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Florida School’s R.O.T.C. Lost 3 Cadets; Suspect Was a Member

Peter Wang, whose funeral was Tuesday, received a ceremonial letter of acceptance from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Neil Reisner and

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Cadet Peter Wang dreamed of attending the United States Military Academy at West Point one day, but he never got the chance. The 15-year-old was shot down last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as he held open a door so others could escape.

As he was laid to rest on Tuesday, West Point issued his family a ceremonial letter of acceptance. “One of U.S.M.A.’s priorities is to develop leaders of character who are committed to the values of duty, honor and country,” the academy wrote on Twitter. “Peter Wang’s actions on February 14 are an example of those principles, and the academy honors his dream of being a West Point cadet.”

The 17 people killed in the shooting rampage included three members of the school’s popular Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps: Mr. Wang, Martin Duque and Alaina Petty. Fellow students say the cadets acted valiantly, helping to usher others to safety. All three have been posthumously awarded the Medal of Heroism by the Army.

The accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, 19, had also been a Junior R.O.T.C. cadet.

The corps is one of the high school’s largest clubs, with nearly 300 students who take courses in subjects like military drill, leadership and shooting. Their maroon polo shirts were a familiar sight around the school campus. Mr. Cruz may have counted on that. The police say he was wearing his maroon polo shirt when he was arrested, after having slipped away unnoticed after the rampage.

“We all have those shirts,” Angelyse Perez, an 18-year-old senior in the corps, told The Washington Post. “We’re never wearing them again. We’re going to destroy them all.”

Other cadets credited their corps training with helping to minimize the carnage at the school. But Mr. Cruz’s ties to the corps — The Associated Press reported that he had honed his shooting skills on its marksmanship team — raised troubling questions.

The Pentagon spends $370 million a year on Junior R.O.T.C. programs at about 3,400 high schools across the country, hoping to foster the next generation of military leaders. Some communities welcome Junior R.O.T.C., but in others, it meets resistance from parents and advocacy groups who say it promotes militarism among impressionable youths.

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Samantha Fuentes, a cadet in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s Junior R.O.T.C. program, was shot in both legs and has shrapnel lodged behind her right eye.Credit...Carmen Cruz

Junior R.O.T.C. has been criticized for focusing on poorer schools with larger minority populations, and for using scarce resources to steer students toward the military, rather than giving them skills for other careers. The program does not require students to commit to enlisting in the military, and its leaders say it instills discipline and integrity that can help students in any career.

Mr. Wang’s funeral on Tuesday was attended by hundreds of people. He lay in an open coffin in the small chapel at Kraeer Funeral Home, dressed in a Junior R.O.T.C. uniform like the one he wore the day he was killed, with the Medal for Heroism pinned to the chest. A line of mourners, many of them in uniform, stretched out of the chapel.

Gov. Rick Scott ordered the Florida National Guard to honor the three cadets. Veterans from all over the country began a campaign to mail military patches to Mr. Wang’s family. And those who knew him spoke in tribute.

“He was always looking to do things for others before himself,” said a classmate, Logan De Lima, 13.

Ms. Petty, 14, whose funeral was Monday, saw the Junior R.O.T.C. program as a way to give back to the community, according to a statement from her family, who carried in her coffin covered by an American flag. “She loved to serve,” the statement said.

Cadets were also among the wounded in the attack at the school. Samantha Fuentes, an 18-year-old senior, was shot in both legs and was left with a piece of shrapnel lodged behind her right eye.

Ms. Fuentes said in an interview that she had known Mr. Cruz from the corps. She and other students were sheltering in a classroom, she said, when gunfire burst through the narrow pane of glass next to the room’s locked door. Two in the classroom were killed. Mr. Cruz then looked in to see what he had wrought, she said, and she saw his face.

When the attack began, she said, the class had been discussing hate groups and the history of the Holocaust.

Neil Reisner reported from Coral Springs, Fla., and David Philipps from Denver. Nick Madigan contributed reporting from Miami.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: 3 Victims In Program Are Honored By Military. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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