“Enough Is Enough”: Here’s What Parkland Parents Are Saying About the Texas Massacre

They want action.

Fred Guttenberg, father of Jaime Guttenberg, holds a picture of his daughter, who was murdered in Parkland.Jose A. Iglesias/Miami Herald via AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Friday, 10 people were murdered and another 10 were injured when a gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School near Houston. The massacre is the fifth mass shooting in the United States in 2018. For the families of the students who were murdered in Parkland, Florida, just three months ago, Friday’s events struck especially close to home. Mother Jones reached out to some of the Parkland parents for their reactions to the latest tragedy.

Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the Parkland shooting, has since become an outspoken gun control advocate. In a statement Friday to Mother Jones, Guttenberg said he was “pissed by the lack of any response by the President, Speaker Ryan, and Majority Leader McConnell”:

First, my heart breaks for the families and I am here for them.  It is a very painful process that they are about to go through and I want to offer them any support possible. Second, I feel like February 14th all over again. I cannot believe this is happening again. This is tragic and sad. Since my daughters murder, I have had optimism by the changes happening locally and in the business community. However, I have been pissed by the lack of any response by the President, Speaker Ryan, and Majority Leader McConnell. They have failed. Time for them to get off their ass, develop a spine, and do what is right for those they serve and not the gun lobby. This can be fixed and the time to do so has already passed. Enough is enough. I am thankful for the opportunities that I have had to work with elected leaders on getting something done. This week I was in Ohio and they asked why they should do something as the citizens are not pushing for it. I told them that was a good thing as it means Parkland did not happen in Ohio. I said do not use that as a false sense of security as it is only a matter of time until the next one. Now the next one happened. I hope our President, the Speaker, and the Majority leader get serious and are ready to speak with me about doing something.

Max Schachter lost his son Alex in Parkland. He’s launched a task force through his foundation, Safe Schools for Alex, that is working to strengthen security measures at schools—an effort that’s happening with input from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. “If we don’t harden the schools,” he said in an interview Friday, “we’re going to continue to have the slaughter of our future leaders and teachers.” He also criticized how media outlets cover mass shootings:

I feel terrible for the parents and the community. I know what we went through. I know what they’re going to go through. They’re basically in the depths of hell right now. There’s nothing I can say—it’s just horrible. I feel bad that all the things we’ve been trying to do since the disaster here couldn’t prevent it.

[…]

It just renews the sense of urgency in my mind, and I hope in the rest of the country, that we need to harden the schools. For the last 19 years since Columbine, we’ve done the same thing, and nothing has changed. We’ve focused on mental health and prevention. And while those are important, if we don’t harden the schools, we’re going to continue to have the slaughter of our future leaders and teachers. It’s inconceivable why we have not hardened the structures. After 9/11, they hardened the cockpits and the airports, and that has worked. After Oklahoma City, they hardened the federal buildings, and that has worked. They have not hardened the schools, and we’ve continued to see attack after attack after attack.

[…]

One thing that has been consistent with all of these tragedies is that it’s been well-reported that all of these killers seek notoriety, fame, and celebrity status from these mass killings. We need to prevent that from happening. I need all the media’s help to stop publicizing their names. If we stop publicizing their names, they will not be famous anymore. They are not an individual anymore, they are a monster, and we need to call them “The Monster from Santa Fe.” We need to call them out for what they are. They are not human beings anymore. The media is enabling them—they’re adding fuel to the fire and they are part of the problem. They need to stop using their names and call them what they are, and they’re monsters.

Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina in the Parkland shooting, offered condolences over Twitter as he awaited more information. Petty participated in a roundtable discussion Thursday with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other families affected by school shootings. The discussion was intended to inform the work of DeVos’ school safety commission. Petty announced earlier this week that he and Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter Alyssa in the shooting, are running for seats on the Broward County School Board.

April Schentrup, whose daughter Carmen died in Parkland, also took to Twitter, sharing her condolences and demanding gun reform:

Last month, Schentrup’s husband, Phil, attended a school safety forum hosted by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R) and put forth a passionate plea for officials to take action.

https://twitter.com/karavoght/status/986724876403830785

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate