina, center, and brothter, Matteo Messina, right.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Students gather for a memorial at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Fla., one day after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in nearby Parkland.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Broward County school board members Robin Bartleman, left, and Rosalind Osgood, second from left, and Chaplain Robert Ossler of the City of Cape Coral Fire/Emergency Department, pray for the victims of the mass shooting after a news conference.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Balloons are released Thursday at the end of a vigil for victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Marla Eveillard, 14, grieves with friends before the start of a community prayer vigil in Coral Springs, Fla.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after a shooting there killed 17 people.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Parents meet at a hotel to pick up their children after the shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
(Jim Rassol / South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
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Students released from a lockdown embrace after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
(John McCall / South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
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Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the lockdown ended.
(John McCall / South Florida Sun-Sentinel )
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People are brought out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a gunman opened fire Wednesday.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Students are escorted by police following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
(Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
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Parents wait for news after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday.
(Joel Auerbach / Associated Press)
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Parents and family members gather south of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus following a shooting in Parkland, Fla.
(Amy Beth Bennett / Associated Press)
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Anxious family members wait for news of students after a shooting at the school in Broward County in southeast Florida.
(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)
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Medical personnel tend to a victim after the mass shooting.
(John McCall / South Florida Sun-Sentinel )
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People gather waiting for word from students following the mass shooting.
(Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun-Sentinel )
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A law enforcement officer rushes toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting at the school in Parkland, Fla.
(John McCall / Associated Press)
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Anxious family members wait south of the campus at which more than 3,000 students are enrolled.
(Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun-Sentinel )
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Family members embrace a student who was released from the school. A shooting at the school sent students rushing into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in and locked down the building.
(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)
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A law enforcement officer tells anxious family members to move back after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)
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Anxious family members wait for information on students in Parkland, Fla. Multiple deaths were reported Wednesday as gunfire broke out at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)
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In a TV interview, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio embraced a Democratic bill in the Florida Legislature to allow courts to temporarily prevent people from having guns if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.
Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican, attended a prayer vigil at the First Church Coral Springs, a few blocks from the shooting site. He is expected to announce a legislative package with GOP leaders of the Legislature this week.
Emma Gonzalez, another student who survived the attack, cited Trump, Rubio and Scott by name in a warning to politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Assn.
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“Now is the time to get on the right side of this, because this is not something that we are going to let sweep under the carpet,” she said on “Meet the Press.”
The students’ pointed comments are the latest signs of increased pressure for gun control after the massacre.
The students have vowed to become the face of a movement for tighter firearm regulations and plan to visit the state Capitol in Tallahassee this week to demand immediate action. They are also calling for anti-gun violence demonstrations in Washington and other cities on March 24.
Organizers behind the Women’s March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute, nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, announced a day of walkouts, sit-ins and other events on school campuses on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead.
Not every student at the Florida school was calling for more gun control. James Ciaramello, a freshman in the school’s Junior ROTC program, on Friday paused at a memorial in a park in front of a photo of one victim, Peter Wang, a 15-year-old Junior ROTC student who was killed after holding open a door so others could escape.
“He’s just messed up,” Ciaramello said of Cruz, who was also in Junior ROTC. “I mean, tighter gun control, it’s not gonna help. There’s always a way around it.”
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School and government records obtained Sunday show Cruz was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age 3 and had disciplinary issues dating to middle school. In February 2014, while in eighth grade, Cruz was transferred to a special school for children with emotional and behavioral issues. He stayed there until 10th grade, when he was transferred to Stoneman Douglas. A month after arriving, Cruz was written up for using profanity. Last year, Cruz was expelled.
On Sept. 28, 2016, an investigator from the Florida Department of Children and Families visited Cruz and his mother, Lynda, after he posted video on Snapchat showing him cutting himself. The report showed that Cruz had written a racial epithet against African Americans and a Nazi symbol on his book bag, which his mother had forced him to erase. The investigator said Cruz was suffering from depression and on medication and had told his mother that he planned to buy a gun, but she couldn’t determine why.
She said he had been depressed after breaking up with a girlfriend who had been cheating on him, the investigator said. A school counselor told the investigator that Lynda Cruz had always tried to help her son and followed through on his therapy and medication, but the counselor was concerned about the youth’s desire to buy a gun.
A crisis counselor told the investigator that he had visited the school and that he did not believe Nikolas Cruz was a danger to himself or others. The case was closed, with the investigator concluding that Cruz was receiving help from his mother and counselors, and “no other referrals or services were needed.”
After Lynda Cruz died in November, her son moved into the home of a teenage friend. The friend’s parents told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper they had no idea the extent of Cruz’s issues.
“We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead said in an interview published Sunday. “We didn’t see this side of him.”
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James Snead said: “Everything everybody seems to know, we didn’t know. It’s as simple as that.”
The Sneads said Cruz seemed unable to do even simple tasks such as doing the laundry or using the microwave.
He kept the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle he allegedly used in the massacre locked in a gun safe with a few other firearms. James Snead thought he had the only key to the cabinet but said Cruz must have had another key. The family kept their own rifles, bought after a burglary a few years ago, in a separate locked cabinet.
They told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns. He had asked only twice since November. They said “yes” once and “no” once.
On Wednesday morning, Cruz told them he didn’t need a ride to school. “It’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t go to school on Valentine’s Day,” he said.
Cruz sent their son a few texts that day. In one, he asked what classroom the boy was in. He said he was going to see a movie.
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Later he texted he had “something important” he wanted to tell the teen. Then he wrote, “Nothing man.”
Pallbearers carry the casket of Scott Beigel, a geography teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, after a funeral service at Temple Beth-El on Feb. 18, 2018, in Boca Raton, Fla.
