Six participants of Congress — 5 Democrats and one Republican — visited Parkland, Florida, on Monday to tour the website online of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
Seventeen scholars and team of workers have been killed within the Feb. 14, 2018, bloodbath. The school’s 1200 development has since sat untouched like a time tablet, with blood stains, bullet holes and scholars’ strewn papers nonetheless throughout the hallways and school rooms.
The 1200 development at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the place scholars and team of workers have been murdered within the 2018 school shooting, might be demolished.
South Florida Sun-sentinel/TNS/Getty Images, FILE
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., who graduated from Stoneman Douglas and is now advocating for gun reform like purple flag rules, introduced colleagues to the school Monday for the final tour sooner than the 1200 development is demolished.
“It’s important to see, unfortunately, what it looks like when a mass shooting comes to your high school,” Moskowitz advised journalists. “Every backpack that was dropped, every shoe that fell off … is exactly as it was on that very day.”
Law enforcement officials block off the doorway to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Feb. 15, 2018 in Parkland, Fla.
Wilfredo Lee/AP, FILE
Victims’ households and lawmakers have been first authorized to head throughout the 1200 development this summer season, as soon as trials had concluded for gunman Nikolas Cruz, who final 12 months used to be sentenced to existence in jail, and previous school officer Scot Peterson, who in June 2023 used to be acquitted of kid overlook after he had allegedly retreated whilst scholars have been being shot.
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, used to be killed in his first ground lecture room, advised ABC News this summer season that his son’s lecture room “was like a horror scene from a war zone.”
“It was grotesque,” he stated. “There was so much blood everywhere, especially around Alex’s desk.”
Students are evacuated by way of police from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018, after a shooter opened hearth at the campus.
Mike Stocker/AP, FILE
On the school room ground, Schachter discovered a paper Alex had written and he took it with him.
“There was blood stains all over it, but I wanted it,” he stated. “It was my little boy’s.”
Max Schachter speaks after the jury recommends existence in jail for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz on the Broward County Courthouse Oct. 13, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale.
Joe Cavaretta/Getty Images, FILE
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, used to be killed at Parkland, stated he and Schachter helped plan Monday’s tour so politicians may “see the types of truly American issues that they will be asked to do something about.”
“I hope those that attend today leave forever changed. I hope that those who attend today will have a better understanding of why the work that they do to enhance school safety and reduce gun violence matters,” Guttenberg wrote on X, the platform previously referred to as Twitter, Monday morning. “I hope that those who attend today will go back to Washington DC with a renewed energy to save lives.”
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., each vowed to paintings to offer protection to faculties within the wake of their visit on Monday.
Guttenberg criticized Florida’s Republican senators for now not attending the tour, writing, “I will do everything I can to make sure that you are fired from office as your lack of interest in stopping the next [mass shooting] is now clear. … I will do everything I can over this next year to elect Representatives and Senators who understand that seeing this scene was important and who are committed to school safety and reducing gun violence going forward.”
The workplaces of Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio may now not be right away reached for remark.
The 1200 development is about to be demolished in the summertime of 2024 after the top of the school 12 months.
post credit to Source link