Fresh off an acceptance letter from her dream school – Florida State University – Kylie Byun and her parents were touring the Tallahassee campus along with dozens of other families when gunfire erupted today.
“We had actually just left the student union building maybe 5 minutes earlier,” the teen’s stepfather, Matt Gilchrist, wrote in a message to CNN. “We had gone into another building with our group tour, and sat down in an auditorium for a student panel discussion.”
Moments later, an FSU student “busted into the room and yelled, ‘Everyone! There is word of an active shooter on campus!’ and repeated that a couple of times,”” Byun told CNN.
“I definitely felt some degree of panic for not only me and my family’s safety, but for all the other students on campus.”
The auditorium was filled with about 80 to 100 teens and parents for “an admitted students tour,” the high school senior from Virginia said.
Soon, the tour’s facilitator confirmed there was an active shooter and announced the doors had been locked, Byun’s stepfather said.
For the next two hours, the visitors were “locked in a room with no windows, and no one was allowed in or out,” Byun said.
But the vast majority stayed calm.
“I definitely feel for all the people who got hurt, the families who are affected,” Byun said. “But the way that (FSU) handled it, I felt pretty secure … I felt pretty calm.”
The 18-year-old credits years of active shooter drills – starting in elementary school – for mentally preparing her for such a catastrophe. .
“I definitely think the drills seemed so pointless in the moment. But now, looking back at it and being there, I felt less … stressed out.”
The future biology major and aspiring medical school student said the way FSU managed the situation made her feel more secure attending college there this fall.
