David Hogg Was At Home During Parkland School Shooting-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Rumors that David Hogg was at home at the time of the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School circulated after Hogg became an outspoken advocate for gun law reform.
The Truth:
False claims that David Hogg was at home during the Parkland school shooting stem from a statement Hogg made during an interview with CBS that was taken out of context, either accidentally or intentionally.
Confusion stemmed from a comment appearing in the CBS documentary “38 Days.” David Hogg said: “On the day of the shooting, I got my camera and got on my bike and rode as fast as I could three miles from my house to the school to get as much video and to get as many interviews as I could because I knew that this could not be another mass shooting.” Taken out of context, the quote made it appear that Hogg wasn’t at the Parkland school shooting. However, the documentary makes clear that Hogg was referring to riding back to school that evening at 6 p.m.
David Hogg was at school in an A.P. environmental science class when the shooting happened. Hogg explained how events unfolded in an interview with TIME magazine. The post also includes a video that was taken during the shooting. In it, Hogg and his classmates are huddled inside a dark closet trying to hide.
False reports that David Hogg wasn’t at the school during the shooting spread across right-wing media outlets in late March. The conspiracy first appeared on sites like InfoWars and Gateway Pundit. Later, RedState, a conservative blog site with wide readership picked up the story, and it went viral. The website later posted an update stating, “This video shows Hogg apparently in a closet during the shooting.” Author Sarah Rumpf also called the initial report “a mistake” and apologized in a follow-up post.
In conclusion, claims that David Hogg was at home during the school shooting are false.