Parkland students quietly share stories to process trauma
PARKLAND, Fla. — When freshman Eden Hebron wanted to capture the searing experience of being in a classroom where a fellow student killed her best friend and three other people, she turned to poetry. The result was “1216,” named after the number of the room at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:
“The screams blasting in my ear. The blood still won’t disappear. I scream their names, call for my friends. Nothing else to do, they are gone, they are dead.”
The community at Marjory Stoneman Douglas has become best-known for the handful of charismatic students who’ve channeled grief and outrage over the Feb. 14 shooting to reignite the national debate on gun control. But most of the 3,000-plus students are coming to terms with the trauma in quieter ways — writing poetry, filming documentaries, reconstructing the crime scene and trying to balance memories with the need to move on.
The attack that claimed 17 lives began in the hallway outside Hebron’s honours English class. No one had time to take cover. Two of her slain classmates tried to hide under the same classroom table that shielded her. In the shower, she sometimes feels as trapped as she did that day, when she witnessed the death of her best friend, 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff.