FLORIDA, USA — You may notice U.S. flags and State of Florida flags are at half-staff on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Feb. 13, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the flags to be lowered marking six years since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
In a new proclamation, the governor announced the day is now officially known as "Marjory Stone Douglas Remembrance Day."
"We will never forget the heroes of that day who risked and sacrificed their lives to protect the students, teachers, faculty, and families of Parkland," the proclamation states. "Including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School's teachers and faculty, who courageously safeguarded the lives of their students."
17 lives were lost that day, including:
- Alyssa Alhadeff
- Scott Beigel
- Martin Duque Anguiano
- Nicholas Dworet
- Aaron Feis
- Jaime Guttenberg
- Christopher Hixon
- Luke Hoyer
- Cara Loughran
- Gina Montalto
- Joaquin Oliver
- Alaina Petty
- Meadow Pollack
- Helena Ramsay
- Alex Schachter
- Carmen Schentrup
- Peter Wang
The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, formally received a sentence of life without parole on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.
Since the day of the shooting, several bills have been signed into law to improve school safety in Florida.
SB 70, or "Alyssa's Law", was signed in 2020 to allocate $8 million for all public and charter schools in the State of Florida to install panic alert systems.
In 2021, SB 590 was signed into law, requiring Florida schools to develop plans to quickly notify parents of threats, unlawful acts and significant emergencies.
HB 1421 was signed into law in 2022, extending the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission and providing the commissioner additional oversight to ensure school safety.
DeSantis signed HB 543 into law in 2023, authorizing private schools to implement safe school officers in partnership with local law enforcement, establishing the Florida Safe Schools Canine Program and requiring all law enforcement agencies to adopt a written active assailant policy.