It was a heartbreaking day for many St. Louis families Monday when an armed man entered Central Visual and Performing Arts high school, where he shot and killed a student and a teacher and left six others injured.
While the shooting was a tragedy, it's something American students have seen for years, and have unfortunately had to learn to cope with. For some students, school shootings have prompted an interest in activism.
Zoe Touray was a student last November at Oxford High School in Detroit when 16-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire at the school, killing four and injuring seven. Crumbley pled guilty Monday to terrorism and murder charges, withdrawing his insanity plea. Touray told KMOX about some of the things that helped her process the trauma of what she'd experienced.
"It's definitely a really rocky roller coaster when dealing with surviving the school shooting. But honestly, I think things like prioritizing your mental health – I know me and my friends talk about it. Sometimes it's definitely an absolute must," she told KMOX. "Whether that looks like therapy to you or journaling, or even talking to someone you trust. It's definitely a really big part of it to take care of your mental health."
Touray is a member of March For Our Lives, the organization that was founded following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. She said it took her a while to want to get involved with the organization.
"Honestly, I did not want to – I remember after the shooting, it was very hard for me to open up to anybody, even my family at times," she said. "But my parents actually gave me the nudge to want to join March For Our Lives and do different things with them. And it's been a very surreal and amazing experience. And it's helped me cope in ways that I cannot even explain."
One of the biggest ways the organization has helped her cope, she said, is connecting her with other survivors.
"When you talk to other people, sometimes they may give you a certain look, or they might feel a certain way or give you so much sympathy because you are a survivor," she said. "But when you connect with those other survivors from either different organizations or other people from your school that maybe you didn't talk to before, it gives you a really big sense of relief to not have to worry about people judging you or what they think of you or them feeling sympathy for you at the same time."
Some people have criticized the March For Our Lives movement, saying the youth involved are too young to understand the Second Amendment. Touray said she disagrees.
"Young people are the ones going through these situations. And we're the ones that are affected the most by gun homicides and gun deaths," she said. "So for those lawmakers or different people that are saying different things like that, I would put our safety or the safety of their constituents before themselves, because we're the ones whose lives are on the line."
Hear more from Zoe Touray as she discusses the CVPA shooting, Ethan Crumbley's guilty plea, and more:
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