Workers return to San Bernardino offices after massacre

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — In the offices of the Inland Regional Center, Christmas did not come.

Tinsel still festoons cubicles. A small tree with presents sits undisturbed. A sign-up sheet to bring in food remains empty of names.

The staff was still gearing up for the holidays on Dec. 2, the day 14 people were massacred on the center's gleaming campus.

Few of its 600 employees have gone to the office since, other than a brief visit to gather personal belongings a week after the terror attack.

Today, they returned.

"Most of us are relieved to be back at work. We want to continue with the normalcy, and we miss each other very much," Executive Director Lavinia Johnson told reporters. "We want to ensure that our staff feels safe and secure as they work in their offices."

Security guards checked employee IDs at the entrance to the center's parking lot. No visitors were planned this week, and a chain-link fence wrapped in green mesh surrounding the property will remain up indefinitely, Johnson said.

While many have continued to work, visiting the homes of autistic children and mentally disabled adults, they haven't been together in the place where everything froze once law enforcement officers whisked them away.