(Fred Guttenberg is the father of Jaime Guttenberg, who was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.)
My daughter Jaime was killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. She was 14. Since then, not a day has gone by that our family has not been forced to relive the memory of Jaime’s murder. We battle grief every day. No parent should ever have to bury their child, but losing Jaime in such an unspeakably horrific way was worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
After Jaime’s murder, my family and those of the other 16 shooting victims received overwhelming sympathy and support from our community and from across the country, including from politicians like Rick Scott who promised to take action. In fact, Scott attended my daughter’s funeral and we worked to pass bipartisan legislation. I should be his biggest supporter.
Sadly, this was not the only response. Like previous mass shootings, Parkland provoked conspiracy theories from dark corners of the internet. The most widespread conspiracy alleged that students who witnessed the shooting were paid actors. Some concluded that the shooting was a hoax — that my daughter was not actually dead.