Six years after a gunman killed 17 individuals at a Parkland, Fla., highschool in one of many deadliest college shootings in American historical past, the positioning of the assault is being torn down.
The demolition of the previous freshman constructing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College was scheduled to start on Friday and was anticipated to take a number of weeks to finish, Broward County college district officers mentioned in a press release. Fairly than utilizing explosives, staff plan to tear down the three-story constructing piece by piece, officers mentioned, beginning with the highest ground.
Officers had initially deliberate to begin taking down the constructing on Thursday, however flooding and extreme climate throughout South Florida delayed the beginning of labor.
Lori Alhadeff misplaced her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, within the taking pictures. Her 17-year-old son now attends Stoneman Douglas Excessive, and Ms. Alhadeff says she has lengthy been able to see the previous freshman constructing come down.
“It’s essential for that constructing to be taken down, so not solely can I begin to heal but in addition the group at giant,” mentioned Ms. Alhadeff, now chair of the Broward County College Board. “That constructing is a reminder of the horrific tragedy the place 17 individuals have been murdered in class.”
The purpose is for the demolition to be completed earlier than college begins in August, Ms. Alhadeff mentioned.
Fourteen college students and three college members have been killed, and 17 others have been wounded, within the rampage on Feb. 14, 2018, which shook the suburban group of Parkland and the nation. The 19-year-old gunman, Nikolas Cruz, pleaded responsible to 17 counts of homicide and 17 counts of tried homicide, and he was sentenced in 2022 to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
The taking pictures turned lots of the victims’ kin and classmates into activists. Dad and mom based organizations to foyer for college security measures across the nation. Some college students on the college based March for Our Lives to advocate gun-control measures.
By way of all of it, the freshman constructing remained standing, fenced off from the remainder of the campus. The websites of faculty shootings are sometimes quickly demolished, or are cleaned and reopened, however the Stoneman Douglas Excessive constructing was preserved as a criminal offense scene as a result of the gunman was placed on trial to find out his sentence — a rarity, since most college shooters don’t survive.
The constructing remained largely untouched for years, as regulation enforcement officers investigated, prosecutors constructed their case in opposition to the gunman, and politicians visited the positioning. Blood stains and damaged glass stayed on the flooring. College students’ computer systems and sophistication work sat on desks. Flowers and balloons have been reminders that the rampage occurred on Valentine’s Day.
In 2022, jurors walked via the constructing as they ready to resolve what sentence to advocate for Mr. Cruz. The following 12 months, ballistics consultants re-enacted the bloodbath to collect proof for doable use in a civil trial in opposition to a former sheriff’s deputy who was accused by victims’ households of failing to guard college students and lecturers.
The deputy, Scot Peterson, was discovered not responsible of kid neglect and different expenses in a separate prison trial.
Kin of the victims have been in a position to go to the positioning, too. Max Schachter, who misplaced his 14-year-old son, Alex, within the assault, walked via the constructing for the primary time in 2023 and has been again quite a lot of instances since then. He mentioned he was glad the constructing was preserved, in order that as many officers as doable may see the devastation. Vice President Kamala Harris toured the constructing this 12 months, as did the schooling secretary, Miguel Cardona.
“I do know that lives have been saved and colleges have been safer due to the a whole bunch of officers that have been delivered to that constructing,” Mr. Schachter mentioned.
For Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed within the taking pictures, the demolition of the constructing brings conflicting feelings. His son worries that the group will overlook what occurred; his spouse discovered which means in displaying officers the constructing and explaining to them what went fallacious.
The couple has visited the positioning many instances. On their closing walk-through this spring, they noticed one thing that they had by no means seen earlier than in a Spanish classroom: a poster that Gina had made about her household, nonetheless taped to the bulletin board.
