Parkland Survivors Relive Trauma After FSU Shooting \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ Survivors of the Parkland massacre are once again grappling with trauma after a deadly shooting at Florida State University. Graduate student Stephanie Horowitz and others recognized the harrowing signs immediately. The tragedy has reignited calls for stronger action against gun violence in schools.
Quick Looks
- FSU graduate student Stephanie Horowitz immediately recognized the aftermath of a shooting
- Horowitz survived the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland
- Two people were killed and six others injured at FSU’s campus Thursday
- Gunman identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, a student and deputy’s stepson
- Parkland survivor Logan Rubenstein also caught in his second school shooting
- Experts say repeated trauma can severely hinder emotional recovery
- Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter in Parkland, panicked after learning her son was at FSU
- Alhadeff’s son was near the scene shortly before the shooting began
- Survivors say America must do more to prevent repeated tragedies
- FSU community now joins a growing list of institutions scarred by gun violence
Deep Look
When gunfire erupted on Florida State University’s campus this week, Stephanie Horowitz knew instantly what she was witnessing—even without hearing the shots or seeing the gunman. She had been here before, in a different place, at a different time, during a massacre that changed her life forever.
Back in 2018, Horowitz was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a lone gunman killed 17 classmates and staff, wounding 17 others, in what would become one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.
Now a 22-year-old graduate student at FSU, Horowitz once again found herself surrounded by chaos, this time from another mass shooting—this one in the heart of her college campus.
“You could almost see the silence,” she said in an emotional interview. “There was not a soul in sight, and belongings left behind like open laptops and bags. I knew what that meant because I’ve done this before. I know what the aftermath of a school shooting looks like.”
A Second Tragedy Strikes Familiar Ground
The shooting at Florida State University occurred just around lunchtime on Thursday, near the bustling student union, a place usually filled with chatter, laughter, and everyday student life.
But all of that changed in an instant when 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, a student at FSU and stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, opened fire, killing two people and injuring six others before being wounded by police. Authorities say his injuries are not life-threatening, and he remains hospitalized.
Horowitz, like many on campus, ran for safety—but for her, the fear had a cruel familiarity.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you the first time,” she said. “You certainly never think it’s going to happen to you twice. This is America.”
Parkland Echoes Across Campus
She is not the only survivor of Parkland now caught up in this new chapter of violence.
Logan Rubenstein, now a junior at Florida State, was in eighth grade at the time of the Parkland shooting. His school went into lockdown as the neighboring high school was attacked. That moment changed his outlook forever and became a defining part of his identity.
Now, seven years later, he was once again placed in the path of gun violence.
“What we went through, we made it our mission to ensure this could never happen again,” Rubenstein said. “And I’m sorry that we weren’t good enough, because now this is the second shooting that I’ve had to go through.”
The weight of those words illustrates the emotional burden that survivors carry—not just through their trauma, but through their advocacy, through their mourning, and through their deep sense of responsibility to change a system that keeps failing.
Experts Warn of Compounded Psychological Harm
According to Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, experiencing multiple mass shootings can severely disrupt emotional healing.
“It’s like all of that progress that you’ve made seemingly goes away,” she explained. “You’re right back at the starting line.”
That regression can be especially intense for young adults like Horowitz and Rubenstein, who are still building their adult identities while carrying the scars of past violence.
Survivors often experience PTSD symptoms, hypervigilance, survivor’s guilt, and recurring anxiety—symptoms that resurface or intensify when exposed to new traumatic events.
A Mother’s Panic Reignited
For Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, who was killed at Parkland in 2018, the FSU shooting wasn’t just a headline—it was a moment of personal dread. Her son Robbie, now an FSU student, texted her that there was an active shooter on campus.
“It’s never the message that you want to get,” she said. “Your brain just really starts to spin, and it’s traumatizing and obviously very triggering to me and my husband and my son.”
Robbie had been inside the student union just 20 minutes before the gunman arrived. He left before the violence started—but the proximity alone was enough to send Lori and her family back to that February day in 2018.
“I pray for the families that lost somebody yesterday,” she said. “But this should not be normal. This should not have been my son’s second experience with a school shooting. We need to do better.”
Why It Feels Like Nothing Has Changed
In the aftermath of Parkland, a movement surged: students like Emma González, David Hogg, and others demanded reform. Rallies were held, town halls were packed, and the March for Our Lives movement inspired a wave of civic engagement.
Laws changed in some states, including Florida. Red flag laws were passed, school safety measures updated, and mental health programs expanded. But national reforms stalled, and mass shootings—especially in schools—have continued at a staggering pace.
To survivors, the cycle feels endlessly cruel.
“This isn’t just bad luck. It’s a broken system,” said Rubenstein. “We’ve cried. We’ve marched. We’ve begged. And now here we are again.”
A Culture Desensitized to Tragedy
One of the most sobering aspects of repeated mass shootings is the increasing normalization of these events. News cycles move on. Politicians express condolences. Hashtags trend—and then fade.
But for those directly impacted, the grief lingers forever.
Horowitz and Rubenstein say they don’t want to be defined by trauma. But they also can’t ignore it, especially when it keeps finding them.
“I want to be hopeful,” Horowitz said. “But hope is hard when the people in charge treat this like it’s just another Thursday.”
What Comes Next?
Florida State University has offered grief counseling and canceled classes temporarily. But for some students, it’s not enough.
Survivors of past shootings are calling on lawmakers, university officials, and voters to treat this moment as a mandate—not just to grieve, but to act.
And for those like Horowitz, Rubenstein, and the thousands of others who have survived gun violence on school grounds, the hope is not just for healing—but for an end to the cycle.
Until then, the silence after the shots—the scattered laptops, the empty backpacks—remains a haunting, familiar scene they know all too well.
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