U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona let loose his frustration during a visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday, site of the tragic 2018 shooting, venting his ire over the stagnation he sees hindering school safety nationwide. After touring the Parkland school's premises and speaking at a news conference at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott in Coral Springs, Cardona didn't mince words: "What does it take for us to move if children dying is not enough?" as Lewiston Tribune reported. "I'm tired of the rhetoric. I'm tired of thoughts and prayers. Do something."
While Cardona acknowledged the Safer Communities Act has funneled $2 billion into anti-violence efforts, he contends it's far from enough to tackle the issues at hand, the bill being the first significant federal gun safety legislation in nearly three decades, During his visit, the Education Secretary was accompanied by cybersecurity chief Jen Easterly and local officials, including Broward school district representatives, family members of victims and U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Stoneman Douglas graduate himself, according to the Lewiston Tribune.
The tour was more than symbolic; it was a forum where the pain and shortcomings exposed by the shooting were laid bare. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, having chaired the state commission investigating the Parkland tragedy, spoke plainly about the complacency that cripples progress: "I don’t know about you, but I can’t live with dead kids. So people need to get over it," he said on X. Also shared were harrowing experiences by individuals such as Stacey Lippel, a language arts teacher at Stoneman Douglas who was wounded in the attack.
'I'm tired of the rhetoric': Stoneman Douglas tour leaves U.S. education secretary angry https://t.co/4mTPVmzp2N
— Scott Travis (@smtravis) January 23, 2024
Lippel detailed the inefficacy of mental health support post-tragedy, with therapists ill-prepared for the magnitude of trauma inflicted, "They were not equipped to handle the severity of the trauma, and so instead you felt neglected," she conveyed, underscoring the isolation that victims faced as they sought responsible care, her testimony noted in the Lewiston Tribune; fortunately improvements in district mental health services have been realized since those dark days.
There's now a growing disquiet among Stoneman Douglas educators over the numerous tours the now-vacant building has seen — a structure preserved as a grim tableau of the incident for legal and touristic reasons, ultimately scheduled for demolition come June. After assertions by Superintendent Peter Licata that previous tours would be last, the building continues to attract visitors, with Licata conceding the future holds no guarantees, broadening the prospects for more visits, particularly from former students seeking closure, as reported by the Lewiston Tribune.
