PARKLAND, Fla. – A crew on Friday began tearing down the three-story classroom building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The victims’ families were invited to watch the first blows and hammer off a piece themselves if they chose to. 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.
“Obviously today is a very, very sad day. It’s a reminder that I don’t have my little boy here,” Max Schachter, whose son, Alex, was killed in the shooting said.
“The fire alarms, the screaming, the police coming in with the hands drawn hands in the air -- very traumatic,” former student Bryan Lequerique said.
SKY 10 OVER SCENE OF DEMOLITION:
The building had been kept up to serve as evidence at the shooter’s 2022 penalty trial. Jurors toured its bullet-pocked and blood-stained halls, but spared him a death sentence. He is serving a term of life without parole.
“I just kept thinking about my daughter, Alyssa, who was murdered in that building and the pain that I go through every day,” Lori Alhadeff, who is now a Broward School Board member, said.
Alyssa, Alex and 15 others had their lives cut short on Valentine’s Day six years ago after a former student walked in and fatally shot the students and staff members.
“I’ve been through that building over 10 times, and every time it’s excruciatingly painful to see Alex’s blood all over the chair,” Schachter said.
On Friday, parents, friends, teachers and community members gathered outside the school to witness the demolition.
“And for my family and this community, Parkland and Coral Springs, to be able to move forward and heal and for the students that go to school here -- so they don’t have to pass this building where the shooting happened,” Alhadeff said.
Destroying the building is one step in their healing process.
”When I brought people through that building, it changed their lives and they never will forget walking through the site of the Parkland school shooting,” Schachter said.
Once the walls are down, the area will be turned around for students to create newer and happier memories.
“We are going to absolutely honor the memory of the 17 at this legacy field, but we want it to be a usable space,” Alhadeff said. “This is a school and we want the students live the legacy of the students -- remember them.”
Broward County is not alone in taking down a school building after a mass shooting. In Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School was torn down after the 2012 shooting and replaced. In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish it. Colorado’s Columbine High had its library demolished after the 1999 shooting.
Over the last year, some victims’ relatives have led Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, school officials, police officers and about 500 other invitees from around the country on tours of the building. They mostly demonstrated how improved safety measures like bullet-resistant glass in door windows, a better alarm system and doors that lock from the inside could have saved lives.
Those who have taken the tour have called it gut-wrenching as something of a time capsule of Feb. 14, 2018. 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.
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, an alumnus of the school, said in a statement Friday that the community was forever changed by the shooting.
“I never thought I’d see the high school where I graduated from turned into a war zone. What I’ve seen in that building is truly haunting — windows with bullet holes, homework scattered everywhere, blood in the hallway,” Moskowitz said. “The people of Parkland will no longer have to pass by this horrific reminder of our grief. The families of those innocent lives taken that day will never be able to move on, just move forward.”
The Broward County school board has not decided what the building will be replaced with. Teachers suggested a practice field for the band, Junior ROTC and other groups, connected by a landscaped pathway to a nearby memorial that was erected a few years ago. Several of the students killed belonged to the band or Junior ROTC.
Some parents want the site turned into a memorial.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina died that day, said in a statement that the demolition is “a necessary part of moving forward.” He has advocated for school safety programs and a memorial site.
“My beautiful daughter Gina was shot here. In my family, we have a difference of opinion. My son is afraid people will forget if the building is gone,” said Montalto.
“While we can never erase the pain and the memories, we can create a space that honors their legacy and fosters hope for a safer future,” he said. “That’s why we fight every day to pass meaningful legislation that keeps our family members safe in their school.”
Demolition will take place on weekdays until 4:30 p.m. and must conclude before the start of the school year in August. The school district says they are working with the families to figure out what to do with the site moving forward once the demolition is completed.