Cruz had long list of issues at school

As a middle-school student, school shooter Nikolas Cruz regularly got in trouble for using foul language, insulting people, disobeying teachers and disrupting classes.

School officials met with his mother. And counseled him. And referred him to family counseling. And gave him detention. And suspended him.

But problems only escalated when Cruz got to Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, disciplinary records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show.

In January 2017, Cruz assaulted someone and received a one-day internal suspension. The school asked for a “threat assessment” on him, the records indicate.

School officials can request that the district’s Psychological Services department do such assessments on students if they feel the student might be a danger to his or herself or others, a former school security official told the Sun Sentinel.

It’s unclear whether the assessment was done for Cruz.

Stoneman Douglas assistant principal Jeffrey Morford declined to comment to

the Sun Sentinel on Saturday.

Cruz transferred out of Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 8, 2017, then bounced among three alternative schools, most recently Rock Island OCLC in Oakland Park.

On Valentine’s Day, Cruz, now 19, was not at the Oakland Park school, but instead returned to the Stoneman Douglas campus and fatally shot 17 people with an AR-15 rifle. He’s admitted guilt and could face the death penalty.

As early as 3 years old, Cruz was diagnosed as developmentally disabled, the school district documents state.

After attending Westglades Middle, he moved in February 2014 to Cross Creek, a Pompano Beach public school that offers a program for emotionally and behaviorally disabled children.

State records from the Department of Children & Families show Cruz was afflicted with a disorder marked by bouts of hyperactivity and difficultly paying attention. The 2016 records also show him struggling with autism and depression.

He took medication and had counselors who worked with him in school and at his home, the records state.

Gordon Weekes, one of Broward County’s chief assistant public defenders, said that although Cruz had a supportive mother, who died a few months ago, “he needed more.”

At one point, according to the 2016 state report, crisis workers from Henderson Behavioral Health, a major mental health center, were called to the high school and determined that Cruz was “not at risk to harm himself or others.”

Weekes said Henderson workers should have hospitalized Cruz at that point. He’d gotten into a fight, records show, around Sept. 20, 2016 and was suspended. A week later, the state received a report he was cutting his arms on Snapchat, a mobile application.

The Department of Children & Families, however, concluded that “no referrals or services were needed” for him.

“If someone would have caught it and acted on the red flags we would be here today,” Weekes said. “There were tragic red flags, and they just didn’t catch them.”

DCF Secretary Mike Carroll on Saturday night issued a statement saying that mental health services and supports were in place for Cruz when the agency’s investigation closed. The state only investigates whether an adult is safe and has access to help.