Student who survived both FSU and Parkland shootings describes rushing peers to safety: ‘This is America’
A brave Florida State University student guided her peers to safety as the deadly school shooting unfolded Thursday — using skills she learned from surviving the harrowing Parkland massacre more than seven years ago, she said.
“I never thought it would happen to me for the first time, and here we are,” FSU masters student Stephanie Horowitz told CBS News.
“Unfortunately, this is America for you.”
Horowitz — who was 15 years old when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018, killing 17 — was teaching a class at the campus bowling alley Thursday when several undergrads spotted students running outside.
She peered into a nearby room and saw people had frantically left behind their belongings — including laptops and backpacks — as they bolted, she said.
She’d seen the same thing happen when Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz,19, opened fire on Feb. 14, 2018 — so she sprang to action.
“I just started to direct everybody into the back room to safety until I got further information, but I had a feeling that it was an active shooter situation before I even heard,” she said.
“You looked out into that [other] room and you knew there was an emergency. There was not anything there, no movement, dead silence and laptops, opened bags on the floor. I knew what that meant.”
After surviving the Parkland shooting as a high school freshman, Horowitz suffered from anxiety for years.
“After that day, I kind of woke up every morning thinking that it could be my last,” she said. “I was afraid for my life, every step that I took.”
Despite being forced to relive the nightmare, she confidently took charge because she was the leader of the class, she said.
“I was responsible for almost 30 students because I was the instructor. So I was looking out for their best interests and keeping them safe, and soon, I’ll be able to process things myself,” Horowitz said.
Two other students who survived both the FSU and Parkland shootings have spoken out following the attack Thursday — including Joshua Gallagher, an FSU law student.
“After living through the MSD shooting in 2018, I never thought it would hit close to home again. Then I’m in the FSU Law Library and hear on alarm: active shooter on campus,” he tweeted Thursday. “No matter your politics, we need to meet — and something has to change.”
FSU senior Ilana Badiner, 21, said she huddled in the student union basement with about 30 people during the rampage.
In 2018, her middle school — located right next to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — was placed on lockdown for four hours as gunfire rang out during the mass shooting, according to The New York Times.
“It was the same situation today, where people were just on the phones calling everybody and there were people crying,” she said. “It’s terrible that this keeps happening.”
On Thursday, Phoenix Ikner, 20, allegedly killed two people and wounded five others before he was shot by officers. He is expected to survive.
In Parkland, 17 people — including 14 students — were killed and 17 people were injured in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.
