Another federal delegation visited Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Monday afternoon — to tour where 17 people were fatally shot and 17 others were injured on Valentine’s Day six years ago. NBC6’s Xochitl Hernandez reports.
Another federal delegation visited Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Monday afternoon to tour where 17 people were fatally shot and 17 others were injured on Valentine's Day six years ago.
The deadly school shooting happened back on Feb. 14, 2018.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona as well as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly are the federal officials who are touring the 1200 building in a visit planned by Parkland victims' families and Congressman Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida).
The delegation's goal is to discuss how the federal government can support school safety and mental health.
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Broward School Board member Debra Hixon, who lost her husband Chris Hixon during the MSD massacre, spoke to NBC6 about the importance of federal officials experiencing the shooting site first-hand.
"It's like a movie that runs through my brain every day, so when you're standing in the 'movie set' sort of -- it just gives you a different perspective," Hixon explained. "We'd love for them to look at responsible firearm ownership and what that looks like and the access to weapons."
She also explained that the idea of the walkthrough is hopefully to promote a national standard on what the infrastructure of schools should look like -- such as solid and automatic-locking doors, bulletproof windows and the use of cinder blocks instead of dry wall.
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"There's a really stark contrast between the 1200 building and the newly-built 1500 building, so they'll walk through both of those buildings to see what are some of the upgrades and how do we make sure we do that for every school moving forward," Hixon said.
