‘You’re already changing the world’: Biden gives surprise speech at Parkland graduation

President Joe Biden on Tuesday surprised graduates of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a speech praising their resolve after surviving a mass shooting and the Covid pandemic.

“Three years ago, your lives and the lives of this community changed in an instant. This class lost a piece of its soul,” Biden said in video remarks, referring to the 2018 massacre that killed 17 people and injured 17 others at the Broward County, Fla., high school. “You’ve been tested in ways no young person should ever have to face.”

“From a freshman year, a year of unspeakable loss, to a junior and senior year upended by a pandemic, the story of this class and the Parkland community isn’t just a story of pain. It’s a story of resilience, turning pain to purpose, darkness to light,” the president continued. “This is the legacy you’re building, the legacy you’ll continue to build.”