Harris plans to visit the Parkland school where 14 kids were killed in 2018

Vice President Harris will visit Parkland, Fla., this month to walk the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with family members of victims killed in a mass shooting there in 2018.

The massacre killed 14 students and 3 adults, and wounded 17 others. It is one of the deadliest school shootings on record in the United States, and it sparked a groundswell of student activism calling for tougher gun laws.

On March 23, Harris — who oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — will visit the building with family members, who will show the vice president the path the shooter took, and where their loved ones were killed, a White House official told NPR exclusively.

The building is set to be demolished this summer

The building, one of several on campus, is set to be demolished this summer. It had been left largely untouched after the shooting – with bullet holes in the classroom doors and blood from the victims dried on the floor — to preserve evidence needed for the trial of the shooter.

The vice president wanted to be able to visit the school with families before it was torn down, the White House official said. Preparations for the demolition are already taking place and soon, access inside the building will be cut off.

Other government officials have also walled through the building, including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in January, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers last year.

Harris has talked about gun violence prevention on college campuses

Harris has been making a case for tougher gun laws during events at the the White House and at stop on the road as the White House ramped up its work on gun violence prevention in recent months.

In September, President Biden tapped Harris to lead his