FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The families of some of the victims of the mass shooting last year in Parkland, Fla., filed 22 lawsuits on Wednesday accusing the local school district and sheriff’s office of negligence and seeking potentially millions of dollars in damages as compensation.

The lawsuits claim that the Broward County Public Schools failed to keep students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School safe in spite of warning signs that the shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz, a former student, had threatened violence against the school community. Mr. Cruz, now 20, faces the possibility of the death penalty in the attack, in which 17 people were killed and 17 others wounded on Feb. 14, 2018.

“This is a life sentence for me,” Mitchell Dworet, who lost his 17-year-old son, Nicholas, said at an emotional news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that was called to announce the lawsuits. Mr. Dworet’s younger son, Alexander, was injured in the shooting. “I want accountability,” Mr. Dworet said.

The lawsuits, filed on behalf of 12 of those killed in the shooting and 10 others who were injured, also claim that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office failed to try to stop the gunman during the rampage.

Scot Peterson, a former sheriff’s deputy and the only armed police officer at the school on the day of the shooting, remained outside the building. Mr. Peterson, who retired in the days after the massacre and has maintained that he was unsure of the gunman’s location, is named as a respondent in the lawsuits along with the sheriff’s office, the school district and an unarmed campus security monitor, Andrew Medina.

Mr. Medina saw Mr. Cruz get out of an Uber ride with a large bag and walk into Stoneman Douglas High School, but did not confront him or call for a school lockdown, an investigation showed. He lost his job last summer.

Henderson Behavioral Health, a local clinic that treated Mr. Cruz, is also named in the lawsuits.

A spokeswoman for the school district declined to comment on the lawsuits, citing the pending litigation. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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