The scene of the Parkland school shooting will finally be demolished. What we know

Miami Herald | By Jimena Tavel | May 30, 2024

Six years and four months after a tragedy scarred South Florida forever, the building where it all unraveled will be destroyed. The 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland will be demolished in mid June. Inside that three-story freshman building on Feb. 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz, an expelled student of the school shot and killed 14 students and three staffers. He also injured 17 others. The building had been preserved for legal proceedings against the shooter, as well as a school deputy who failed to intervene in the shooting, but the cases already wrapped up. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison; the deputy was acquitted of all charges.

The school district will hand over the building to the contractor on June 12 and demolition will likely take place June 13 or 14, said John Sullivan, a school district spokesman on Thursday.

Additional details, including the specific times the demolition work will take place, “will be provided soon,” according to the Broward County Public Schools press release.

A contractor will destroy the building by mechanical demolition, not implosion, Sullivan said. The demolition process will start right after the school year ends June 10, and will likely last several weeks.

It will cost $339,000, Sullivan said. “We understand this is a sensitive and difficult time for the families of those who were killed, those who were injured, and all of those who are forever impacted by the tragedy on February 14, 2018,” the press release read. “We will continue to keep the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School community informed and updated as we navigate this process together.”