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For Parkland seniors, high school years bookended by tragedy

Photo: MChe Lee
Photo: MChe Lee

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Class of 2021 has endured a high school experience bookended by tragedies.

It's an experience that will likely never be rivaled.

The Parkland school shooting happened just months into their freshman year, in 2018. The experience bonded and inextricably linked them as they hid from a gunman and 17 people were killed.

Now they're seniors.

Their high school time is ending with another life-altering event. This time, it's the pandemic.

Many students expressed difficulty even walking by the freshmen building where the Valentine’s massacre unfolded. They're finding the balance between mourning a tragedy, while being bound by a duty to move forward for themselves and those who died.