Florida State University Shooting: Echoes of Trauma from Parkland
On a tragic Thursday afternoon at Florida State University (FSU), chaos erupted near a student union building as a shooting unfolded, leaving two people dead and six others injured. The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, is a student at the university and the son of a sheriff’s deputy.
A Haunting Familiarity
Stephanie Horowitz, a 22-year-old graduate student at FSU, found herself in an unusually familiar, yet horrifying situation. While she didn’t see the gunman or hear the shots, the atmosphere on campus invoked memories of her past experience during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, seven years ago. “You could almost see the silence,” she recounted, reflecting on the eerie sight of abandoned belongings like open laptops and bags. “I knew what that meant. I’ve done this before.”
Two School Shootings: A Shared Trauma
Horowitz is part of a select group of individuals who have had the traumatic experience of facing two school shootings in their formative years. “You never think it’s going to happen to you the first time, you certainly never think it’s going to happen to you twice,” she noted, underscoring the grim reality of school violence in America.
A Student’s Reflection
Logan Rubenstein, now 21, was in eighth grade when he had to shelter in place at his middle school during the earlier shooting in Parkland. After the FSU shooting, he expressed a deep sense of responsibility, stating, “What we went through, we made it our mission to ensure this could never happen again. And I’m sorry that we weren’t good enough because now this is the second shooting that I’ve had to go through.”
Impacts of Repeated Trauma
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, which took place on Valentine’s Day in 2018, was one of the most devastating school shootings in U.S. history, resulting in the deaths of 17 individuals. Experts like Jaclyn Schildkraut, who leads a gun violence research initiative at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, highlight the mental toll on those like Horowitz and Rubenstein. “Experiencing multiple school shootings could prolong a person’s emotional healing process,” she explained, noting that survivors often feel as if their progress in recovery is erased.
Parental Concerns
Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was killed in the Parkland incident, experienced a fresh wave of panic upon receiving a text from her son Robbie, informing her of the active shooter situation at FSU. “It’s never the message that you want to get, that there’s a shooter at your child’s school,” she said, describing the trauma reactivated in her family. Fortunately, Robbie had left the student union just before the shooting took place, but Alhadeff emphasized the urgent need for change: “This should not be normal. We need to do better.”
Conclusion
The recent shooting at Florida State University serves as a haunting reminder of the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in schools. As students and families grapple with the aftermath, the call for meaningful change in gun laws and safety measures remains louder than ever. The echoes of past tragedies are not easily forgotten, and it is imperative that society responds with compassion and action to prevent such incidents from becoming a recurring narrative.
