OMAHA, Neb. -- Students and staffers returned to Millard South High School with some trepidation Friday, two days after a suspended 17-year-old fatally shot an assistant principal and wounded the principal before fleeing the campus and taking his own life.

About 100 students gathered outside the entrance of the west Omaha school for more than 30 minutes in frigid temperatures to welcome back their classmates. A handful of candles flickered in jars at an ad-hoc memorial honoring assistant principal Vicki Kaspar and principal Curtis Case on the school grounds.

Some students stopped to look at the posters, flowers and other mementos, while others scurried by, eager to return to class. One freshman took a few minutes to look at the memorial before heading into the school building.

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Suspension appeared to ignite school shooting

Henry J. Cordes, John Ferak, Omaha World-Herald

Last updated Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 2:43pm

OMAHA, Neb. -- Robert Butler Jr. was pulled from his first-period class Wednesday at Millard South High School, summoned to the school office to face the music.

A school security camera had caught the 17-year-old senior -- who transferred to the school this past fall -- driving across a school football field and track.

He had been cited by police when it happened Jan. 1. And on his first day back in school after winter break, Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar informed him of his penalty: a 19-day suspension.

Butler was escorted out of the school. Sometime afterward, he posted an item on Facebook about the "evil" that the school had driven him to.

As the lunch period wound down in the suburban Omaha school's buzzing halls, the meaning of those words became clear.

Butler returned to Kaspar's office, this time brandishing a handgun. He shot the 58-year-old administrator, mortally wounding her, then fired on Principal Curtis Case.

Butler, the son of an Omaha police officer, then fled by car. Omaha police found him about 35 minutes later in a parking lot, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

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