Parkland shooting survivors feel same terror at FSU: 'Something has to change'
FSU senior Jason Leavy has survived mass shootings at two different schools in seven years.
Florida State University senior Jason Leavy was listening to his girlfriend give a presentation for class when the alert went out that an active shooter was reported near the Student Union.
He barricaded the door with a table, the second time in seven years that he has taken protective measures against a gunman on his school campus.
“I was farther away this time than when I was a freshman at (Marjory) Stoneman Douglas,” Leavy said. “I was in the building when it happened, so this is a bit of a different experience for me, but it's still equally as upsetting.”
Leavy was a freshman in high school when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at the high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Cruz killed 17 people and injured 18 more.
The experience led him to major in psychology at FSU and learn more about post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental health condition that affected him personally and others he knows.
Now two weeks from graduation he is reliving many of the same feelings he experienced then, but surprise is not one of them.
“It's disappointing that it feels like nothing has changed and nothing will continue to change,” Leavy said. “I've said over the last four years it wouldn't be that surprising if it happened to me twice in the same state. It's the least surprising thing in the world honestly.”
Leavy attended the college’s vigil at Langford Green to honor the victims shot by Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old FSU student and the stepson of a Leon County sheriff's deputy, who police say used his stepmother's gun to go on a shooting rampage on Florida State University's Tallahassee campus.
He killed Tiru Chabba, a 45-year-old father and executive for campus vendor Aramark, and Robert Morales, a beloved high school football coach who worked in the university's dining services department.
Six others were wounded and are expected to recover.
'There's been no initiative, no solution'
A two-time mass shooting survivor, Leavy wonders how many more vigils like it there will be and said he is more upset that his girlfriend, younger brother and friends at FSU have now experienced for the first time the same heartbreak and terror he has gone through twice.
“The word I keep going back to is frustrating or pathetic from the government that even if you disagree that guns are the issue, there's clearly an issue and there's been no initiative, there's been no solution,” Leavy said. “We don't have the ability to change things if the people in power don't want to change things. It feels like they don't care, that there should have been a line crossed a long time ago.”
He points to HB 759 currently before the Florida Legislature, as an example. The bill seeks to reverse bi-partisan legislation passed after the Parkland school shooting that raised the legal age to buy a gun to 21 and lower it to 18.
The House passed the bill after some debate and sent it to the Florida Senate for consideration where it is awaiting action.
Leavy agrees with the constitutional right to own guns but would like to see legislation that addresses who can have them and what types of guns they can have.
“I think that's common sense,” Leavy said, “and even if you disagree, there needs to be a solution because it seems like certain people say, ‘It is what it is, we have to accept it,’ and I don't want to accept children dying, personally. I don't know if it's lobbying, I don't know if it's political pressure, I don't know what it is, but it just continues and continues and it feels like it's never going to change.”
'Never thought it would hit close to home again'
Joshua Gallagher, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, also described the moments he found himself in the middle of another school campus shooting, this time at Florida State University.
In a post to the social media platform X, he said he was in FSU's law library when a gunman opened fire in the student union April 17.
“After living through the MSD shooting in 2018, I never thought it would hit close to home again,” Gallagher wrote. “Then I’m in the FSU Law Library and hear an alarm: active shooter on campus. No matter your politics, we need to meet − and something has to change. Prayers to the victims and families.”
Students running, books and laptops left behind
Stephanie Horowitz, who is seeking a master's degree at FSU and is a former Stoneman Douglas student, told "CBS Mornings" on April 18 that she was on campus teaching a bowling class for credit when some students peered out glass doors and observed other students running.
Horwitz said she looked into a room and saw laptop computers and other personal belongings left behind. Based on her experience from Parkland, she suspected an active-shooter situation.
“There was not a soul in sight,” she told CBS. “You looked out into that room and you knew that there was an emergency. There was not anything there, no movement, dead silence and laptops open, bags on the floor. I knew what that meant.”
Robbie Alhadeff is an FSU student whose sister, Alyssa, died in the Parkland shooting. He told ABC News he was walking back to his apartment, about a two-minute drive from the student union, when friends began texting him about the shooting.
"I thought this would never happen again, but it continuously keeps happening and something has to change," he said.
How to help FSU victims in wake of mass shooting
The FSU Foundation set up a Student Emergency Fund to provide financial support to students and families affected by the shooting.
While donations can’t be earmarked, they will be used to assist the injured, families of victims killed in the shooting, and impacted students.
Donations can be made by clicking over to give.fsu.edu.