- Downtown Community Church quickly invited students in through a social media post, offering a quiet, welcoming space.
- An FSU student who grew up near Parkland, says school shootings have sadly become part of growing up in Florida.
- Watch the video to see how students are holding up.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
While police continue their investigation, one faith community is focused on healing—creating a space where students can talk, cry, or just not be alone.
I'm bringing you more on how the community is holding up
"It's a bit difficult to process," said Fernandez.
Daniel Fernandez, a 21-year-old student at FSU, tells me this isn't his first experience with a school shooting.
Sadly, he says it's starting to feel like a normal part of growing up in Florida.
"I grew up in Parkland or near Parkland so that shouldn't occur when I was in middle school so kind of we've been through active shooter trainings throughout high school," said Fernandez.
Fernandez was in the football stadium when the sirens went off. At first, he thought it was just a drill—until the alert became real.
"We were in middle class and then the siren went off so immediately I thought it was a fire alarm but I just waited to see what it was maybe it was just an announcement and when it was told to be an active shooter alert my first thought was it was in the stadium so some students ran out the door a majority of us or at least half of I would say stayed inside to see okay what is where's the danger immediately where's the threat," said Fernandez.
Caught in the chaos and confusion, Fernandez says he and many of his friends leaned on their faith for strength and healing.
"Heartbroken I think is the only word that kind of describes it. I mean I have two kids and I can't imagine, you know, what my kids would be experiencing if they were there," said Kaempfer.
Ben Kaempfer, who handles outreach for the Downtown Community Church, says their first response after seeing the news was to make a post online—letting students know the doors were open for anyone who needed a safe place to be.
"When tragedy it hits it impacts all of humanity in the same way and so for us it's just a sense of we want to be here for the community so we've opened the doors up and anybody who wants to come and pray or talk or just be in a quiet safe space," said Kaempfer.
Fernandez tells me the only thing students like him can really do now is stay close to one another—offering comfort, support, and hope.
"I hope that the community can take this opportunity to think about ourselves a little less and think about other people more now wait for tragedy to strike to tell one another that we love each other and to remind each other about the hope that we have not in this life but after to talk it's a bit difficult," said Fernandez.
The church will stay open through the weekend welcoming students of all backgrounds to come and heal.
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