In the months following the murder of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school on Valentine’s Day, the teenage survivors of the massacre became the vanguard for change. Their March for Our Lives movement motivated millions to protest and to cast the votes that ousted scores of gun lobby-supporting politicians in the midterm elections.
But while the younger generation has been in the spotlight, the families of the victims have been pursuing their own advocacy agendas.
Banding together into a foundation demanding school safety reforms, serving as commissioners on the official inquiry into the shooting, winning election to the county school board and assisting Donald Trump’s efforts to improve campus security nationwide, the bereaved parents have found ways to speak up for their children.
“We’ve been given this voice through the loss of our loved ones, in my case my daughter Gina,” said Tony Montalto, president of Stand With Parkland, the organisation founded by all 17 victims’ families. “Focused on the safety of our children and staff at school, improved mental health support, and responsible firearms ownership”, the group seeks to work with politicians, educators and law enforcement.
“It’s something I feel I need to do,” Montalto said, “because as we’ve watched our country drift further apart, to the far left and far right, I realised there’s a voice that’s missing, and that’s from the folks in the middle, the ideological middle of the country.
“We understand where the extremes are and understand the passion those people have, but that doesn’t mean the people in the middle don’t have passion, that the people who want to sit down and talk and listen shouldn’t have a voice.
“There’s certainly anger at the failures that occurred, there’s anger someone would do this to our loved ones, to my little girl. [But] that coming together, that compromise, is what we need to do to start healing things here in America.”
Several Parkland parents were consulted for Trump’s federal school safety review that was released this month. Stand With Parkland, however, was less than enthusiastic in its backing for certain elements of it. While the 177-page document looked into campus security, school disciplinary policies and procedures and improving access to mental health services, and said the controversial proposal to arm teachers was a decision best made by states and school districts, the report also downplayed the role of guns in school shootings.
“It’s a little light on the firearms piece,” Montalto said. “I’m not saying we’re disappointed, we’re saying we need more. We need to take the gains we can get today, take the things we can agree on and enact laws and policies that our going to keep our children and staff members safe at school. Then we’ll come back another day and work on the other things.”
‘The president listened to me’
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow, 18, was among the Parkland victims, has worked with the White House and this month was appointed by the Republican governor-elect, Ron DeSantis, to a 45-member public safety panel. Also on the committee are Max Schachter, father of Alex, 14, and Ryan Petty, father of Alaina, also 14. Both also serve on the MSD public safety commission that will report to the outgoing governor, Rick Scott, before the end of the year.
Pollack is one of the most outspoken of the Parkland parents. He has blasted the Broward county sheriff, Scott Israel, and the school board for their response to the tragedy, and often finds himself at odds with other families advocating for stricter gun laws.
“The easy thing is just to point the fingers at guns, that’s why I had to get involved,” he said. “When everyone else was focused on gun control the president listened to me, put the commission together, came up with all these recommendations. His policymakers and cabinet members indulged into school safety and he focused on the facts. And now these recommendations will change education for every child in this country.
“For me, I go to the cemetery and I look at my daughter’s headstone. That’s what I do now. But I’m advocating for other parents and children so this doesn’t happen again, and for the quality of the education they get in the future.”
Petty, another vocal critic of the school board, lost his bid for election to it in August. But Lori Alhadeff, mother of Alyssa, 14, was elected by Parkland voters in a landslide and took her seat in November.
“Her death empowered me to want to run,” Alhadeff, who holds a master’s degree in education, told the Sun-Sentinel. “I know Alyssa would be so proud, and I want to make sure what happened to my daughter doesn’t happen to another family.”
‘Joaquin has a voice through art’
Other parents have set up foundations to support their advocacy and the memories of their children. Fred Guttenberg, a frequent detractor of the National Rifle Association on social media, founded Orange Ribbons for Jaime to support causes important to his daughter, 14, including dance and “those dedicated to pursuing common sense gun safety reforms”.
Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin, 17, uses art to promote Change the Ref, an advocacy group founded in his son’s honour to empower future leaders. In an emotional moment last month, Oliver spoke alongside a life-size statue of Joaquin onstage in Cape Town, as the students of March for Our Lives accepted the international children’s peace prize.
“Joaquin has a voice through art, he is an activist and not a victim,” he said. “We work along with Joaquin, we work supported by Joaquin’s legacy and his presence through art, through his cultures. Joaquin’s always there and that helps us with the side that we don’t have our son any more. Physically we don’t, but emotionally he’s right there stronger than ever.
“By practicing the idea that Joaquin is an activist by bringing him to the places that we are, people understand that as something that is really happening. It’s not someone who’s alive and speaking out, this is a more powerful force coming from this kid that is still here and he’s able to fight back. I love that feeling.”
Despite their political differences, and an increasing number of commitments, the Parkland families meet when they have the opportunity.
“The real strength we have comes from sticking together,” Montalto said. “There’s plenty of tears go around, sometimes when we’re together, sometimes when we’re not. It’s a challenge every day. We’re not moving on, we’re just moving around.
“I walk by Gina’s empty bedroom every day and wish she was there.”