Behind the screen doors, the three-story building where 17 people were killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland looms over the campus, a constant reminder of the horror for students, teachers, the victims’ families and passersby.
But demolition of the building, which was used as evidence in the murderer’s trial, will begin Thursday as workers begin dismantling it piece by piece, lest an explosion damage nearby buildings. Authorities plan to complete the weeks-long process in August before the school’s 3,300 students, most of whom were in elementary school when the shooting occurred, return from summer vacation.
VP Harris speaks out for gun control at Parkland school shooting site, victim’s father calls it ‘insulting’
“Every time I passed by it, it just seemed a little creepy,” said Aisha Hashmi, who graduated this month and was in sixth grade in February 2018, but whose older siblings were on campus.
When the wind blows the fence away, students will get a glimpse of empty classrooms and hallways through the windows, she said. “It’s heartbreaking to see that and then have to attend English class.”
Families of the victims are invited to witness the first blow to the building and, if they wish, to help knock down pieces with a hammer. They have different opinions about the demolition.
“I want that building gone,” said Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died there. Alhadeff was elected to the Broward County School Board after the massacre and currently serves as its chair. “This is another step in the healing process for me and my family. My son still goes to school, but he still has to walk past the building where his sister died.”
A security guard walks along the barricades surrounding Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., July 5, 2023. Workers are scheduled to begin demolishing the high school’s three-story building on Thursday, June 13, 2024, as demolition work begins on the building where 17 people were killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
But other parents, like Max Schachter and Tony Montalto, wanted the building to be saved. Last year, they and Alhadeff led a tour of the building for Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, school officials, police officers, and about 500 guests from around the country. They primarily demonstrated how security improvements, like bulletproof glass in the door windows, improved alarm systems, and doors that lock from the inside, have saved lives.
Tour participants described the experience as heartbreaking, with bullet-riddled walls and blood-stained floors, like a time capsule of Feb. 14, 2018. Textbooks and laptops lay open on desks, and wilted Valentine’s Day flowers, deflated balloons and discarded teddy bears were strewn among the broken glass. The items have now been removed.
Schachter, who lost his 14-year-old son Alex, said each tour was “excruciatingly painful” but he believed the safety measures visitors have implemented elsewhere made it worthwhile to preserve the building.
For example, after lawmakers visited and met with Parkland residents, the Utah Legislature approved a multimillion-dollar school safety program this year that calls for installing panic buttons, threat reporting software and increased security at school entrances. That and another law have been criticized by some for allowing and encouraging school staff to carry firearms on school grounds.
“We have a museum, we have a (historical) place for people to learn and understand what happened,” Schachter said.
Broward County isn’t the only county to demolish schools after mass shootings. In Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School was demolished and replaced with a new building after a mass shooting in 2012. In Texas, officials plan to close and demolish Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after a mass shooting in 2022. At Columbine High School in Colorado, the library was demolished after a mass shooting in 1999.
The Broward School Board has yet to decide what to replace the building with, and teachers have suggested connecting practice fields for groups like band and Junior ROTC with a nearby memorial that was erected several years ago. Some of the students who died were in band and JROTC.
Montalto, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Gina in the shooting, is hopeful that a memorial will be erected at the site to replace the previous one, which was only temporary.
“We’re part of the community,” he said.
The building, built about 20 years ago, could not be demolished early because prosecutors wanted jurors to tour the building during the shooter’s sentence trial, scheduled for 2022. Jurors were warned that the trial would be emotionally tough, and at least one left the building in tears.
The killer, whose bizarre and sometimes violent behavior over the years led to multiple visits to his home by Broward County sheriff’s deputies, avoided the death penalty and received a life sentence.
Prosecutors also had asked jurors to tour parts of the school building during last year’s trial of campus security deputy Scott Peterson, who was charged with child abuse for not entering the building and confronting the shooter. Peterson told investigators he couldn’t locate the shooter because of echoes. The judge rejected the prosecutors’ request as too prejudicial and unnecessary.
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Peterson was acquitted after telling investigators he couldn’t locate the shooter because of an echo, but family members and survivors continue to file lawsuits against him and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
“While I’m there on Thursday, I’m going to reflect on all the failures that occurred that day on Valentine’s Day in 2018 that allowed the Parkland High School killer to walk onto campus and kill Alex and 16 others,” Schachter said.
