A student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was found dead in Coral Springs, Florida, the victim of an apparent suicide. This marks the second such death within a week’s time of survivors of the deadly 2018 school shooting.
Neither the victim’s name, gender, nor age has been released to the public, although Coral Springs police spokesman Tyler Reik has said the student was a juvenile. Other sources via the Miami Herald have indicated that the deceased was a male sophomore.
This recent suicide comes just one week after Sydney Aiello took her life following a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis. Aiello was a recent graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and lost a friend of hers, Meadow Pollack, in the shooting.
The Miami Herald also quoted Ryan Petty, the father of Alaina Petty — one of the victims in the Parkland shooting — as saying the most recent victim died from a gunshot wound to the head. This is the same cause of death as Aiello.
Petty leads the WalkUp Foundation, seeking to make schools safer places.
“When you look at Columbine as an example, almost just as many students killed themselves after the fact than in the actual shooting. That needs to change,” said Petty. “We need to get them the help they need.”
David Hogg, another survivor who has been become an activist in the wake of the tragedy, spoke out about the recent deaths on Twitter, asking “How many more kids have to be taken from us as a result of suicide for the government / school district to do anything?”
He closed his tweet with, “Rip 17+2,” a reference to the 17 students and staff members killed in the shooting as well as the two recent suicide deaths.
These deaths mark the one-year anniversary of the March For Our Lives, a student march against gun violence that was held in Washington DC and other places across the U.S. Turnout for that protest was estimated at between 1.2 and 2 million people.
Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are currently out for Spring Break.
Public Domain image via Wikimedia Commons