Shooting at FSU prompts reevaluation of campus safety measures
Florida State University students marched to the Capitol on April 23, 2025, less than a week after a gunman opened fire on their campus, calling for legislation on guns and school safety. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
The state's universities will reevaluate door locks and lockdown protocol as a result of a statewide safety reevaluation prompted by the April 17 shootings at Florida State University that killed two people.
State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues told the Florida Board of Governors Thursday that he has instructed each institution to, over the summer, 'assess the security of their buildings and the ability to execute a lockdown drill.'
'Specifically, we want to know if the doors can be locked from the inside and, if there are windows in the doors, can those be covered or protected?' Rodrigues said during the virtual meeting.
FSU students come to Capitol with asks following campus shooting
The idea, Rodrigues said, is to understand the needs of each university in time to make budget requests to the Legislature for the 2026 session.
A petition on change.org has nearly 32,000 signatures advocating for locks on FSU classroom doors after some people on campus reported doors students barricaded behind while the shooter walked the campus could not lock.
System leaders are planning a 'safety summit' in October to share institutions' assessments and suggest best practices.
The Florida Department of Education hosted Florida's National Summit on School Safety in February, focusing on policies implemented since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people.
'This is an active criminal case. We know what's in the arrest report. We know what the media has reported. When the trial is completed, everything will be out,' Rodrigues said.
'I feel confident in saying the response of the FSU campus police in this situation was nothing short of amazing, and this could have been a much, much worse tragedy than it was — obviously tragic to have students shot and to have any loss of life. But the quick response of the FSU campus police prevented this from being much, much, much worse than it could have been.'
Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old FSU student, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder after he was released from the hospital.
He had been there since the day of the shooting, recovering from a gunshot wound to his jaw. Ikner is being held in Wakulla County jail south of Tallahassee.
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