Florida School Shooting: Memorial Saved For Future Generations

PARKLAND, FL — Six weeks after the horrific Valentine’s Day shooting that shook Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to its core, community volunteers were hard at work Wednesday outside Building 12. They were boxing up thousands of items left behind in the days and weeks since the tragedy — teddy bears, religious symbols, even the favorite candy and cookies of slain students. The makeshift memorial had become a painful reminder of the 17 lives taken from this affluent South Florida community.

Now it was time for the 3,300 Stoneman Douglas students — and the Parkland community itself — to move on with the healing process and come as close as possible to returning to the lives everyone remembered before the school shooting put Parkland on the map.

“It was sad for a lot of reasons,” acknowledged Jeff Schwartz, who organized the effort to remove the items on behalf of the Parkland Historical Society.

He said the makeshift memorial was being trucked to Florida Atlantic University on Thursday, where it would be cataloged and saved to help future generations understand the gamut of emotions that gripped Parkland in the days following one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

“We had several family members there that were very emotional. We had students there that were very emotional,” Schwartz told Patch after putting in a full day with some 75 to 100 volunteers. “Some community members and parents of students that were in the school were very emotional. So, it was very difficult.”

But, Schwartz tried to look beyond the sadness that has permeated the campus.

“I look at it as I’m trying to save this stuff for the next 100, 200 years so that people in the future can see what took place in our fair city and the outcry of pain and sympathy — what the students are doing to support the effort for gun control,” he explained.

The Stoneman Douglas students were observing spring break all this week but some came back to help with the emotional task of boxing up items that made up the memorial. Some students may not discover that the memorial was moved until they return to school on Monday.

“A lot of them are going to be very surprised,” said Schwartz. But, he said it was time.

“It was time for a lot of reasons. It was time because the memorabilia that’s been left behind is beginning to degrade to a point where some of it was unsaveable,” he explained. “It was time because the community and the school need to heal and this will aid them in healing.”

He said that plans to move the memorial were in place before an unemployed couple were arrested Sunday night for allegedly attempting to steal items from the memorial.

In all, the items came close to filing a 28-foot moving truck. Only the food was discarded though the packaging was saved. Even bouquets of flowers were being turned into mulch that would be spread along city parks.

"There were religious items. There were stones — tremendous amount of stones that had been painted with messages. There were letters that were even unopened from people, and from children from other schools —that were very dramatic letters — that we’ve saved," recalled Schwartz. "There were thousands of candles."

Candles are difficult to save because they give off gases, according to Schwartz who anticipated that additional items may begin to accumulate again outside the school over the coming weeks. They too will be added to the collection in time.

The memorial will not be displayed again until the first anniversary of the tragedy, possibly in the Parkland city library.

"At that point we hope to have a small display set up where we can invite initially family members and first responders," Schwartz explained.

After that, it will be open to the general public.

“I can hold my head up high and say that I had a lot of strength out there today, not only because of what I saw going on with the volunteers and the community that came out to help us, but also because of what we’re doing,” Schwartz added.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano