PARKLAND, Fla. – Nine members of Congress toured the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, shortly before ballistics technicians were set to reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.
Some Parkland families have expressed their approval for the lawmakers to tour the site of the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre.
“How close things could have been to provide a different outcome than having 17 people murdered, 17 people injured and an entire community terrorized,” Tony Montalto, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Gina in the shooting, said. “Having legislators -- those who have the power to help create laws -- who have the power to create new policies -- to have them see what occurred here in Parkland, to have them see what failed, to be in the building to see the results of that.”
Montalto said he is hopeful the tour will offer the lawmakers perspective and communicate the sense of urgency they feel to improve school safety.
“The more people we have trying to solve the issues, the more things we will put in place to protect our students and teachers,” he said. “There is not one thing that will make the change -- it is changing this and that -- it is working together across the aisle to find the answers that neither side has on their own.”
For Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was murdered in his classroom, school safety is not a partisan issue, it is a pressing one.
“I hope that good common sense school safety legislation will come out of this,” he said.
The ALYSSA Act
Last month, CENTEGIX®, a leader in incident response solutions, commended Congressional leaders for their introduction of the Alyssa’s Legacy Youth in Schools Safety Alert (ALYSSA) Act.
The legislation requires public schools to provide all classrooms with silent panic alarm technology.
“Alyssa Alhadeff was a little girl who was murdered in Alex’s class,” Schachter said. “And this law puts a panic app in every teacher’s hand around the country. It’s already been passed in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas, and Josh (Gottheimer, D-NJ) got (it) reintroduced at the federal level. We hope that it will be passed and implemented in every state in the country.”
“This is a major step forward in the effort to keep our schools safe,” said CENTEGIX CEO Brent Cobb. “We as a nation have gotten far too many reminders that, in a crisis, a fast emergency response is crucial to saving lives. An effective emergency alert system is key to enabling the fastest response possible. Through the work of leaders in Congress like Representative Gottheimer, students, parents and teachers across the country are that much closer to peace of mind that their schools are secure.”
Congressional Tour
Following Friday’s congressional tour will be a video and audio-recorded reenactment of the school shooting, which is part of a civil case.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers have said it would parallel the shooter’s movements inside in relation to ex-Parkland Deputy Scot Peterson, who was outside during the entirety of the shooting.
“There will be 140 live rounds of AR-15 223 ammunition fired off into a bullet trap -- the fire alarm will go off,” Schachter said Thursday. “Will remind me of what Alex was going through -- what all the victims were going through -- it is scary, but we hope it will help a jury understand that there is no possible way that the school resource deputy heard just two or three shots.”
“It will be extremely difficult to have the reenactment take place, but we know it is necessary,” Montalto said. “Peterson was acquitted of the criminal charges at the time, but that does not mean he is not guilty of failing to act.”
Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year’s penalty trial for the shooter.
There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students’ desks — at least those that weren’t toppled during the chaos.
In one classroom, there is an unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing, the pieces unmoved. Local 10′s Christina Vazquez was one of five journalists allowed to tour the building after shooter Nikolas Cruz’s jury went through.
The shooting, which sparked a nationwide movement for gun control, traumatized the South Florida community. Cruz, a 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who organized the tour with Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, said he expected the event to have “a profound impact” on the six Democrats and three Republicans who belong to the House School Safety and Security Caucus. They were joined by Cruz’s prosecutors and members of the victims’ families.
“You are going to see where kids walked into that building and didn’t come out, where adults came to teach that day and didn’t leave,” Moskowitz said before the group entered the 1200 building. “Literally as if it is the day after the shooting.”
Roundtable with Congressional Leaders and Parkland Families
After the tour, Moskowitz led a roundtable discussion with congressional members and Parkland families.
“Parkland was the safest city in Florida based on crime statistics when this event happened. And it is now home to the largest school shooting in American history,” he said.
WATCH: US lawmakers hold roundtable discussion after touring Parkland school shooting site
Moskowitz told those in attendance that the school shooting “has always been personal” for him because his then 4-year-old son was in a writing class at the time, and his teacher, Jen Guttenberg, hid in a closet with him when they received word about the nearby shooting.
Guttenberg’s daughter, Jaime, 14, died in the shooting.
Support mechanisms are being put in place for those affected. The district has highlighted that mental health resources are available on their website, browardschools.com/mentalhealthservices, for anyone in need.
Peterson, 60, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act, the first U.S. trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.
The burden of proof is lower in the civil lawsuit. Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. That will have to be argued later, she said. It is likely Peterson’s attorneys will oppose the attempt.
No trial date has been set. The families and wounded are seeking unspecified damages.
After Friday, the Broward school district says it will begin demolishing the building.