Parkland shooting victims remembered in silence one year after massacre

Students, parents and politicians marked the first anniversary of the Valentine's Day shooting at a Florida high school with somber tributes, prayers and calls for action.

Attendees listen during an interfaith service, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida. More than a thousand people gathered at a South Florida park on the anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre to honor the 17 victims killed.
AP

Attendees listen during an interfaith service, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida. More than a thousand people gathered at a South Florida park on the anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre to honor the 17 victims killed.

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 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.

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.

Outside, clear plastic figurines of angels were erected for each of the 14 students and three staff members killed.

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 2:20 pm, the traumatic moment last year when gunfire erupted.

TRT World’s Sally Ayhan reports. 

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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 to school.

"There's all this emotion and it's all being concentrated back on one day," Bloom said.

Many Stoneman Douglas students arrived wearing the burgundy #MSDStrong T-shirts that have become an emblem of the tragedy. 

A moment of silence was observed there and at other schools across Florida and beyond at 10:17 am, a time selected to denote the 17 slain.

AP

Students at Seminole Middle School in Plantation, Florida, participate in a moment of silence Thursday, February 14, 2019, for the 14 students and three staff members killed one year ago at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

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.

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Volunteers package food during a day of service in honor of the 17 that were killed during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last year, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida. Volunteers are expected to pack more than 770,000 meals for the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children.

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.

Sophomore Julia Brighton, who suffered nightmares for months after the gunman killed three people in her classroom, placed flowers at the memorial outdoors instead of going inside and "putting myself through that."

AP

School crossing guard Wendy Behrend lights a candle at a memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida.

Victims' families said they would spend the day quietly, visiting their loved ones' graves or participating in low-key events like a community walk.

Victim Joaquin Oliver's girlfriend, senior Tori Gonzalez, organised a group of a dozen students and alumni to read poems to a large crowd outside the school in the late afternoon. They brought a life-size statue of Oliver, who was 17.

"My mind runs each and every route that could have saved your life," she read tearfully. "It wasn't Cupid shooting arrows of love — it was an AR-15."

More than a thousand people gathered in the evening at Pine Trails Park, about a mile from the school, for an interfaith service that opened with a video highlighting dozens of service projects launched in honour of the victims, including plantings at a beach to halt erosion, a campaign to help abandoned animals and the remodelling of a dance studio.

AP

Messages of love and peace are shown written on the walls of the "Temple of Time," in honor of the 17 that were killed during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last year, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Coral Springs, Florida. The temple, built artist David Best and a volunteer crew to help the community heal, will be set on fire at a later time.

The former student accused of opening fire with an AR-15 assault rifle in the Parkland attack, Nikolas Cruz, now 20, is awaiting trial.

Crusaders against gun violence 

Stoneman Douglas students have become crusaders against gun violence under the banner "March for Our Lives," lobbying for tougher gun control laws and organising protests and rallies.

But Emma Gonzalez, one of the leaders of March for Our Lives, said the movement will go offline and stay silent from Thursday through the weekend.

"Like so many others in our community, I'm going to spend that time giving my attention to friends and family and remembering those we lost," Gonzalez said.

"The 14th is a hard day to look back on. But looking at the movement we've built — the movement you created and the things we've already accomplished together — is incredibly healing," she said.

AP

Abbie Elkan, 15, decorates posters of the victims of the Parkland, Florida, shooting, before the start of an interfaith service, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida. More than a thousand people gathered at a South Florida park on the anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre to honor the 17 victims killed.

President Donald Trump vowed to ensure that US schools are safe, calling it a "top priority" and claiming that "tremendous strides" have already been made.

"Let us declare together, as Americans, that we will not rest until our schools are secure and our communities are safe," Trump said in a statement.

Much of the momentum for tighter gun laws has come from the grassroots lobbying efforts of the Stoneman Douglas students.

Miami Herald correspondent Alex Daugherty explains what has changed since the shootings.

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According to the Giffords Law Center, legislators in 26 states and the nation's capital, Washington, passed 67 new gun safety laws in 2018.

In seven states, background checks for gun buyers were added or existing laws strengthened. Four states raised the minimum age to purchase firearms.

AP

Painted stones at a memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are shown during the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Thursday, February 14, 2019, in Parkland, Florida.

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