Crammed into bathroom

Kaia Dunn, 16, said she was at lunch when she saw the van hit the gate but thought it was a prank or

a driver who had a medical emergency. The 10-grader said she realized something was wrong when teachers started running.

She and two other 10-graders, Sloane Lopez, 16, and Amelia Seguso, 15, waited for more than an hour in a bathroom inside Building 8.

Lopez and Seguso said they were sitting on the floor of the bathroom where about 30 students were crammed inside. Dunn was standing with others in a small entranceway outside the bathroom.

“It was just kind of silent,” Dunn said, as students were texting their parents.

About 40 students fled to a nearby business, Azul Stone on Tamarind, where they stayed for about an hour in the showroom. Owner David Nasser said some of the students had been there before to pick up samples for classes.

“They seemed very fragile. Their spirit was broken,” Nasser said.

West Palm Beach Police, Palm Beach County schools police, the State Attorney’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office are all investigating.

Friday’s shooting was not the first time somebody died on the school campus.

A man was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for killing two co-workers on the Dreyfoos campus in 2013. Javier Burgos fled the country and spent four years on the run after the June 19, 2013, murders of Ted Orama, 56, a custodian supervisor, and Christopher Marshall, 48, a custodian.

School was not in session at the time of those shootings, and no students were on the campus.

The school district has set up an emotional support hotline for students or staff who may need to talk to a professional about Friday’s event. The line will be open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The hotline number is 561-982-0920. People can speak to specialists around the clock by calling 211, the district said.

The Dreyfoos School of the Arts is Palm Beach County’s top performing arts magnet school, and students from all over the county attend.

CARLINE JEAN/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL A man driving a van erratically crashed through the gates onto the campus of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts about noon, where he was shot and killed by police.