First day in my new city and I saw this sitting on the feature shelf at the library!
You best believe I walked over to the front desk, applied for a library card, and checked this book out.
I then read this entire book the same day.
So we all know what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
February 14, 2018 is going to be a day that these students and faculty will never forget.
Nikolas Cruz brutally murdered 17 people that day.
He turned their school into a crime scene.
Parkland Speaks was organized by Sarah Lerner, a journalism teacher at MSD.
She gathered these short stories, poems, and journal entries from students and teachers who were there that fateful day. While the whole thing was incredibly painful to read, there were two that had me in tears. Journal Entry #1 by Jack Macleod details what it was like to be outside of a classroom during the shooting. What it was like not knowing if they were going to survive or not. Understanding that if any of those doors opened for them, other student's lives would be in danger. He describes their fear with such intensity that it felt like I was watching it unfold without any way to help. The other that really got to me was kind of similar, but on the opposite side of the door. Nothing Bad Ever Happens in Parkland, Stacey Lippel's testimony before congress detailed her nerve racking experience as a teacher trying to protect her students. She talks about how painful it was to hear her students screaming in the hall as they were shot down. She talks about seeing her fellow teachers in pools of their own blood. She talks about hurling her body over her students to protect them after she had already been grazed by a bullet. It was harrowing.
Reading the stories told by survivors themselves is incredible.
It's heartbreaking that at 14-18 years old, these kids that to experience such fear and trauma.
It breaks my heart that this keeps happening.
But it warms my heart to see these same kids trying to make a difference in the world.
Looking for other books on Parkland?
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