Shooting victims remembered in silence
PARKLAND: Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and other schools across the US bowed their heads in a moment of silence and took part in volunteer projects on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the shooting rampage that claimed 17 lives. But for many Parkland students, the tragedy was still so raw they couldn’t bring themselves to set foot in the building.
Fewer than 300 of the 3,200 students at the high school showed up for what was only a half-day, with classes cut short so that the teenagers would not be there around 2.20pm local time, the traumatic moment last year when gunfire erupted.
Senior Spencer Bloom skipped school to spend the day with students from the history class he was in during the shooting. He said he struggles with panic attacks and feared he might have one if he went in to school.
“There’s all this emotion and it’s all being concentrated back on one day,” Mr Bloom said.
The massacre on Feb 14, 2018 — Valentine’s Day — inflamed the nation’s debate over guns, turned some Parkland students into political activists and gave rise to some of the biggest youth demonstrations since the Vietnam era.
Many Stoneman Douglas students arrived wearing the burgundy #MSDStrong T-shirts that have become an emblem of the tragedy. Outside, clear plastic figurines of angels were erected for each of the 14 students and three staff members killed.
A moment of silence was observed there and at other schools across Florida and beyond at 10.17am, a time selected to denote the 17 slain.
Reporters were not allowed inside the school, but students packed lunches for poor children in Haiti as part of a number of volunteer projects undertaken to try to make something good come out of the tragedy.
Grief counsellors and therapy dogs were made available along with massages and pedicures. An interfaith service occurred later in the day at a nearby park. Freshman Jayden Jaus, 14, said the moment of silence was “a bit emotional and a little intense” as the principal read the victims’ names over the public address system.
Elsewhere around the country, at Broadman High in Youngstown, Ohio, the school rang a chime 17 times and honoured local first responders. But in a sign of the times, an active shooter drill was also held.
Senior Jack Pendleton helped plan the day’s anniversary activities. “We turn away from the dread and have to look more toward who’s helping us,” he said.
Students at Maryland’s Bethesda Chevy Chase High School displayed 671 white T-shirts bearing the names of teenagers killed nationally by gun violence last year.