Recovering after 3 surgeries, tearful Florida school shooting victim thanks doctors

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A tearful student who was wounded in the shooting rampage at a Florida high school thanked the doctors and first responders who helped her and said she's making a full recovery.

Speaking at a hospital news conference Monday, 17-year-old Maddy Wilford said "it's times like these when I know that we need to stick together."

Wilford has undergone three surgeries since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. She appeared at the news conference with her parents and with doctors and first responders who helped her on the day of the shooting.

The accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the shootings.

Several thousand students and parents lined up Sunday to enter the campus, walking solemnly but resolutely through gates that had been locked to all but law enforcement and school officials since the shooting.

They were there to collect backpacks and other belongings left behind as they fled the massacre. The freshman building where the shooting happened is now cordoned off and covered with banners from other schools showing solidarity.

The 3,200-student school reopens Wednesday.