Teacher says she's forever damaged
“You don’t know me, but you tried to kill me,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher Stacy Lippel said to Nikolas Cruz in court.
“I will have a scar on my arm and the memory of you pointing your gun at me engrained in my brain forever. The person I was at 2:20 on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, is not the same one who stands here today. I am broken and altered and I will never look at the world the same way again,” Lippel said. “A part of me is damaged and I can feel how different I am.”
She said she struggles with trust, is always thinking about the worst-case scenario, and is left with guilt, wishing she could have done more to save her colleagues and students. She said her husband’s and children’s innocence were stripped away, too.
Lippel said she’s “disgusted” that Cruz was spared the death penalty.
“My hope for you is that you die sooner rather than later,” calling him a “monster.”
After Lippel’s statement, Judge Elizabeth Scherer called her a “hero.”