Wounds yet to heal from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting

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Credit: WINK News

Almost a year ago, lives changed forever when a man with an AR-15 style rifle went on a shooting rampage inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seeing their friends and teachers get gunned down is something community members said they will never forget.

Outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sit flowers and letters to the 17 victims of a mass shooting last year.

Just minutes away, crews worked to finish up a wood temple. It is a place that will serve as a safe space for survivors on Thursday’s one year anniversary.

That is where we met Sheila Gordon and Barbara Klien. Two women who said they will never forget Feb. 14, 2018.

“I’m right off the Sawgrass Expressway and I heard all this commotion,” said Klien, a Coral Springs resident whose son went to the high school 10 years ago. “And we heard this and we didn’t know what was going on and it was so horrible.”

“One of the victims was my girlfriend’s granddaughter,” said Gordan, a Coral Springs resident. “It’s mind boggling.”

The two said last year’s shooting and the days that followed are etched into the lives of everyone in Parkland and neighboring Coral Springs.

The high school will have a ‘non-academic school day’ Thursday, which will conclude near noon. Many students plan to skip school as they find it too emotional.

The building where the mass shooting happened is now fenced off. It is a painful reminder of the day some do not think time will ever heal.

“It doesn’t ever stop,” Gordan said, “and it doesn’t go away.”

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