FORT LAUDERDALE – Demolition of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting is scheduled to begin Friday morning.
The start of the demolition was delayed one day due to rain. On Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis declared a State of Emergency in Broward, and several other counties.
Due to the declaration, the Broward public school district was closed on Thursday, the same day that the demolition of the 1200 building was set to begin.
The families of those who died were invited to watch the first blows and hammer off a piece themselves if they choose. They have differing views about the demolition.
“I want the building gone,” said Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa died there.
Alhadeff was elected to the Broward County school board after the massacre and now serves as its chair.
“It’s one more step in the healing process for me and my family. My son still goes to school there, and he has to walk past that building where his sister died,” she said.
Other parents, like Max Schachter and Tony Montalto, hoped the building would be preserved.
Gena and Thomas Hoyer, who lost their son Luke that day, say they have mixed feelings about the demolition.
“For me, the trouble with the building is it’s the last place where Luke was alive. It’s where he was having fun, being a 15-year-old, and you know, knowing that that is where he was last, it’s hard for me thinking that the building is coming down. The building is not what murdered Luke, I don’t hate the building, but I understand the community and how it triggers them, they need this for closure. I don’t need it for closure for me, there will never be closure, but I do understand the feelings of the community,” said Gena Hoyer.
Thomas Hoyer said they’ve spoken to some of the other families about the demolition.
“There’s mixed feelings amongst the families. There are families that have pretty hard feelings about that place and there are other families that feel like us that feel like it’s a pretty sad and solemn place that looks like a tomb, a memorial, it’s like sacred ground to us. So 17 families, a lot of different emotions,” he said.
The Hoyers say whatever replaces the building should be something the school can use, but it also has to honor the 17 people who died.
Over the last year, some of the parents of those who died 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 it. They 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 called it gut-wrenching and 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.
Officials plan to complete the weekslong project before the school’s 3,300 students return in August from summer vacation.
The Broward 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 JROTC.
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.
“We are part of the community, too,” he said.
Some parents want the site turned into a memorial.
