A second student who survived the Parkland school shooting died in apparent suicide Saturday night, the Coral Springs Police Department confirmed, less than a week after a 19-year-old woman who survived the shooting that left 17 people dead killed herself.
The latest student, who has only been officially described as currently attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, died Saturday and the death was being investigated as a suicide, Coral Springs police told The Daily Beast.
Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, whose district includes Parkland, told The Daily Beast that the victim is a 17-year-old boy who was a sophomore at the high school.
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It will be up to the Broward County medical examiner’s office to determine an exact cause of death. The Miami Herald first reported the student's death.
“The investigation is still going,” police spokesman Officer Tyler Reik told The Daily Beast, adding that police department detectives “are working with the family.”
Udine said that he will be at a 2 p.m. meeting to discuss “more proactive actions” toward mental health issues in the wake of these suicides.
The suicide comes less than a week after Sydney Aiello, who recently graduated from Marjory Stoneman, killed herself. Aiello reportedly had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
The suicides of two Parkland survivors come amid intensifying turmoil at the school. Principal Ty Thompson is reportedly under investigation as the school district probes circumstances surrounding the massacre.
While Thompson will stay at the school to help recovery efforts, the inquiry is poised to anger students, many of whom consider him to have been key to their healing, according to CBS Miami.
Kyra Parrow, who survived the Marjory Stoneman massacre, slammed school staffers’ handling of students’ grief in a series of Tweets.
“Throw back to when my teacher told me to put my grief in a box to finish my paper,” Parrow said, continuing that after she experienced “the deadliest high school mass shooting in American history & forced to attend to the same campus two weeks later. I remember at one point I couldn’t bare to write my paper. I went to my teacher - she proceeds to tell me to put my grief in a box to complete it.”
Parkland survivor and March for Our Lives leader David Hogg tweeted about the suicides, criticizing school and government officials for not doing enough.
“How many more kids have to be taken from us as a result of suicide for the government / school district to do anything?” Hogg tweeted Sunday morning.
Matt Deitsch, a March for Our Lives organizer, wrote “De-stigmatize mental health so that we can work at preventing trauma instead of comparing trauma.”
Aiello was found dead a week ago and her death was reported Friday.
Sydney’s mother told CBS Miami last week that her daughter had been enrolled in college, but was struggling to attend classes because due to fear of entering a classroom.
Sydney was close friends with Meadow Pollack, who was one of the 17 people killed at the school on Feb. 14, 2018, after accused shooter Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle. Cruz, 19, is currently being detained in Broward County jail.
Pollack’s father, Andrew, urged students to seek help.
“Two MSD survivors took their own lives this week. This isn’t political, these are OUR KIDS! Our most precious commodities. Students, please seek help. I don’t want any parent to feel how I feel. You’re loved. Suicide Prevention Hotline:800-273-8255” he wrote on Twitter Sunday.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Read it at Miami Herald
