Parkland Students Demand Building Be Demolished After Nikolas Cruz Decision

Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students called for the school to be torn down after the jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz be sentenced to life in prison.

“They better tear that building down today,” Twitter user Carly Novell wrote in a tweet on Thursday. Novell is widely known as a former student at the high school.

In a separate tweet, another former student, Aalayah Eastmond, responded to Novell’s tweet and wrote, “No excuses now! Immediately!” Eastmond was inside the school when Cruz opened fire, leaving 17 victims dead.

The remarks by the former students come shortly after a Florida jury recommended that Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison instead of receiving the death penalty for the crimes he committed in 2018.

Over the past several months, the jury has continued to deliberate on Cruz’s trial, and on Thursday, they were required to reach a unanimous decision regarding a potential sentence.

In 2018, Robert Runcie, the superintendent of the Broward County School District at the time, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that “parents and students have resoundingly told me they can’t go back into that building regardless of what we do” and noted that they planned to create a memorial for the students lost in the shooting at the site.

Flowers, candles and mementos sit outside one of the makeshift memorials at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 27, 2018. On Thursday, October 13, former students of the high school said that it should be destroyed after a jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz receive a lifetime prison sentence. RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images

However, the school has remained standing as it was used as evidence during Cruz’s trial. In August, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that defense lawyers for Cruz warned that having the jury visit the school could lead to emotional damage as most of it has been preserved as it was immediately after the shooting.

Following the decision on Thursday, many parents whose children were killed in the shooting criticized the jury.

“Today’s ruling was yet another gut punch for so many of us who devastatingly lost our loved ones on that tragic Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” one parent said.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Vickie L. Cartwright said, “Our District understands that the jury’s recommendation in the sentencing phase of the trial will impact our students, staff, families and the entire community. Our thoughts and support are with the families of the victims of the tragedy. We have mental health professionals at each school in the District. Additional personnel are being deployed to schools throughout our District and stand ready to assist those in need.”

On May 24, a shooter killed 21 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Shortly after the shooting, many local officials and parents called for the school to be destroyed.

“Robb Elementary, we will not be going back to that campus in any form or fashion. There will be no school personnel on that campus as we move forward,” Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said in June. “As far as the future of that site, there are discussions about what that will look like, as we move forward as a community, we’ll have some community input to determine what that looks like for our community.”

Newsweek reached out to former students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and to the school’s principal for comment.

Update 10/13/22, 3:20 p.m. ET: This story was updated with a statement from Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Vickie L. Cartwright.