‘We owe our children better.' Parkland survivors traumatized again by FSU shooting

Miami Herald

18-04-2025

The shooting that left two people dead at Florida State University and several others wounded Thursday tragically threads to the survivors and loved ones of the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting seven years ago.
Some of the students who were at the school during the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting now attend Florida State. And family members of the Parkland victims now have children at the Tallahassee university.
'When I first got the FSU Alert via text message, my heart dropped. It's a feeling I know all too well, panic, fear, disbelief. No parent should ever have to experience this once, let alone twice,' said Lori Alhadeff.
The Broward County School Board member's daughter Alyssa was among the 17 people murdered by a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
READ MORE: Two dead, suspect in custody after sheriff's deputy's son opens fire at FSU
Alhadeff funneled her grieving into activism, founding Make Our Schools Safe, a nonprofit with the goal of curbing gun violence at schools.
Now, her son Robbie is an underclassman at FSU, and news of the violence at the college rushed in familiar dread to Alhadeff and her family.
'My immediate thoughts were: Is my son safe? Is this really happening again? It's every parent's worst nightmare, and for me, it was a horrifying déjà vu,' Alhadeff said.
Alhadeff was able to get in touch with her son, who she said is 'physically safe, but emotionally shaken, as are so many students and parents right now.'
'Even when there's no injury, the trauma of hearing shots fired or being on lockdown can leave lasting scars and trauma,' she added.
Police said Thursday's shooting was carried out by a student who opened fire at Florida State University's main campus with a handgun owned by his mother, a Leon County Sheriff's deputy. The suspect, Phoenix Ikner, shot eight people before he was shot by police and taken into custody, according to Tallahassee's police chief.
Cameron Kasky is a Parkland survivor and, as a result, a founding member of Never Again MSD, a gun-violence prevention group, as well as an organizer of the March 2018 March for Our Lives student protests calling for gun law reforms.
Asked by the Herald how he felt when hearing about what happened at FSU Thursday: 'Unsurprised.' And, he's pessimistic anything will change.
'This is what happens in Florida and all over our country. America is a very violent place, and people are not safe in schools,' Kasky said. 'When I see these shootings happen, I do not wonder how it could've happened, I reflect upon how inevitable it is.'
Kasky's classmate, David Hogg, now vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, has also been an outspoken gun control advocate since surviving Parkland, and was among the more visible faces in the March for Our Lives movement.
He told CBS News Thursday that the FSU shooting highlights the continued need for stronger laws, and he warned of the efforts among some Republicans in the Florida Legislature to roll back of reforms that were achieved in the wake of Parkland.
'There are a lot of students from Parkland at FSU, and what really bothers me is, in Florida, we worked in a bipartisan manner to pass reforms after Parkland,' he told CBS's Major Garrett. 'We passed a red flag law that has been used over 19,000 times to disarm people who were a risk to themselves and others.'
Hogg also said that the fact that many of his former classmates are reliving the horror of another mass shooting is a reason not to become complacent as the memory of what happened at FSU fades from the headlines.
'To go through something like this once, this is something that's not supposed to happen at all,' Hogg said. 'We act like these are natural disasters in this country. It's not. This doesn't happen in other countries.'
Fred Guttenberg's 14-year-old daughter Jaime was also killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
His son was also a student at the school and had to run away from the shooting to the shelter of a nearby restaurant.
Since then, Guttenberg has become an outspoken advocate for tougher gun laws, including those that would make it more difficult for young people to access firearms.
He noted that Cruz targeted the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglass, the 1200 building, and many of those first-year high schoolers are now months away from graduation at Florida State.
'Dozens of students who had to run through the carnage of the student union today at FSU today had to run through the carnage of the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglass. This is their second shooting. It's not normal,' Guttenberg said.
One Stoneman Douglas alum, Josh Gallagher, said on X that he was in the FSU law library when he heard 'active shooter' over an alarm.
'After living through the MSD shooting in 2018, I never thought it would hit close to home again,' Gallagher wrote. ' No matter your politics, we need to meet — and something has to change. Prayers to the victims and families.'
Alhadeff has a message for Florida lawmakers as this year's Legislative session nears its end: 'Enough is enough.'
'Thoughts and prayers are not a policy. We need real action, immediately. Every moment lawmakers delay, lives are on the line,' she said.
And, it's not just access to guns that is a problem, Alhadeff said. Policy makers also have to look at fortifying schools, colleges and universities, and pass laws that make it easier to identify people capable of causing widespread harm and death before they act, she said.
'Fund school safety at all levels. There needs to be a continuation of the Behavioral Threat Assessment process to include colleges and Universities. And fully fund mental health support,' Alhadeff said. 'Ensure every school has life-saving technology like panic buttons.'
'Stop the politics and start protecting our kids. We cannot become numb to this. We owe our children better.'