During finals week at Brown University, junior Mia Tretta's phone buzzed with an emergency alert, igniting memories of a traumatic past. In 2019, Tretta was shot in the abdomen during a mass shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, where two students lost their lives and she was one of three injured. At just 15 years old, she experienced the horrors of gun violence firsthand.
On a Saturday while studying in her dorm with a friend, Tretta received alerts about an emergency at the university's engineering building. Initially, she hoped it couldn't be a shooting, but as more messages urged everyone to lock down and stay away from windows, her worst fears were confirmed. By the end of that day, two people were dead and nine others were injured in a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, a place she had believed represented safety and normality.
Tretta expressed her disbelief about going through such trauma again, stating, “No one should ever have to go through one shooting, let alone two.” Her situation highlights a grim reality for a generation of college students who have undergone active shooter drills and unfortunately faced violence again on college campuses that were once seen as havens of security.
The distressing incidence of multiple mass shootings has affected small groups of students at various educational levels. For instance, survivors of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, later experienced another tragic shooting at Florida State University in April. Another Brown student, Zoe Weissman, reflected on her proximity to the Parkland shooting, recalling the terrifying sounds of gunfire and the chaos that ensued.
In a related development, Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed that his son, Ben, a junior at Brown, managed to find safety by barricading himself and roommates in their room using furniture. It is noteworthy that Greenberg himself survived an assassination attempt during his mayoral campaign in 2022.
After her own shooting incident in high school, Tretta became an advocate for stricter gun control measures, taking on a leadership role in the group Students Demand Action. Her advocacy efforts led her to meet with former President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland, focusing particularly on the dangers of "ghost guns," which can be assembled from parts, making it challenging to track and regulate their ownership.
At Brown, Tretta was in the process of completing a paper examining the educational experiences of students who have endured school shootings, reflecting on her own journey. She noted that Saturday marked the first time she received an active shooter alert at Brown, highlighting the alarming recurrence of such incidents.
Tretta, who studies international and public affairs and education, voiced her disappointment and frustration with the situation, stating, “I chose Brown, a place that I love, because it felt like somewhere I could finally be safe and finally, you know, be normal in this new normal that I live of a school shooting survivor. And it’s happened again. And it didn’t have to.”
