Thursday's shooting at Florida State University has reopened wounds for University of Florida students who survived a previous school shooting.
Lexie Sealy, a UF senior, said the FSU shooting caused her to revisit a memory that has taken years for her to cope with. She attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and was at school the day of the shooting Feb. 14, 2018.
She lost two of her closest friends, Jamie Guttenberg and Cara Loughran, both 14, with whom she grew up taking dancing lessons.
Sealy is not the only Eagle alumni who was reminded of the past. Marjory Stoneman Douglas alumni attending FSU had to live through another school shooting.
"My first thought was, I can't even imagine having to relive that life again," Sealy said. "And sometimes it just made me really reflect. Sometimes I think, 'I can't believe I lived through that, but, what are the odds I lived through that again.'"
Tallahassee police say Phoenix Ikner, 20, the son of a Leon County sheriff's deputy, used one of his mother's weapons to kill two people and wound six others on the FSU campus. This tragedy, on a campus just over two hours from UF, has affected students differently.
Sealy said she could understand the fear and confusion FSU students experienced on Thursday because seven years ago she was in their shoes. The Parkland high school shooting, in which 17 people were killed, was one of the worst in American history. Sealy, who was in the building next to where the shooting took place, heard the gunshots.
"I remember the whole class, we all collectively heard it," Sealy said. "And obviously you don't jump to the conclusion of like 'oh, that was a gunshot,' especially because the high school was in a very safe, good area. It was a very affluent area too, so none of us had ever heard a gunshot before."
After hearing the news about the shooting at FSU, Sealy said she immediately contacted her friends at FSU to make sure they were OK. She was relieved they answered in a timely manner, so she knew they were not harmed.
In the Parkland shooting, Sealy was unable to get in contact with her friend Jamie Guttenberg, which gave her an instinct that she was one of the victims.
"I remember Jamie didn't answer her phone for 45 minutes, and that was enough to tell me, before it was announced or before her body had been identified, she's gone," Sealy said. "Like, I just knew it because I know her. I know that she would always answer her phone."
The tragedy at FSU has reopened other memories of the unimaginable event she experienced. The Parkland shooting has affected her daily life. When she listens to music with her friends and hears a beat drop, she experiences moments where her heart sinks. In class, she chooses seats closest to the nearest exit.
"Where can I sit in the classroom and feel safe and comfortable, so that my PTSD and my anxiety aren't at high alert?" Sealy said. "Because it's impossible for me to focus during class if all I'm thinking about is: 'If a shooter came into my classroom right now, would I be safe sitting in this seat? What are the odds that I would make it out alive?' So that's an external reality that I deal with."
Sealy said UF feels safe thanks to the number of UFPD circling campus and blue emergency systems, but she is always an advocate for more safety.
Other UF students feel similarly that UF does a good job keeping the campus safe. Mansi Patel, a UF student, believes there is not much more the school could do.
"I think that really it is just a governmental issue," Patel said.
James Biondi, a PhD candidate, was devastated to hear about the tragedy but not surprised as this has been an ongoing issue.
"It's naturally shocking because of the proximity as it's not far from us, so it's always going to resonate a bit more," Biondi said.
"But also sadly it's not a surprise because this is indicative of something that's more endemic to the country. So unfortunately, I see it as just a continuity of the cycle of shootings, not just at universities, but all throughout K through 12 and out in the open."
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