Remembering the Victims of the Parkland shooting

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is no longer recognized for their star athletes and incredible music program. Rather, they are now known for the deadliest school shooting in United States history, surpassing the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. The shooting occurred one year ago, on Valentine’s day in 2018. The perpetrator was 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who entered the high school armed with an AR-15 rifle, and opened fire into the hallways. The shooting lasted six minutes, but by the end, 17 were killed and 17 other victims were seriously injured.

Stories from the day of the shooting have been shared, and the victims of the shooting are being honored for their bravery posthumously. Their stories are being shared for others to learn from them, and to keep their spirits and memories alive.

Peter Wang is one of the many students who is being honored after his death. Peter was a member of the JROTC program at his high school and was working on ushering his classmates out of the building as quickly as possible at the time of his death. Peter was unable to flee fast enough and as a result, was shot and later died. A White House petition quickly circulated after the shooting, demanding that Peter be buried with full military honors. His fellow JROTC members, who also died during the shooting (Alaina Petty and Martin Duque) were also posthumously honored by the U.S. Army, with the ROTC Medal for Heroism. Wang later received a rare admission letter to his dream school, The United States Military Academy, after his death.

Freshman Alyssa Aldaheff was also honored for her bravery, and the actions she took during the Parkland Shooting. On March 7th, 2018, she was recognized by the United States Women’s National Soccer team. The soccer team Alyssa had played for, as well as her family, were invited to their game in Orlando, Florida. It is there where they presented Aldaheff’s team and family with official jerseys featuring Alyssa’s last name and had the opportunity to meet the players.

Cara Loughran and Meadow Pollack were two other students with incredible stories of bravery in a time of need. Meadow Pollack was in the hallway outside of a class when the gunfire rang out.  She was shot four times in the back. While Cruz was attempting to shoot into other classrooms, Meadow crawled her way over to a classroom door but was unable to get inside. This is when Cara Loughran was shot and wounded nearby. Meadow had crawled and draped her body over Cara in order to shield her from any more gunfire, in an attempt to save her life. Cruz then returned back outside the classroom and located the two girls. He discharged his weapon five more times, killing Meadow and Cara. The two have since gained national attention, and have received praise for their incredible bravery in a time of peril.

The stories are real. The people are real. School shootings are real, and they can happen at any time.

Below are the names and faces of all of the victims of the Parkland High School Shooting.