FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The justice system no longer has a need to preserve the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, which has remained standing for five years as a reminder of the Parkland mass shooting that destroyed many families. Now come the summer preparations for this fenced-off site to finally be demolished.
The 1200 building is where a shooter murdered 17 students and staff, and wounded another 17 on Valentine’s Day 2018. The people who still have to look at the site of such tragedy have long wanted it gone. “It’s time for the building to go. It’s absolutely time,” Eric Garner, who teaches broadcast journalism and film at Stoneman Douglas, said Friday. “It is a daily reminder.”
The building now could soon be turned over to the Broward school district, after the trial against Scot Peterson, the school resource officer who had faced criminal charges, concluded Thursday with his acquittal.
Parkland Mayor Rich Walker said he touched based with school officials Thursday immediately after the verdict. He said he’s eager for the demolition progress to begin, and a memorial is likely for that site. First, “there’s a process we need to go through,” he said. “There’s definitely people in the city looking forward to having it removed.”
The school district already has made plans for the building’s demolition, as well as what may come before that. Among the considerations is allowing families to walk through the building, which has been preserved since the day of the killings.
There had been a public outcry long ago to demolish the building immediately, and not wait for criminal trials to happen.
The school shooter was sentenced to life in prison in November, a month after a jury rejected a death sentence for him.
During the trial against shooter Nikolas Cruz last year, jurors retraced his steps through the building. They saw the classrooms, including one where books lay on the floor, caked in dried blood. And they saw an abandoned stuffed teddy bear and blanket that lay in a corner. In the hallway and in the classrooms remain the bloodstains, shattered glass and bullet holes in the windows and the walls.
Also concluded, as of Thursday, is the second and final trial related to the mass shooting — that of Peterson, who remained outside the school as shots were fired. He was acquitted of all charges that he failed the children in his care by not confronting the shooter. His defense attorney argued Peterson could not be sure the shots were coming from the building, or if the shots could have come from a sniper stationed elsewhere.
In Peterson’s trial, the jury was not taken to see the school building.
While the trials were underway, there was a court order preserving the crime scene just in case the judge had decided either the defense or prosecution, or both, should be allowed to take the jury to the school building.
But now that the trials are over, with no need for appeals, the judge is expected to issue an order that will release the building back to the school district, according to Paula McMahon, spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office.
First, prosecutors or the Broward Sheriff’s Office can make a request for the judge who presided over the Peterson trial to issue the order releasing the crime scene from the current preservation order. When would prosecutors make that request? McMahon replied, “As soon as possible.”
School officials had anticipated the building would be turned over sometime in July, according to a recent “weekly update” memo from interim Superintendent Earlean Smiley.
“Once we receive the building, we will move quickly to demolish it, remove the resultant debris, and restore the site to a landscaped condition for future use,” according to the memo. “We will commence this work within 30 days of receiving access to the building — following completion of the internal District requirement that includes compliance with state and federal regulations relating to asbestos and environmental hazards.”
The work isn’t expected to be completed before the new school year begins Aug. 21, according to the memo.
According to the memo, board member Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter was murdered at the school, and Debbi Hixon, whose husband was killed, requested that the district allow the 34 families of the dead and wounded to enter the Building 1200 in its original condition with “no cleaning prep” prior to entry. Another request was to allow teachers whose classes were located in the building to retrieve any remaining personal items instead of district staff packing and labeling items for pickup at a designated location.
School district staff raised a number of concerns regarding families walking through the building, according to the memo:
The “severe emotional strain” this will have on the families and teachers, especially seeing it before it’s cleaned, and the mental health assistance that will be needed for them.
The environmental conditions of the building since its closure.
Security and law enforcement challenges “to avoid a breach of privacy” for the family members.
There’s also work that needs to happen before the demolition, including a pre-demolition asbestos survey, required by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Results have to first go to Broward County and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, according to the memo. Professionals will also need to do a walk-through in advance to make cleaning suggestions since hazardous waste must be separated from construction debris in the landfill.
The actual demolition will be completed in fewer than 15 days, with the building “reduced to a pile of debris” within the temporary fence that now surrounds it.
Hauling away the debris will be restricted to after-school hours and take as long as two months “using only evenings, weekends and school holidays,” with the city of Parkland’s approval.
Alhadeff requested a committee be formed to determine what goes into the space once the building is demolished.
Said Hixon soon after the memo was released: The building is an “emotional reminder every day to that community of what was lost.”
She said, “The sooner we take it down and build a memorial that signifies lives well-lived versus the way they were stolen from us, (it will) continue the healing process.”
There are some teachers who didn’t have classrooms in the building who would still like to be granted access to walk through for closure, Garner said Friday. There are other teachers who will be allowed to walk through to retrieve their belongings who would prefer to take another teacher for emotional support, and not a police officer who they don’t know, he said.
Although no students who attended school in February 2018 are still there, their “little brothers, little sisters, friends, are still walking by it. There are still teachers who were in that building who have to walk by it and see it every day. It has to go,” Garner said. “I look forward to them releasing the building so that one more chapter can be over with.”
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