PARKLAND, FLA. (WSVN) - Many in South Florida are preparing to mark the four-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Seventeen students and staff were killed on Valentine’s Day, 2018.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered that all flags at schools and government buildings be flown at half staff.
Monday, the community will come together for a moment of silence and a candle lighting ceremony, as well as a number of other tributes to honor the innocent lives lost.
They will join parents of the students who died, like Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the tragedy.
“The sign behind me says ‘Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination.’ That was the slogan that my daughter lived her life by, that she competitively danced by,” he said, “and I have a dream of ending gun violence in America, and I’m dedicating my life to it, and it carries me through every day.”
Broward County schools have made the remembrance a non-instructional half-day for students.
Instead of school work, students will be participating in community service activities in what the school district is calling a Day of Service and Love.
The shooting sparked a movement nationwide against gun violence and advocating for safer schools.
After the tragedy at MSD, Florida passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which imposes a three-day waiting period for purchasing a gun and raises the age to buy one from 18 to 21.
“Dealing with gun violence is not something that we can avoid anymore,” said Guttenberg. “The only way to truly deal with it in a long-term lasting way is through legislative action.”
Also since the shooting, the sheriff at the time — Scott Israel — has been removed.
Multiple lawsuits were filed, and recently, the Broward County Public School District settled with families and survivors of the mass shooting.
A total of $25 million is going to those families.
“We’re going to have a very private and quiet Monday, but our community, four years later, my family, four years later, are struggling, and I have to tell you, it’s four years later, but it doesn’t feel easier to me today than it did four years ago,” said Guttenberg.
President Joe Biden released a statement that reads in part: “On this difficult day, we mourn with the Parkland families whose lives were upended in an instant, who had to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth.”
The candle-lighting ceremony and dove release will be held at 2 p.m.
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