BYFILE - A security agent walks alongside a barrier surrounding Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, July 5, 2023, in Parkland, Florida. Demolition of the building where 17 people died in the 2018 Parkland school shooting is set to begin, as crews will begin tearing down the three-story building at the high school on Thursday, June 13, 2024.
Officials plan to complete the weekslong project before the school's 3,300 students return in August from summer vacation. Most were in elementary school when the shooting happened. The victims' families have been invited to witness the first blows to the building and hammer off a piece if they wish. They have divergent views about the demolition.
Those who have taken the tour have called it gut-wrenching as something of a time capsule of Feb. 14, 2018, with bullet-pocked walls and bloodstained floors. Textbooks and laptops sat open on desks, and wilted Valentine's Day flowers, deflated balloons and abandoned teddy bears were scattered amid broken glass. Those objects have now been removed.
"We have museums and we have sites that that have stood for individuals to learn and to understand what happened," Schachter said. Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died in the shooting, would like to see a memorial take over the space, replacing the earlier one, which he said was supposed to be temporary.The building, erected about 20 years ago, couldn't be demolished earlier because prosecutors had jurors tour it during the shooter's 2022 penalty trial. The jurors were warned it would be emotionally difficult, and at least one left the building in tears.