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Michigan State University student reflects on surviving 2012 Sandy Hook shooting

EAST LANSING, Mich. – A Sandy Hook survivor has lived through a second school shooting after three students were shot and killed on Michigan State University’s campus Monday.

Jackie Matthews, 21, is a senior at MSU.

“It’s been 10 years now and we’re still experiencing the same thing,” Matthews told Local 4.

Matthews said she was in sixth grade when all the schools in her district went on lockdown as a gunman took the lives of 28 people at the elementary school. She remembers crouching down in her classroom, on lockdown for hours on end.


More -- ‘Spartan Strong’: 5 Michigan State students in critical condition after mass shooting on campus


On Monday, she was at her off-campus house when the alert came in telling all MSU students to shelter in place.

“It felt like a mirror image at an older age,” she said.

All grown up, she felt just as powerless as she did 10 years ago.

“It’s nerve-wracking because you wish you could do something, but you can’t.”

When asked if she ever thought this could happen again, Matthews said, “No, but everyone thinks it’s never going to happen to them until it does. And that’s the scary part.”

Just like the last time, she knows she’ll carry this trauma with her. She also knows she won’t stop fighting for change.

“We can no longer just provide love and prayers,” Matthews said in a TikTok video. “It needs to be legislation. It is not OK. We can no longer allow this to happen.”


Related -- Michigan students live through 2 mass school shootings in under 2 years


About the Author
Jacqueline Francis headshot

Jacqueline Francis is an award-winning journalist who joined the WDIV team in September 2022. Prior to Local 4, she reported for the NBC affiliate in West Michigan. When she’s not on the job, Jacqueline enjoys taking advantage of all the wonders Michigan has to offer, from ski trips up north to beach days with her dog, Ace.

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