OXFORD, Mich. (WXYZ) — A campus on lockdown and an active shooter at a school, it was a terrifying ordeal that for some families felt like deja vu.
“It was a lot," parent Matthew Riddle said. "A lot of 'how could this happen again? Why are we going through this again?'”
Riddle's 18-year-old daughter Emma is a freshman at Michigan State University. She already survived a mass shooting as a senior at Oxford High School last school year when she got the alert that it was happening again. This time it was at her new school in East Lansing.
“Her and her roommate barred the doors, turned the lights off, closed the blinds,” Riddle said.
"I'm hiding under my desk with my roommate. Just pray please and remember that I love you," Emma texted a friend during the lockdown. "I never though I would have to go through this again."
"Hey I love you so much. You're going to be okay. I'm right here," the friend replied.
Matthew and Emma also kept texting for over the hours. The "I love you" texts were all he could do from 80 miles across the state.
"It’s hard," Riddle said of going through this a second time. "The first time was a little different because it was close to home and almost over by the time you knew it was happening, but it was also your community as well, so it’s scary.”
Riddle went to East Lansing and took Emma home that night. This week is a challenge trying to cope once again.
“One of the things she said to me that is almost heartbreaking is that she feels like as horrible as this is and all the trauma she’s gone through, she has the tools to navigate it this time," Riddle said. "So, it feels more navigable because she’s been through this before, which is not a skill set I wanted her to have.”
Emma even spoke at the state Capitol this week, telling her story and calling for gun reform.
“In the last 14 months, I have watched as the headlines stack up," Emma told the crowd. "Each time, I am taken back to November 30th.”
Last year, Oxford students took six weeks off, but MSU students have just six days. Matt says Emma wants to be back on campus next week and will be going back on Sunday, standing tall with 50,000 other Spartans.
“If you can keep them in your thoughts, these Oxford kids have been through a lot," Riddle said. "They’re strong kids because of it, but they’re all going to go back on Monday and it’s going to be tough.”
When Emma returns, her class schedule will also be new. Many of her classes were in Berkey Hall, where the shooting took place. The university says classes won't be held there for the remainder of the semester, so she’s still waiting to find out where her classes will be when she heads back on Monday.
