Thousands of students Sunday returned to their Florida high school for the first time since a former classmate killed 17 people there in a hail of gunfire.

The huge stream of kids came back to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland to retrieve backpacks and other personal items left behind as they ran for their lives during the Feb. 14 massacre.

They did not have to enter the building where former student Nikolas Cruz allegedly killed 14 students and three school staffers, but they did have to walk by the structure, which the school board is proposing to have torn down.

Classes resume Wednesday.

With AP