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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) = Seventh and eighth students, teachers, and staff returned Tuesday to the James S. Rickards Middle School campus.
The school was evacuated and subsequently shut down on March 5th, 2021 when the roof over the media center collapsed. Due to the pandemic, there were under 200 students and 55 faculty members in the building.
Rickards was in the middle of a multi-million dollar renovation when the collapse happened.
Building 1 on the campus, where the collapse happened, is slated to be demolished and a new building will be constructed in its place.
The returning students are being taught in portables.
Partial roof collapse at James S. Rickards Middle School in Oakland Park. (CBS4)
At the time of the collapse, Oakland Park Fire Rescue said the joists collapsed and there was a major water leak.
An engineering review conducted in April 2021, said failures of bolts used to connect L-shaped brackets from the wall to the roof joists led to the collapse.
According to the school district, the media center was under construction at the time of the collapse and no one was in the room.
Fire rescue said while no one was hit by flying debris, seven students and five staff members complained of headaches and nausea from stress and dehydration. Five were taken to the hospital for observation.