Parkland Families Return to School for First Time Before Demolition: ‘I Can’t Say Goodbye’

Families of victims and survivors of the Parkland school massacre were allowed Wednesday to return to the scene of the horrific crime ahead of its planned demolition.

Seventeen students and staff were killed and 17 others injured on Valentine’s Day 2018 after former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. 

Over five years later, following the culmination of criminal cases against Cruz and school resource officer Scot Peterson, a judge released the building back to the Broward County School District.

Before it’s razed, families can tour the building over the new few weeks before it's razed.

“I can’t say goodbye, I just can’t say goodbye,” Beigel Schulman, the mother of murdered geography teacher Scott Beigel, told WPLG-TV Wednesday. “It’s been 1,969 days and I still can’t say goodbye.”

In November 2022, Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

Tony Montalto, who lost his daughter, Gina, in the shooting told WPLG that “entering the building where my daughter was shot was one of the top five hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

“Superseded, of course, by seeing her cold body,” he added.

Montalto called former school resource officer Scot Peterson "cowardly" for failing to protect students and staff by not confronting the shooter.

Peterson, a former Florida sheriff's deputy, was found not guilty Friday of seven counts of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury for his failure to take action that deadly day, and instead backed away from the high school.

Before the building is razed, a judge will decide whether a re-enactment of the shooting can be conducted there at the request of some of the families who have sued Peterson and others in a negligence case.

The re-enactment would be using the same weapon — with blanks — recreating the sound and appearance of the crime, which would be recorded for any future civil jury.

The judge in that case hasn't set a hearing date for the families' request.

The exact date of the demolition of the school building isn't yet known.