Four of the Parkland Shooting Victims Have Posthumously Graduated

The graduation ceremony focused on honouring the school's shooting victims.

On 14 February, the lives of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) high school were tragically cut short, after a fellow student killed them with an automatic rifle. Of those 17 victims, four were seniors and today was their graduation day.

To commemorate their lives, the school decided to posthumously award the students with diplomas, which were tragically accepted by their family or friends.

The principal welcomed the crowd of students and said that the ceremony would honour the four seniors, Joaquin Oliver, Carmen Schentrup, Meadow Pollack and Nicholas Dworet, who were not among them.

While Carmen's mother could not attend the event due to her grief, the parents of Joaquin and the brother of Meadow took the stage to accept their diplomas.

🎓 Notable, Trump tweeted all day but not once acknowledged that the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting are graduating today, accept for the 4 seniors not walking the stage bc they were killed in their school🧡
Show integrity & respect, @realDonaldTrump#MSDStrong pic.twitter.com/xyk4OynorY

— Dawn Young-McDaniel (@justdawn_) June 3, 2018

Among the guest speakers was The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, who praised the students for turning tragedy into triumph and starting a powerful youth movement across the country and the world.

"You took something horrific and instead of letting it stop... you started a movement," Jimmy Fallon told the students.

"Not just here in Florida, not just in America, but throughout the whole world. The whole world has heard your voice, and that was you making a choice."

In the wake of the shooting, the students of the high school have banded together to protest the inaction of politicians on gun control legislation.

One student, Emma Gonzalez, has given numerous rousing speeches at anti-gun rallies and MSD student reporter, David Hogg, has campaigned to call out supporters of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

But with the NRA's incoming president calling for less Ritalin and less movie violence to curb school shootings, we can only hope that their brave work gets through to the people who can actually effect change.

Photo: Twitter (@MWrightReports)