Thursday is the one-year anniversary of the devastating shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Fla. On this day in 2018, a deranged teenager took the lives of 17 students, wounding several others. Few of us can comprehend the fear those students experienced that day, but we can acknowledge in addition to the innocent lives cut short, that students, coaches, and teachers rose to the ranks of hero — ordinary people who did extraordinary things in a moment of crisis.
Ordinary people can become heroes.
When teacher Melissa Falkowski heard gunshots, she hid her entire class in the only thing that made sense: a closet. “I managed to put 19 kids in the closet with me. This is the worst nightmare that could ever happen to you,” she told CNN. At 37, Aaron Feis, the assistant football coach, made the ultimate sacrifice. The Sun-Sentinel reported that Feis jumped between students and the shooter, “selflessly shielding” them from the gunfire. He died from his wounds. Peter Wang, 15, was a member of the school’s JROTC. According to fellow students, Wang “was holding a door to let other students out before him,” while gunshots rang out in the hallways, ultimately killing him too. West Point posthumously admitted Wang into their prestigious organization to honor his sacrifice and desire to serve. He would have been class of 2025.
I did not know them, nor did most of us know their families, but as a result many family members the victims left behind have grieved publicly, and taken their grief and loss and tried to turn it into something good. Two of those fathers that come to mind are Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Petty, whose Twitter feed is well worth following. Likewise Andrew Pollack, probably the most well-known of the victims’ family members, and who has allowed us to see a window into the world of grief as a double-edged sword of pain and a catalyst for change.
Where kids and teachers were heroes, law enforcement failed.
In the days and weeks following the shooting, we tried to process how this happened. Most conservatives believe that while guns play a role, typically there are gun laws in effect that were broken, and don’t paint a full, accurate picture of how and why school shootings occur. That led to investigative reporting and research, particularly by the Sun-Sentinel, which revealed in the initial stages that something was very wrong with the Broward County Sheriff’s office and their deputies on duty that day, who did little to nothing to mitigate the shooter when the rampage began.
Even as it became clear to the newspapers and the general public that the Broward County Sheriff’s office played a significant role in failing to act, a judge recently ruled that actually, the sheriff’s office had no “constitutional duty to protect Parkland students” which is a complete travesty. If the armed officer on duty, Scot Peterson, wasn’t obligated to come to those kids’ rescue, who was? Sheriff Scott Israel was only just recently fired, almost a year after the shooting, despite his own belief he is a great leader who didn’t do anything wrong.
Further investigations revealed the FBI didn’t do anything about the tips they received about the shooter. Broward County Public Schools knew that the shooter was mentally unwell and had an obsession with school shootings. The list went on seemingly endlessly.
How to stop the next Parkland
Spurred by the growing list of what was unearthed, two separate commissions were formed to investigate what can be done going forward, so that no more parents, peers, teachers, administrators, or community members have to mourn the loss of precious, innocent lives. Their findings were a combination of commonsense and research. In many ways, they call to take real strides in doing the work it would take to prevent these shootings.
From helping students with mental illness to taking notice that at least 10 states allow “school staff to possess or have access to firearms at school,” all but urging other states to consider adopting similar positions, both reports offer helpful, practical tips which should be implemented in every school in every county, to the best of their ability.
While we remember Parkland periodically, and especially on this anniversary, we know that some loved ones recall this horrifying tragedy every day. Here are the names of their family members and friends who lost their lives that day:
Alyssa Alhadeff, 14
Scott Beigel, 35
Martin Duque Anguiano, 14
Nicholas Dworet, 17
Aaron Feis, 37
Jaime Guttenberg, 14
Chris Hixon, 49
Luke Hoyer, 15
Cara Loughran, 14
Gina Montalto, 14
Joaquin Oliver, 17
Alaina Petty, 14
Meadow Pollack, 18
Helena Ramsay, 17
Alex Schachter, 14
Carmen Schentrup, 16
Peter Wang, 15
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
