The gunfire at Millard South made a long-time coach there shake his head — his school was now the one on television, the one everyone was reading about and the school that would have to recover from its own shooting.
“It hurts a lot,” said Larry Ribble, 67, who retired after coaching boys track and basketball at the school for 30 years. “With time, some wounds will be healed, but it's just really a setback.”
Police said Robert Butler Jr., 17, shot Principal Curtis Case and Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar inside the school. Kaspar died Wednesday night at Creighton University Medical Center.
The shooting led to the lockdown Wednesday afternoon of all 35 schools in the Millard school district, affecting about 22,000 students.
School officials, staff and students now face the task of dealing with Omaha's first school shooting.
No classes will be held Thursday at Millard South. But a few people were coming and going from the building in the morning dark.
On the east side of the building, a makeshift memorial of candles reminded passersby of the grim events inside the school. About a dozen candles had burned out, 16 still flickered.
The district will have a team of 24 crisis counselors available for staff, students and parents from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Don Stroh Administration Center, 5606 S. 147th St.
The counselors also will be available Friday when classes resume at Millard South, 14905 Q St.
Millard Superintendent Keith Lutz said the district routinely runs staff and students through emergency drills.
“No matter what you do, how many times you go through this, nothing prepares you for it,” he said during a press conference.
Amy Friedman, Millard Public Schools spokeswoman, said the district takes numerous security precautions, such as hiring police officers to work in schools.
Ribble, the former coach, remembers the first time he saw a police officer in a Millard school: a few days after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High in Colorado that killed 13 people.
“It's kind of — I wouldn't say the trend of today — but there's a lot of anger in the world,” he said. “It shouldn't have to be that way.”
Contact the writer: 444-3106, jonathon.braden@owh.com
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