Content warning: This story is about gun violence.
Just after noon on April 17, Florida State University sent an alert urging students to shelter in place due to a report of an active shooter on campus. Soon, the entire student body was aware that tragedy had struck at their school: As of April 18, two people are reported dead and six are being treated in the hospital with injuries, including the alleged shooter, who is reportedly a 20-year-old FSU student and the son of a sheriff’s deputy.
Enduring an active shooter situation is undoubtedly one of the most traumatizing things a student can face while at school. Now in the aftermath of something no student should ever have to experience, FSU students are processing, grieving, and putting the pieces of their lives back together. While some are doing this privately or with loved ones, many FSU students have actually taken to social media to make sure the world knows what they experienced, with many demanding change so that it doesn’t happen again.
“Yesterday I was stressed about graduation, today I hid underneath a table and texted my loved ones in case the shooter came into my building,” one student named Kaela wrote on her video, which also called for better gun control in the country. At this time of year on any given college campus, students are buzzing about the end of the year, which is typically filled with final exams and end-of-year festivities like formals and banquets. The fact that their reality has shifted from that into one of grieving is heartbreaking for these students.
Many FSU students have pointed out just how shocking it was for one of their average school days to take such an unexpected, horrifying turn. One student was actually making a “Day In My Life” video the day of the shooting; it starts out as a normal day as she shows viewers her breakfast, but then it moves into videos of students evacuating and police cars with the words “School Shooting” over the footage. In the caption of the video, the creator said, “I’m still in disbelief.” Another student named Elizabeth wrote on her own video, “Waking up preparing for class, the next minute standing at a memorial praying.”
A heartbreaking reality for some FSU students was the fact that this actually was not their first time experiencing a school shooting. There are students at FSU who experienced the 2018 Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and have now been through another one at their college. One FSU student named Arizel made a video saying, “As a Parkland native and now an FSU student, today’s tragedy hit far too close — again. No student should ever have to feel this fear let alone twice. FSU won’t ever be the same — a piece of our peace is gone.”
Many students have taken to TikTok as a way to demand stricter gun control policies, and also to wonder if what they’ve just been through will finally be enough in order to bring these changes about. In a video posted on TikTok, a student named Abby said, “Protested gun violence in Tallahassee at 15, now I’m 22 and my FSU classroom is a ‘crime scene’… When is it enough?” Another student named Amanda shared her experience during the shooting, and declared that this should not be happening at schools.”I’m really grateful that I was able to come home today, but I’m angry because this shouldn’t be happening anymore,” she said. “Kids shouldn’t be getting killed at school.”