Students, Teachers & Parents Preparing For Classes To Resume At Marjory Stoneman Douglas
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PARKLAND (CBSMiami) – The gates of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School are covered, as far as the eye can see.
Each sign, note and flower is a sign of support, a sign that Wednesday will not be just another day.
The Freshman building, where a gunman killed 17 students and faculty, is now fenced off.
Presumably closed until one day when it's torn down.
The fence is lined with signs made from schools across South Florida.
David Hogg, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, realizing this evening he will have to walk by all them in the morning.
"I don't know, I don't think any of us are," said Hogg when asked if he was alright. "I don't think any of us will be alright."
Two weeks ago Hogg in his classroom, hiding, recording on his cell phone what he thought might be his last words as shots rang out.
Since then he hasn't stopped talking about what happened or what should happen now.
Like so many of his classmates, their lives, their perspectives, changed forever.
"No action has been taken," Hogg said. "No glass has been replaced with bullet proof glass. None of our locks are able to be locked from the inside now. No Bill has been passed. Essentially they are creating the exact scenario can happen again."
Walking past these gates will be difficult not just for students, but for many parents.
After dropping his kids off, Josh Castellanos plans to sit in his car outside all day.
"This tragedy is more than most can handle," Castellanos said. "I can't even imagine a 14 year old handling this."
Castellanos is concerned the school district hasn't done enough to prepare everyone for a return.
"How many kids that are broken, that aren't processing this properly, are going to be back in this school?" he asked. "And what's their mental state going to be? And what is going to be the outcome?"
He is not alone in that concern. But there is also promise that Wednesday we could see just how Parkland Strong we are.
Andrea Cardinale, the wife of a police officer and a mother whose son was just a few classrooms away from the shooting, has organized.
"I hope it's a positive day tomorrow," she said.
When she walks her son to school tomorrow, she hopes to walk past what could be hundreds of police officers lining the street.
She has asked off-duty officers from around the South Florida to line the path to the school. Numerous officers plan to come.
"I just want the kids to feel safe," Cardinale said. "And I want them to know that these cops care. And they are loved. And I just want it to be success for the kids."
