After a student’s violent assault in a parking lot near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who is to blame?

South Florida Sun Sentinel | By Shira Moolten | December 14, 2023

A day after the violent assault on a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student drew national attention, school officials have distanced themselves from responsibility while disturbed parents wonder why no one stopped the fight before it occurred.

In the video that spread wildly on social media, a large group of students watch as a smaller group surrounds the 18-year-old student before one of them lifts him up and throws him head-first onto the pavement. The teen victim then lies still, apparently unconscious and bleeding from the head, according to footage and police radio.

Some students scream and disperse while others stay to check if he’s still breathing.

Coral Springs Police have identified the suspects involved, but are still locating them, according to Sgt. Ernesto Bruna. They intend to release more information later Thursday or on Friday.

Reactions to the video were strong. Some parents said they were too disturbed to watch.

“Shameful, inexcusable and hateful,” Coral Springs Mayor Scott J. Brook said in a text to the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.

A man who was at the park with his young children for a soccer game that day and witnessed the altercation described the slamming of the student’s head as “a recipe for death.” He asked to remain anonymous over fears of retaliation.

In the days since, parents have questioned how an attack like this could occur so close to a school with such an emphasis on security and student safety after the mass shooting that took 17 lives on campus in 2018. Throughout the ensuing debate over responsibility, many have looked to the parking lot where the beating took place. The lot sits in North Community Park, amid tennis courts and soccer fields, just down the street from the school. But it is off-campus, within the city limits of Coral Springs, and under the jurisdiction of the Coral Springs police department. The school itself falls under the jurisdiction of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which handles Parkland.

School officials distanced themselves from the attack due to its location. In an email to parents Wednesday morning, Principal Michelle Kefford described it as “a disturbing incident that occurred off-campus.”

Meanwhile, School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff, who represents the district where Stoneman Douglas is located, wrote in a texted statement that “As a mother and member of this community, I am outraged and saddened by the brutal fight involving our students off campus.”

“The District is fully cooperating with law enforcement to identify those responsible,” she continued. “As parents and community members, let’s work together to foster a safe and supportive environment for all our children, both in and outside of school.”

Alhadeff’s daughter, Alyssa, was one of the 17 killed in the Stoneman Douglas mass shooting.

District spokespeople declined to answer questions Thursday over the school’s responsibility for students at a parking lot designated for their use but not on campus, saying that “the park is not a school or district-operated property; however, the school is working with law enforcement to help identify those involved.”

The response from the school has drawn criticism from parents of current and former students, including Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, was also among those killed in the mass shooting. Both Guttenberg and Alhadeff became school safety advocates afterwards.

Kefford’s “response to this beating is alarming and based upon my concerns with her, also not surprising,” Guttenberg wrote on social media. “No, this was not a ‘a disturbing incident that took place off-campus.’ This was a beating of an MSD student by other MSD students in a parking lot that all students walk to after school because they park there. Until schools and the district understand the responsibility of safety for students walking into school and walking out of school, you can’t have true safety. What if a student was in that parking lot with a gun? The failure to understand this only makes the response worse.”

It is unclear whether all the students involved attend MSD or if some attend other schools. Bruna said Thursday that he didn’t have that information.

While the video came as a shock to some, other parents say that it is only evidence of what unfolds in and outside of their kids’ schools every day, but receives less attention and has gone on unabated.

“It’s a perfect example,” said Lauren Winter, whose 11-year-old son goes to Sawgrass Springs Middle School in Coral Springs. “It’s happening every single day. The only thing is that, this kid was very lucky where there were adults around and the video went viral.”

Winter said her son is bullied so pervasively that he has to have security guards walk him to his classes. He has been punched and choked and called names, she said. He eats lunch in the office by himself. And despite all of the security measures, he often ends up staying home instead.

“He’s basically missing middle school,” Winter said.

A patch of grass and parking lot outside the ice rink where her son plays hockey has become a hotspot where students fight, she said. But, like the parking lot near Stoneman Douglas, the land is not on school property and officials have not been able to stop the fights.

Some parents have asked why police were not already at the parking lot at the time of the attack. School resource officers from nearby Country Hills and Eagle Ridge elementary schools are stationed at the park between 2:40 p.m. and 3 p.m. for Stoneman Douglas dismissal, city spokesperson Lynne Martzall told the Sun Sentinel Wednesday. The beating took place a little after 3 p.m. and police arrived soon after.

Martzall did not respond to questions over whether the city will increase the security presence as a result of the attack.

“I’m not sure if it’s increased security right now but I know we always have law enforcement present,” Police spokesman Bruna said Thursday.

Parkland Mayor Rich Walker, who has two children at MSD, said that the two cities “have always had a great relationship and collaborated on many issues” and trusts Coral Springs to monitor the area properly.

But he argued that the issue cannot always come back to law enforcement presence.

“These things, unfortunately they happen far too often,” Walker said. “And you can’t have law enforcement everywhere. Whether it’s a stolen car, a fight or whatever it is, you can’t have law enforcement at every possible situation.”

What parents teach their kids at home, and how engaged they are, also can’t be ignored, he said.

“I’m not trying to deflect totally from law enforcement because there’s always a place for that,” Walker added. “But it would be nice, I know it will never happen, but it would be nice if we didn’t need to have law enforcement. If kids just acted the right way, these problems wouldn’t occur.”