Broward County

The scene of the Parkland school shooting will finally be demolished. What we know

Parklandi, Florida - July 5, 2023 - View of the Freshman Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School where 17 people died in a shooting back in February 14, 2018. Family members of the shooting victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School visited the building today. The building will be demolished now that the trials are over.
Parklandi, Florida - July 5, 2023 - View of the Freshman Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School where 17 people died in a shooting back in February 14, 2018. Family members of the shooting victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School visited the building today. The building will be demolished now that the trials are over. jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com

Six years and four months after a tragedy scarred South Florida forever, the building where it all unraveled will be destroyed.

The 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland will be demolished in mid June. Inside that three-story freshman building on Feb. 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz, an expelled student of the school shot and killed 14 students and three staffers. He also injured 17 others.

The building had been preserved for legal proceedings against the shooter, as well as a school deputy who failed to intervene in the shooting, but the cases already wrapped up. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison; the deputy was acquitted of all charges.

READ MORE: Broward Schools to demolish freshman building at Stoneman Douglas High shooting next summer

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.
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. Jose A. Iglesias jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com

The school district will hand over the building to the contractor on June 12 and demolition will likely take place June 13 or 14, said John Sullivan, a school district spokesman on Thursday.

Additional details, including the specific times the demolition work will take place, “will be provided soon,” according to the Broward County Public Schools press release.

A contractor will destroy the building by mechanical demolition, not implosion, Sullivan said. The demolition process will start right after the school year ends June 10, and will likely last several weeks.

FROM LAST JULY: What’s next for Parkland school building? Visits, demolition, then a question mark

It will cost $339,000, Sullivan said.

“We understand this is a sensitive and difficult time for the families of those who were killed, those who were injured, and all of those who are forever impacted by the tragedy on February 14, 2018,” the press release read.

“We will continue to keep the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School community informed and updated as we navigate this process together.”

FROM FEBRUARY 2023: ‘Like an eyesore’: Why the Parkland school building still stands, five years after shooting

Max Schachter, the father of Alex Schachter who was murdered in English class during the Parkland massacre, speaks to the media after visiting the crime scene of the 2018 Parkland shooting in the 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Thursday, July 6, 2023.
Max Schachter, the father of Alex Schachter who was murdered in English class during the Parkland massacre, speaks to the media after visiting the crime scene of the 2018 Parkland shooting in the 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Thursday, July 6, 2023. Al Diaz adiaz@miamiherald.com
Jimena Tavel
Miami Herald
Jimena Tavel covers higher education for the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. She’s a bilingual reporter with triple nationality: Honduran, Cuban and Costa Rican. Born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she moved to Florida at age 17. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2018, and joined the Herald soon after.
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