Michigan State student who survived high school shooting says system failed her

A Michigan State University student said in an interview Wednesday that the system failed her after surviving her second mass shooting within a fifteen month span.

Student Ava Ferguson told “CNN This Morning” that she did not think she would have to go through the experience again, noting the recent mass shooting incident at her former high school. 

Ferguson was a senior at Oxford High School in November 2021 when a gunman opened fire inside the school, killing four students and injuring seven others. The gunman, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded gulity in October to 24 charges related to the incident. 

“I was flabbergasted, to say the least. You know, after Oxford, they said that this wasn’t going to happen again, that we were going to be safe going back to school. And that’s just not the case,” she told the hosts. “The other night I was in shock. I didn’t think it was real, honestly.” 

Ferguson, a cancer survivor, said it was “traumatizing” to go through another mass shooting, adding that she may have to resume therapy sessions as a result of the incident. 

“Do you feel like the system failed you given that this happened to you twice?” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Ferguson. She answered, “100 percent.”

“There should have been laws made years ago when Sandy Hook happened, and it never did,” Ferguson said. “And I feel like now’s the time people need to start realizing there is people dying every day because of gun violence. And something needs to be done about it.”

Her remarks came in the aftermath of a school shooting that happened at Michigan State University on Monday night, where a gunman opened fire at two locations on the school’s East Lansing campus. The incident resulted in the deaths of three students, and left five other individuals with critical injuries.

Authorities said the suspect, 43-year-old Anthony McRae, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Michigan State University’s Police and Public Safety Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman said the motive for the shooting is unclear, as McRae — who had previous gun violations — had no affiliation with the university.

The incident at MSU comes in the wake of several mass shootings this year alone, including an incident last month that left 11 people dead in Monterey Park, Calif., during Lunar Year celebrations.