Second Parkland Shooting Survivor Allegedly Commits Suicide in a Week -- Report
A second student who attended a Florida high school during a 2018 shooting rampage has committed suicide, according to a new report.
Coral Springs police reported that a male student who was a sophomore at the school killed himself on Saturday, according to the Miami Herald. Police did not release the student’s name but said he was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of last year’s shooting which left 17 people dead.
Last Monday, recent Stoneman Douglas graduate Sydney Aiello took her life. She had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Aiello’s mother, Cara, said that although her daughter was at school the day of the shooting, she was not in the building where it took place. Still, she said, her daughter was plagued with survivor’s guilt, WFOR reported.
Aiello’s funeral took place Friday.
This is really tragic news about a Parkland student. Please- if you need support, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or text Crisis Text Line at 741741. https://t.co/ZiDr0ta2dy
— Kate Snow (@tvkatesnow) March 22, 2019
Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was killed in the 2018 shooting, said the student who died was 16, The New York Times reported
“What we feared could happen is happening,” Petty said.
“We tried to get the warning out last year,” Petty said, according to CBS, noting that there was a suicide spike among survivors of the 1999 school shooting in Columbine High School in Colorado.
“Almost as many people died after Columbine as died during the event, and that was suicide,” Petty said.
“We lost 17 beautiful souls on Feb. 14 and … now it’s not only 18, it’s 19 … The way to prevent number 20 is for parents to ask the questions: have you thought about killing yourself? … If they answer yes to those questions, they’re at risk and you need to get help,” he said.
“It’s devastating, it was hard enough to lose the 17 and to think that more people are suffering to the point where they feel like they need to take their own life, it’s heartbreaking,” Petty said, according to WTVJ.
David Hogg, who emerged from the shooting as a strong gun control advocate, called for unspecified government intervention.
“How many more kids have to be taken from us as a result of suicide for the government / school district to do anything?” he tweeted.
How many more kids have to be taken from us as a result of suicide for the government / school district to do anything?
Rip 17+2 ??
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 24, 2019
The Parkland, Florida, community sought ways to cope after two suicides in the span of a week.
I’m heartbroken. Sadly the death toll of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in #Parkland now stands at 19. Not all wounds are visible.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255
24 hours /7 daysParents, please secure your weapons.
— Barry Schapiro MD (@bschapiroMD) March 24, 2019
“It’s important that the community knows right now how to triage this — to make sure they’re checking in with their kids, checking in with their family members,” Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said. “It’s important, if people have firearms at home, that they’re locked up and secured, so no one who shouldn’t have access to them is able to gain access to them.”
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