Michigan School Bans Book Bags In Wake Of Florida Shooting

IONIA (WWJ) - One Michigan school is banning book bags and purses in the wake of a high school shooting that killed 17 and injured others in Florida.

Beginning Feb. 26, students at Ionia Middle School, near Grand Rapids, will have to put their bags into their lockers, and leave them there all day.

In a note to parents, principal Wayne Piercefield III said the new safety policy is directly related to the "horrific events" in Florida.

Piercefield said they were giving students a week to get used to the policy before enforcing it.

The shooter in Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, carried his weapon and extra ammunition in a black duffel bag and black backpack. Cruz slipped into the building, entered a stairwell, extracted a rifle from his bag and began shooting, authorities said.

From the time Cruz entered the building until the time he left, blending in with panicked, fleeing students, only six minutes passed. During that brief time, he shot more than two dozen people, including 17 fatally. After the rampage, he walked to a Wal-Mart and bought a drink at a Subway restaurant, then went to a McDonald's. About 40 minutes later, a deputy saw him walking down a suburban South Florida street and grabbed him. He didn't put up a fight.

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