The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida. Credit: DenisTangneyJr / iStock
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April 25, 2025
In the wake of yet another tragic school shooting, MSD teacher and survivor Sarah Lerner asks the urgent question, “When is enough going to actually be enough?”—a searing reflection on gun violence, political apathy, and the heartbreaking reality her students now face for the second time.
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“Things like this take place.”
“I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment, I ran on the Second Amendment, among many other things, and I will always protect the Second Amendment.”
“The gun doesn’t do the shooting.”
These words were said on April 16, 2025, by Donald Trump in the hours following the Florida State University shooting. It’s clear from his hollow sentiments that he is completely out of touch with what’s going on in his country and state. He and all of the tone-deaf leaders once again speak in platitudes with their empty words and promises, and their “thoughts and prayers.” As has been said for years, we don’t want thoughts and prayers. We want policy, action and change.
I was in my classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on April 16. It was my planning period, and it was also second lunch. I had some students in my room, including my daughter. One of her friends, who is also one of my yearbook editors, came in, obviously upset. She doesn’t usually come to my room for lunch, so I asked her what was wrong. She blurted out that there was an active shooter at FSU. My heart dropped. One of her older brothers is a student at a different university in Florida. The other brother was a freshman at MSD in 2018.
About a half hour later, another student came in. Her two older sisters, both of whom I taught, are students at FSU. One ran to her apartment when the shooting began, and then got in her car and started driving to Georgia. The other ran into one of the gym showers and hid. I texted their mom to check in on things.
I reached out to Dan Daley, a state representative from my district who is a grad of both MSD and FSU. He ran out of his office at the Florida State Capitol when he heard the police and ambulances whiz by, but the scene was too close to when he was on-site immediately after the shooting at MSD. He had to go back inside his office.
I texted Nadia, an MSD Class of 2021 grad. She was in my journalism class as a freshman when the shooting happened in 2018. She’s at FSU, and was hiding in a classroom with her students. She teaches public speaking, and was waiting to be released by police. She texted me that “I just want to say I have so much respect and love for you and teachers everywhere, especially in situations like these.”
It was her words, “situations like these,” that got me. She’s now lived through a school shooting twice. Let that sink in. Seven years apart in the same state, students who experienced one of the most deadly school shootings in history have now just experienced another school shooting.
I reached out to all of the former MSD students I could who I know are now at or went to FSU. The stories were all the same. The stories are always the same. Insert city. Insert school. Insert location. It’s always the same. We become news reports. Sound bites.
It was her words, “situations like these,” that got me. She’s now lived through a school shooting twice. Let that sink in.
Kids are going to vigils. Again
Kids are running to hide. Again.
Kids are texting their parents. Again.
This hits way too close to home for me. I heard helicopters overhead at MSD shortly after news broke about the shooting at FSU. I was frantically texting people, listening to and consoling students. But this is what we do as parents, teachers and survivors. We check on everyone.
My son, who is a freshman at a university outside of Florida, worries constantly about something like this happening at his school. He is now not only the son of a school shooting survivor, but also now has friends and fellow MSD Class of 2024 grads who are school shooting survivors. People he’s known since sixth grade, who are at FSU have been added to the terrible club I was forced to join over seven years ago.
Not all of my MSD-FSU students were on campus in 2018. Some of them were impacted because they were on lockdown at the middle school next door. Some had friends, siblings or relatives inside MSD on that day.
FSU and Tallahassee have dealt with shootings on or near campus in 2014, 2018 and now in 2025. Videos have been coming out as they did at MSD in 2018. This time, there are descriptions of how students barricaded doors to protect themselves. They’re older now, more experienced in how to deal with a school shooter. This is where we are as a country.
The stories are always the same. Insert city. Insert school. Insert location. It’s always the same. We become news reports. Sound bites.
How can we feel safe anywhere?
The alleged shooter is said to be the son of a Leon County sheriff's deputy. He had access to her weapons. Safe storage saves lives. His mother should’ve known better than to leave anything within someone else’s reach. Florida passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act in the wake of the 2018 shooting, which raised the age to buy a gun to 21. It’s important to always remember the victims and survivors, and give no notoriety to the shooter(s).
Certain politicians want to make this a non-issue. The alleged shooter isn’t a drag queen, a liberal, an immigrant, a woman or a trans person. He is a white, registered Republican, who has espoused racist tropes for years. In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a Second Amendment Summer, which would be a new sales tax “holiday” on guns and ammunition. This is the state that allows carrying guns without a permit and has a history of so many shootings, I’ve lost count. We’ve faced the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 and MSD in 2018. Sure, let’s give people a break on buying more guns and more ammo. If it had been someone setting a Tesla on fire, that would be seen as an act of domestic terrorism. Opening fire on a university student union is just Thursday in America.
This is my 11th year at MSD. I’m one of about 80 faculty and staff who remain since the shooting in 2018. We have had two after-school lockdowns at MSD this school year alone. Not drills. Lockdowns.
Since January, the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention has been dissolved, and threats of dissolving the Department of Educations have been made. Parents are worrying. Are their kids safe anywhere? Students, teachers and school-based employees are afraid to go to school. Why are we expected to live this way?
After the shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., Abbey Clements (a Sandy Hook survivor), Sari Beth Rosenberg (a teacher in New York City) and I co-founded Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence. Our organization has grown to over 20,000 advocates and supporters. Teachers Unify is a grassroots movement of educators across America whose mission is to empower its constituents and supporters to demand that communities are safe from gun violence. We amplify the educator voice for change.
I host the Teachers Unify Podcast. I’ve spoken to hundreds of gun violence survivors across the country. Their stories, all of the stories, are so important to hear. The fact of the matter is, my organization shouldn’t exist. My podcast shouldn’t exist. I shouldn’t know any of these people. But, here we are. I feel it’s my mission and responsibility to amplify and share their stories.
Through the words of leaders and politicians, we find ourselves at yet another crossroad. There are far too many people who agree with Trump and think that the problem isn’t the guns. There are far more who speak out and speak up against what’s going on, believing that we shouldn’t have to live this way. We need safe storage. We need laws preventing people from buying guns who shouldn’t have access to guns. We need more mental health resources. We need things to change, and fast.
In a piece I wrote for the New York Times on Dec. 7, 2021, I asked if my students will ever know a world without school shootings. Now I ask, when is enough going to actually be enough?
In this free, on-demand webinar, learn how teachers, school staff, and their supporters can advocate for meaningful change, ensuring a safer country. Explore ways to raise our collective voices and fight for a future where children, teachers, and caregivers can live and learn without fear.
