Remembering Broward’s 9/11
It’s been a year since Broward’s worst nightmare set foot on the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and unleashed a hell we can never, ever forget.
Kids shot while sitting at their desks. Kids shot while trying to run or hide. Kids shot so many times they couldn’t be identified for hours. Not just kids, either, but a teacher trying to let kids into his classroom, an athletic director trying to lead kids to safety and a coach trying to intervene.
The toll didn’t end with 17 people shot dead, either. Seventeen other people were shot and survived, forever scarred. Plus, thousands of students, teachers, parents and neighbors were forever traumatized.
It hard to believe it’s been a year since 2⁄14, which is what survivors call the day. The name is appropriate, given how Valentine’s Day devolved into Broward’s 9⁄11.
Don’t call today the first anniversary, either. Those still surviving the horror day-by-day will tell you today is no celebration. Call it a commemoration.
And while we’re talking about the new lexicon, neither were the 17 people who lost their lives that day killed. They were murdered.
And the kids who survived? They’re “the mass shooting generation.”
Yes, it’s going to be a tough day, after a tough week, after a tough, tough year.
Moment of silence at 2:21 p.m.
Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie is asking schools statewide — and all of us, really — to pause for a moment of remembrance at 10:17 a.m. Others are planning a moment of silence at 2:21, which is when the shooting happened. Interfaith services and other events are planned to honor those killed and first responders.
Many of the victims’ families plan to spend the day privately. What else do you with yourself when you don’t know what to do with yourself? Just put one foot in front of the other, as they’ve tried to do every day since their world turned upside down on 2⁄14.
There’s some expectation that after a year, it’s time to turn the page and get on with your life. But anyone who’s experienced deep loss knows it doesn’t work that way. You never get over it. You just try to find a way to live with it, and honor your loved one by truly living the life you have.
Many of us have put Stoneman Douglas aside, just as we’ve put aside the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Sebring bank shooting, the Aurora theater shooting, the Annapolis newsroom shooting, the Sandy Hook shooting and so many other mass shootings. But today let us also take a moment to reflect on our nation’s culture of gun violence, which is a national disgrace.
In northwest Broward, meanwhile, tears, anger and despair continue to hover close to the surface. It’s why so many parents and students have turned their energy toward trying to make change happen. They want the loss of life to count for something and to keep anyone else from facing what they face every day and night.
What that change should look like is what’s keeping people in our community roiled, divided and at war with one another.
Things to feel good about
Some don’t like the attention given the students who marched for their lives, mobilized voter registration drives and engaged the nation on the need for commonsense gun reform laws. A good many more people, however, stand solidly with the students.
After all, how could a kid like that get an AR-15? The Second Amendment doesn’t guarantee people access to every conceivable military weapon. Even the late Justice Antonin Scalia referenced “the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”
So we wept with the students when the Florida Legislature refused to even discuss a possible ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons after the shooting. But with parents pushing in the background, lawmakers did increase the age at which someone can buy an assault rifle, from 18 to 21, the same age needed to purchase other firearms. So that’s a plus.
Also with the parents’ backing, the Legislature passed a red-flag law that with a judge’s consent, allows guns to be removed from people considered dangerous. The new law has been used more than 1,000 times statewide and has spread to other states. That’s a plus, too.
Meanwhile, some families are putting their energies behind a petition drive to ban the sale of military-style assault weapons. If they collect the necessary signatures, voters would get to make the final call in November 2020. That would be a big plus.
So despite our grief, there’s some things to feel good about today.
More action needed
Some of us also believe more people need to be held accountable for what happened on 2⁄14.
The FBI has yet to be held accountable for bumbling a tip about the school shooter. Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel for his agency’s poor response to the shooting, though Israel is fighting to get his job back. And at Stoneman Douglas, two school monitors have lost their jobs and four assistant principals have been reassigned.
But the school board’s failure to hold Superintendent Runcie accountable for the districtwide failures identified by a statewide commission remains a festering boil for many. And as reporting by the South Florida Sun Sentinel has revealed, Runcie’s poor performance extends far beyond what the commission has reported.
So it was good Wednesday to see Gov. DeSantis petition the Florida Supreme Court to convene a statewide grand jury in Broward to examine compliance with safety measures and how money for hardening schools has been spent. Given the security promises Runcie made when resisting a 2013 proposal for a safety board — and again in 2014 in pushing an $800 million bond — a thorough outside review is needed.
From where we sit, the school board has relinquished far too much authority to the superintendent and their general counsel since 2011, when a grand jury accused former board members of gross mismanagement and corruption. The pendulum needs to swing back toward the center and the board needs to better fulfill its fiduciary oversight.
Finally, some of us believe more attention must be paid to mental health, an issue that continues to draw the short stick in funding and policy debates.
In August, Broward voters approved a new property tax that will raise $93 million a year. Of that, the school board decided to allocate just 8 percent for more school personnel to identify and help students who might be dangerous. About 72 percent will go for teacher salaries and 20 percent for school resource officers.
What we think
On many fronts, a course correction is needed.
But for today, let’s put aside our differences and leave our arguments for tomorrow.
Today, let’s give one another a break. In our moment of silence, let us consider that we are all well-meaning people who want to do good, even if we differ on what that might be.
Today, let us stand together as members of a club that has suffered a terrible loss and as a community of people that cares about one another.
Today let us stand strong together. Douglas Strong.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara, Sergio Bustos, David Lyons and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.