Congressional delegation visits Parkland high school with shooting victims’ families

Alyssa Johnson
·4 min read
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Echoes of the school shooting in Parkland continued to reverberate Friday as families of murdered students and faculty walked with members of Congress through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hours before technicians involved in a lawsuit reenacted the shooting with live gunfire.

Family members who lost loved ones in the shooting greeted a bipartisan delegation of U.S. representatives at the campus early in the morning and then toured the school’s 1200 building, where Nikolas Cruz gunned down 17 and wounded 17 more on Feb. 14, 2018.

After the walk-through — which led lawmakers through bullet-pocked corridors — the group left the school and reconvened for a private gathering at a Coral Springs hotel.

“Going through that building is like going through a time capsule of that horrific moment,” U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, later told reporters. “To tell you the truth, I was kind of dreading this moment, but I’m glad I was here. I’m incredibly grateful to the loved ones because I can’t even imagine what it has to be like to relive those moments, time and time again, as they’ve had to do through trial.”

The families gathered with members of Congress to discuss school safety. Gun-control was also discussed.

When it happened, the shooting spurred new gun laws and school-security policies in Florida, leading to speculation that gridlock in Congress over gun and school safety might budge. But legislative movement at the federal level has been more difficult to come by.

“We just had a shared experience that will transform our lives for the rest of our lives. To see the blood of children on the floor, in a school together, is going to change the way we interact and collaborate with each other going forward,” said Congressman Jamaal Bowman, D-NY, who was hopeful that the experience would bring lawmakers closer together and initiate change.

“I want to see leadership in the House, leadership in the Senate, I want to see the White House come down here and take the tour,” he said. “They walked us through minute by minute of what happened that day and we got a chance to hear from the families who have lost loved ones. So while we’re playing politics, and theater, and all of that in Washington, these families are grieving every day.”

But after the tour of the building, which was preserved as evidence, it wasn’t clear that anyone’s mind had changed on polarizing issues of gun safety.

Parkland, Florida, August 4, 2023 - Members of Congress along with Nikolas Cruz’s prosecutors and members of the victim’s families visited the site of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. They were led to the same door gunman Nikolas Cruz entered. They then took the same path he did during the six-minute attack. The tour of the building took place before a reenactment of the shooting featuring live gunfire. The reenactment is part of a lawsuit against the school’s former resource officer Scot Peterson.

“Today was not ‘Walk people through the building and within a blink of an eye we’re going to have bills on the floor,’” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Stoneman Douglas alum who as a state representative in 2018 voted on Florida’s landmark gun legislation in the weeks after the Parkland shooting.

“We have to start that conversation again, we have to figure out where there is agreement. We know where we disagree. But we have to figure out where we agree,” he said. “And we have to figure out how we build trust between the two parties to work together to where things don’t get politicized.”

After the families and U.S representatives left the school, men with equipment could be seen setting up gear near the 1200 building for a reenactment of the shooting, planned as part of an ongoing civil case between families of the victims and Scot Peterson, the Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy assigned to the school at the time of the shooting.

The families sued Peterson because he did not enter the building as the shooter fired rounds from an AR-15-style rifle. Peterson faced child-neglect charges for failing to confront the shooter. He said he didn’t know where the shooting was coming from — an account echoed by witnesses — and was acquitted by a jury.

The reenactment, approved by a judge, was intended to test those accounts.

Reporters were not allowed on campus Friday to observe the reenactment, and were stationed off-campus. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 49 rounds and four test shots were fired throughout the afternoon. Reporters were able to hear four shots.

Parkland, Florida, August 4, 2023 - Workers carry equipment inside the freshman building at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people 5 years ago. They were preparing for a reenactment of the shooting featuring live gunfire. The reenactment is part of a lawsuit against the school’s former resource officer Scot Peterson.

With Cruz’s trial ended — he received life in prison — the Broward County School Board intends to demolish the building in the near future.

Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the shooting, said while the building needed to stay up for reenactment, he hopes to see a memorial at the site when it eventually comes down.

“You can’t just make it a parking lot. We should have something that’s visible from the road. Something so people know where the tragedy took place,” said Montalto. “But we should always remember, it was a tragedy because of who we lost.”

Montalto is the president of the Stand with Parkland organization, an advocacy group for public safety reforms. With time and patience he believes that change will come.

“We’ve done a lot here in Florida and we’re going to continue to work in Florida. We’re going to continue to work better. We just have to be patient,” said Montalto. “Let it take its course, proceed one step at a time and I am confident that we will see more congressional action.”