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Photo by J.D. Casto
An interim memorial set up at the former Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Some survivors from Orlando’s Pulse nightclub shooting and allies say they feel disrespected and insulted after pointing out that a mediator hired by the city to lead discussions on a Pulse memorial appears to have taken inspiration from discussion questions from a lesson plan designed for grade-school students.
In a Tuesday email sent to those who have requested email updates on the development of Pulse memorial project, Dr. Larry Schooler — a professional mediator hired by the city — shared proposed discussion questions for the inaugural Pulse Memorial Committee meetings this week, along with information for how to join the meetings virtually or in-person.
Three out of the five questions Dr. Schooler lists, vaguely addressing the concept of a memorial, appear to have been taken word-for-word from a lesson plan developed by a Boston-based charity to discuss the aftermath of a 2017 “Unite the Right” rally organized by white nationalists over the removal of a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The five questions posed by Schooler, in his email update on Pulse discussions, include:
1. What do you remember feeling or thinking at memorials you have visited or seen? What feelings or thoughts did those memorials evoke?
2. What is the purpose of memorials and monuments?
3. What impact do they have on us and the way we think about history?
4. How can individuals and communities shape public memory and influence people’s beliefs and attitudes through the creation of memorials and monuments?
5. What message do you want to convey at the Pulse memorial? How does this message augment or challenge what others are likely to know about the historical idea, event, or individual?
For comparison, the questions posed in the school lesson plan, published in 2017, include:
1. What is the purpose of memorials and monuments?
2. What impact do they have on us and the way we think about history?
3. What can we learn from memorials and monuments about the beliefs and values of the people who created them?
4. How can individuals and communities shape public memory and influence people’s beliefs and attitudes through the creation of memorials and monuments?
The Charlottesville lesson plan doesn’t pertain to a mass shooting, or a memorial specifically, but explores the significance of historical symbols more broadly.
The charity’s lesson plan, titled “After Charlottesville: Public Memory and the Contested Meaning of Monuments,” is “designed to help students understand the role that memorials and monuments play in expressing a society’s values and shaping its memory of the past,” according to a lesson summary.
Some of the questions are also listed word-for-word in other class handouts or materials posted online on websites like CourseHero.
Schooler, when reached for comment by Orlando Weekly, explained over email that for these kinds of projects, he draws upon “best practices” from a “variety of sources.”
“The discussion agreements I use, for example, come from an organization called Conversation Cafe, and I use them as a template for groups to consider — sometimes they come up with their own, or add to the template, or just adopt it as is. I explicitly share with the group that the agreements came from a different organization, and the agreements have worked well over the years,” said Schooler.
Schooler acknowledged that facilitating a process like this “is very unique,” and added that for similar projects in the past, he has also drawn on work done by the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center.
“I recognize the importance of citing work I am using that comes from another source,” Schooler added. “I fully intend to make the Committee aware when I have borrowed from an outside source, in part so they can let me know if they have reservations about using that material.”
Zachary Blair, a victims advocate and former patron of Pulse who has been vocally critical of the city’s shooting response, described the use of questions from other materials as “absolutely insulting.”
“When I was reading these questions you sent out, I realized they have nothing to do with anything in Orlando, the 49 murdered victims, our memorial, mass violence, or what has happened to our community over the past 8 years,” Blair wrote in an emailed response to Dr. Schooler on Tuesday, forwarded to Orlando Weekly, with Orlando City Council members and shooting survivors cc’ed. “They are completely off base and irrelevant, which means you have no problem wasting the time of the families and survivors on your committee.”
Darelis Torres, a survivor of the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting, said she felt the apparent plagiarism was “disrespectful” and “very cruel.”
She applied for the new 18-member committee, when it was first announced last month, but was rejected. She, along with a group of other survivors and family members of victims, has been skeptical of the city’s plans for developing the committee since it was first announced earlier this year.
Last week, Torres says she had to go to urgent care for what turned out to be high blood pressure, an unusual condition for her, but one which she attributes to stress over the ordeal. For her, the latest development with Dr. Schooler’s questions are just a “reminder” of what she describes as repeated “gaslighting” from the city.
“It’s kind of sad, because I think we all knew this is what it was coming down to, but we didn’t think it was just going to be so blatantly done in our faces like that,” Torres told Orlando Weekly over the phone Wednesday.
Schooler was hired by the city in April to develop a “thoughtful, inclusive and efficient process” for the development of a Pulse memorial, a process that has been unsuccessful in the eight years since what was at the time the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. modern history.
According to the city, which is reportedly paying Schooler nearly $89,000 for the job, Schooler has worked on similar projects before, including the Virginia Beach 5-31 Memorial Committee and the San Leandro Steven Taylor Sanctity of Life Pavilion project.
One Pulse survivor described the apparent plagiarism as “cruel” and “disrespectful”
The city of Orlando took over the process of developing a Pulse memorial after a nonprofit organization formed by one of the club owners failed to deliver its own promised memorial more than seven years after the fact.
The OnePulse Foundation, founded by former club owner Barbara Poma, officially dissolved itself in disgrace on Dec. 31, 2023, following years of mismanagement, leaving the public on the hook for paying some of their bills.
A number of shooting survivors, and loved ones of shooting victims, have like Torres expressed skepticism over the city’s plans to finally build a memorial that truly honors the lives of the 49 victims who were killed by the shooter, their families, and those who survived.
“The committee for [a] pulse memorial is a joke,” Maritza Gomez, a survivor who has been critical of the city’s role in OnePulse’s botched memorial effort, told Orlando Weekly in a text Wednesday morning. “I think that the city of Orlando is playing games.”
Some city leaders had close ties to Poma, who officially separated herself from the OnePulse nonprofit last year, and survivors have questioned identified code violations at the nightclub that city staff were aware of ahead of the shooting. Survivors say several of these violations — including an unpermitted fence — thwarted clubgoers’ efforts to escape the night of the shooting.
The city, however, has denied that these issues posed a safety problem. “Pulse did not have a pattern of life safety issues, and in fact investigations did not show any meaningful violations,” Cassandra Bell, former press secretary for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, told Orlando Weekly last year.
After taking over the memorial process in December, Orlando city officials in June announced they would be creating an advisory committee to oversee the project, which a group of survivors and victims’ families argued should be made up entirely of survivors and loved ones of victims.
More than 150 people applied for the committee, according to the city, which tasked four community leaders with recommending member selections to Dyer. While more than half of the 18 selected committee members are either survivors or lost a friend or family member in the tragedy, others were chosen for their relevant professional experience, or for being indirectly affected.
Both Torres and fellow survivor Jorshua Hernandez told Orlando Weekly they believe the committee should have been more inclusive of victims’ family members who applied. “Every survivor or family member that applied that wants to be in that committee should be in that committee,” said Torres.
According to Hernandez, at least eight mothers of victims who applied for the committee were rejected — a move that he said “breaks my heart.”
“The most important thing is that those 8 missing mothers are in the committee,” Hernandez told Orlando Weekly in a text message. Meanwhile Blair, who has helped coordinate advocacy efforts, told Orlando Weekly that the majority of survivors and family members didn’t apply for the committee and do not want to be involved. Torres admitted she applied despite feeling as though it went against her values, because she wanted her voice to be heard in the process.
How to participate
The Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee will hold its first meetings this week on Wednesday and Thursday in the Hourglass Room at the Kia Center. The Wednesday meeting will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the Thursday meeting will last from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Meetings are open to the public to attend in-person or virtually.
You can find more information about the city’s memorial process, and how to attend the committee meetings at https://www.pulseorlando.org/Memorial/Participate.
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