February 14th marked the one year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which the lives of 17 people were taken by the perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz. The schools in Broward and Palm Beach School Districts commemorated this tragic event by observing the day as a “Day of Service and Love.” According to the Broward County School Board, this will be the day to give back to the community in honor of MSD’s fallen eagles by having the students around the district engage in service-learning activities that serve others within their schools or local community. In addition, the entire Broward County district and beyond will be asked to join Broward County Public Schools in observing a moment of silence at 10:17 a.m., in honor of those whose lives were lost and to recognize those injured during the tragedy.
Along with the community project, there will be a series of workshops, offered by the Professionals United for Parkland, to help the MSD community cope with their traumatic experiences from the event, according to Health News Florida. Effects including anxiety, flashbacks, etc., tend to occur in a victim of a traumatic event as the anniversary date approaches sooner. Since the time of the event, fear and trauma will continue to be instilled in the Parkland community as time passes. With the help of professional therapists, the community can make progress towards recognizing anniversary reactions and offering strategies for handling them, hoping to ease their trauma.
This event is not only to pay our respect to those who were lost and injured but to remind us about the gun violence in America. MSD was not the only mass shooting event that occurred in this country; there had been many multiple gun-related massacres that have happened in the last few years like the Las Vegas Shooting in 2017, Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting in 2018, and more. Despite the abundant number of gun violence-related incidents which have dramatically increased over the years, there has been slow progress of regulations on gun control in the United States. In the aftermath of the shooting at MSD, a group of student survivors formed a political action committee for tighter gun control, which is known as “Never Again MSD.” Their main objective is to demand more legislative action for strict gun regulations to prevent any similar shootings in the future, through protests and marches. This organization has been working effectively; however, the progress is still slow due to the political conflicts that have interfered with this issue.
When it comes to the MSD attack, it is crucial to recognize the impact it had on society and learn to take action rather than to stay quiet.
To learn more about the commemoration of MSD, please visit their website at www.cityofparkland.org/1224/MSD-Commemoration, which provides more information about the observance of the event.
