The principal of the Parkland, Florida high school where a tragic shooting took place on Valentine’s Day recently sent out a message to students, telling them, “I will hug each and every one of you as many times as you need.”
In an emotional video posted online, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School principal Ty Thompson said, “My heart is breaking for the victims’ families and our entire Stoneman Douglas community.”
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“Eagles, I promise you, I will hug each and every one of you as many times as you need and I will hold you as long as you need me to — for all 3,300 of you and your families — and we will get through this together,” he continued.
“We lost 17 lives on Valentine’s Day. That’s supposed to be the international Day of Love,” Thompson added. “We’re going to take the love that we got lost on Wednesday and we’re going to spread that over the next days, weeks, months and maybe even years.”
Confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the fatal shooting at his former high school.
In the wake of a tragic school shooting in Florida, both the U.S. Attorney General and Florida Governor have called for a review of mental health reforms.
Florida Governor Rick Scott spoke during a joint news conference.
“Next week in Tallahassee, I’m going sit down with state leaders, we’re going have a real conversation about two things: How do we make sure when a parent is ready to send their child to school, in Florida, that parent knows that child is going to be safe?” Scott said.
“Number two: How do we make sure that this individual with mental illness does not touch a gun? We need to have a real conversation so we have public safety for our schools in this state,” Scott continued.
“They’re committed to provide the resources and have a real conversation about how do we make sure we have public safety. I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren, yours, everybody in this state, can wake up and be safe. I’m going to stay here and do everything I can,” Scott later added.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also spoke, according to ABC News, calling for “effective enforcement of our gun laws — focusing on criminals and dangerous people, mentally ill people.”
“So today I’ve directed my office of Legal Policy to work with our partners at Health and Human Services, Education, Homeland Security, and across this administration to study the intersection of mental health and criminality and identify how we can stop people capable of such heinous crimes,” Sessions added.
