Florida high school teacher breaks down after saying every precaution had been taken to save students, yet 17 still died
- A teacher at the Florida high school where 17 were killed in a mass shooting says the school did everything possible to prepare but ultimately failed.
- Lawmakers have called for increased gun control and attention to the problem of mass shootings in the wake of this shooting, but have done the same for other shootings without a tangible result.
- Falkowski broke down emotionally at the end of the interview and expressed her frustration with the government for failing to prevent these tragedies.
Melissa Falkowski, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, became overcome with sadness while describing the safety precautions taken by the school and their ultimate failure to prevent lives from being lost.
Falkowski told MSNBC the school had "made a lot of changes to safety protocols this year" and ran drills specifically for how to respond to attacks or threats on the school.
"I don't think we could have been more prepared than we were today," said Falkowski, who told CNN in a separate interview that she hid 19 children in a closet during the attack, which she described as a "worst-nightmare scenario."
"We talked to every single class period that sat in front of us about what to do in a bomb threat, in a fire drill, we went over every safety," said Falkowski to MSNBC. "Every single teacher did that until the classes were tired of hearing about it."
"Even with that," said Falkowski, who was visibly becoming distraught, "we still have 17 casualties, 17 people that aren't going to return to their families."
"To me, that's totally unacceptable," Falkowski continued. "It's time for Congress, somebody to do something and to talk about what the problem is and try to fix it."
The suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, bought the AR-15 rifle he allegedly used in the attack legally. Cruz has been charged by local authorities with 17 counts of premeditated murder and could face the death penalty.
Florida Sen. Chris Murphy noted the "epidemic of mass slaughter," in school shootings only happens in the US, and chalked it up to a "consequence of inaction" within the government.