YOUNG LIVES CUT SHORT
The so-called freshman building at the Florida high school was where the gunman started his rampage
Of the Florida high school shooting’s 17 victims, seven of them were just 14 years old.
PARKLAND, Fla. — At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, so many freshman classes are held in Building 12 that the “1200 building,” as it is commonly called, is also known as “the freshman building.”
It’s also the building that authorities said Nikolas Cruz, 19, chose to enter when he began his rampage.
Freshman Isaah Jean was in study hall in the building when the shooting started Wednesday afternoon. Isaah had been there earlier for first-period geography with Mr. Beigel. It was Valentine’s Day, and students were texting and trading gossip about who had or hadn’t received roses or balloons.
Isaah saw his friend Martin Duque Anguiano duck into study hall, then disappear just as the gunfire erupted. Moments later, Martin was dead.
Three teachers, including Scott Beigel, were killed, along with 14 students. Of the 17 victims, seven were 14 years old. Martin was 14, as were Alyssa Alhadeff, Jaime Guttenberg and Cara Loughran. Then there were Gina Montalto, Alaina Petty and Alexander Schachter. All 14.
The gunman’s carnage on the 3,000-student campus fell particularly hard on the freshman class. Also among the dead were freshmen Luke Hoyer and Peter Wang, both 15.
Isaah is 14. He said when the shooting started, some thought the sound was balloons popping or fireworks. Most rushed to the stairs, and in the crush of bodies, Isaah’s right ankle was fractured.
Peter Wang, a member of the ROTC program, was seen holding a door for fleeing students before he died.
Isaah kept fleeing downstairs through halls filled with smoke, bullet casings and the sound of shots. Suddenly, a figure loomed across the hall. He didn’t recognize former student Cruz. But he saw what was in his hand: a gun. Isaah froze. All he had was his cellphone.
“He had turned around and started walking a little bit. That’s when I threw my phone at him,” he said.
The shooter stumbled and Isaah fled. A classmate would later return the phone, its screen smashed.
As Isaah hobbled out of the building, 14-year-old Raquel Meyers rushed to hide in a closet, passing friends she had known since she was small. One had glass in her hair and arms.
Raquel found a closet to hide in, and thought of those she had hugged at lunch. “I wish I could save them,” she thought.
It would be hours before Raquel emerged from the building, led by police, passing bodies of classmates on the floor under yellow tarps.
At the school’s TV studio in a nearby building, 14-yearold Lauren Hogg had crawled behind a set, wedged between students she had never talked to before. They held hands, sometimes so hard her hands went numb.
Lauren had dreamed of going to high school with her older brother, a junior, since they moved to Parkland three years ago from Torrance. She had already joined a slew of activities: Model U.N., TV, debate and Key Club, plus junior varsity soccer.
She checked her phone. More than a dozen students in the freshman building were sending chilling updates. Is that a shot? OMG, he’s coming down our hall.
He’s shooting through our door. He shot my teacher. There’s girls on my floor. I love you guys. I’m in the room, he’s shooting. I love you.
Lauren had envisioned high school as a door opening. Now she saw it closing.
“I thought of all the things I’m going to miss out on — I haven’t even driven yet — all the people I hadn’t said I love you to,” she said.
She texted her mother: “Active shooter, I love you.”
Hours later, a SWAT team arrived to lead Lauren and other freshmen from the room. Only then would she learn that four of her friends had died, freshmen Alyssa, Gina, Alaina and Luke.
Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, alluded to her daughter’s youth when she raged at President Trump in a CNN interview this week, imploring him to take action on guns: “I just spent the last two hours [making] the burial arrangements for my daughter, who is 14. President Trump, please do something. Do something.”
Alyssa’s funeral was first, a Jewish service on Friday. Lauren wanted to go, having seen grief counselors the day before, but “my mom said I wasn’t ready.”
Luke’s funeral is scheduled for Sunday at an Evangelical church; Alaina’s is Monday at a Mormon church. Lauren may attend those.
She feels guilty that she survived.