TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Classes resumed Monday at Florida State University, less than five days after a gunman opened fire on campus, killing two people and injuring six more.
FSU officials said they're asking faculty and staff to accommodate students as much as possible, but they acknowledged that some students have little choice but to return and finish the semester. But the semester is almost over.
The announcement came Saturday in a social media post from Richard McCullough, the university’s president. The initial announcement stated that classes were scheduled to resume on Monday morning and students had the option to reach out to their professor if they did not plan to return.
The message was not received well by a number of students who called the announcement insensitive online. A student created a Change.org petition in the hours following the president’s post that gathered over 1,400 signatures, asking that students be able to attend class virtually
Hours later, McCullough issued a video message reiterating that the school will offer remote options for students and waive their mandatory attendance policy for the time being. Students will also be allowed to request an incomplete grade if they do not feel they can finish their assigned coursework by the end of the semester.
Although FSU is pushing ahead with classes, few students appeared to return to campus Monday.
“There's honestly not a lot of people out here, so that makes it even weirder," FSU student Wyatt Lutkins said. "But for me, it was just kind of like, I just wanted to get back to, like, get back in a routine. Like, I don't know, I couldn't let it affect my day any longer.”
FSU junior Julie Pinto said she is not happy about the announcement, and doesn’t feel safe on campus right now.
“I feel the peace of knowing that we’re 'FSU strong' but I still don’t feel safe,” she said. “How am I supposed to go to my class in Moore Auditorium on Monday if a shooting just happened there?”
Sophomore Daniella Ferrara traveled home to Tampa on Friday following the shooting so she could spend time with family. She said the expectation that students should return Monday was insensitive.
“Obviously, it's not going to feel normal for anybody having to walk through and around those buildings that are still considered a crime scene area and knowing that people had to run for their lives and fear for their lives on school campus," Ferrara said. "I just don't understand how anyone who had to go through that is expected to return back to that area and feel all those emotions come again."
The FSU College Democrats released a statement against a Monday return date, saying in part, "We were given a week off when the university got a few inches of snow — now we're expected to go back to class days after a mass shooting."
Students through the weekend grieved in their own way, with the tragedy hitting closer to home for some students.
“It was a lot of just resting. I personally knew somebody, one of the injured," Lutkin said. "So we were visiting them in the hospital, but, yeah.”
There was some good news following the shooting. Tallahassee Medical Healthcare said it expected Monday to discharge two more people who were injured during the shooting. That means all but one of those injured was expected to be discharged.
Available resources include mental health support from counseling and psychological services. That team can be reached at (850) 644-TALK (8255). The victim advocate program also provides free assistance. They can be reached by phone 24/7 at (850) 644-7161, by text at (850) 756-4320, or by e-mail at Victims-Advocate@fsu.edu.
