COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – A roof covering a walkway collapsed Tuesday morning at the Atlantic Technical College campus in Coconut Creek. No one was hurt.
Officials said there was construction going on in that portion of the campus, located at 4700 Coconut Creek Parkway, when the roof caved in.
Broward County Public Schools operates the college. The district’s superintendent, Peter Licata, said that an excessive amount of debris and roofing construction material weighed on the roof and led it to collapse.
“There’s a roof construction project going (on) and as they’re unloading, or putting a weight to dispose of, as they’re going through, that roof collapsed in a hallway,” Licata said. “Again, students were not present and no one was injured.”
Students were shaken by the collapse. Brooke Starler, a senior at the campus’s high school, described what she felt and heard.
“The building was shaking. And it sounded like something was cracking,” Starler said. “And then the roof fell.”
Although the district told Local 10 News in a statement that “there were no students or staff in the immediate area at the time of the incident,” Starler said a teacher had just walked past the area. She said as the teacher turned to speak to a colleague, the roof “caved in” right in front of her.
“She started screaming to like get help, just in case there was anybody underneath,” Starler said.
Anna Fusco, who heads Broward’s teachers union, said some staffers were rattled by the close call.
“It doesn’t seem (like) it’s safe to go in,” Fusco said. “Staff would like to know they’re going to come up with a better contingency plan when there is this type of construction.”
Cleanup continued into the afternoon.
Starler said the district should “work on the school and we’re not here so that we can ensure that the students and the staff are safe.”
“While the District is continuing to review all the circumstances regarding this incident, we are grateful that no one was injured,” a district spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Per the principal, the school was placed on a Hold Status for approximately two hours – from about 8:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. (It was not on a lockdown and the emergency status was not in place for the duration of the school day).”