Aidan Minoff Kept World Informed Of Florida School Shooting On Twitter — As It Unfolded
Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Image by MICHELE EVE SANDBERG/AFP/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink February 15, 2018
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was on lockdown during the school shooting on Wednesday that left 17 people dead and many more wounded. But the outside world was able to learn what was happening in real time because of the Twitter posts of freshman Aidan Minoff.
His tweets were shared thousands of times.
My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. I’m fucking scared right now. pic.twitter.com/mjiEmPvGNb
— Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018
Minoff told the Miami Herald that he was taking a math test when he heard a series of pops. “We thought maybe it was firecrackers,” he recounted. “Until we heard screaming and people, not falling, but crashing when they were barricading the door. We knew it wasn’t a joke anymore.”
Still locked in. I checked the local news and there is 20 victims. Long live Majory Stoneman Douglas High. pic.twitter.com/4kQMAlCBWt
— Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018
Students were herded to the far side of the room, away from the door, until a SWAT team busted in and evacuated them.
Afterwards, Minoff was interviewed by local and national news. The widespread visibility of his tweets led some to believe that he was part of a conspiracy theory.
Put on your tinfoil hats, boys and girls. pic.twitter.com/WEdHuSum4d
— Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 15, 2018
This is not the first time Minoff showed off his journalistic chops: In elementary school, he started a website called the “Minoff Times” that provided updates about his family life.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
