FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – They were baptized by gunfire their freshman year, bonded as they spent hours hiding under desks, inextricably linked by tragedy.
For the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Class of 2021, high school would never be about Friday night football and innocent first kisses.
Seventeen students and staff were killed in the 2018 Valentine's Day shooting. As the Parkland students struggled to define high school apart from tragedy, their senior year has been punctuated by the coronavirus pandemic, upending their lives once again.
The majority are isolated at home on a computer, their hard-fought normal routines altered and their support systems splintered.