Lawmaker Wants to Partner With FSU to Learn About Unlocked Doors During Shooting

TALLAHASSEE—Days after Florida State University students were unable to lock a deranged gunman out of their classrooms, Democrat state Rep. Fentrice Driskell is looking to partner with the university to help reform security protocols.

Driskell, the House Minority Leader, spoke alongside four FSU students at the Capitol on Tuesday, days after a 20-year-old shooter murdered two and wounded multiple others outside the university's busiest building last Thursday. Students and staff hiding in nearby classrooms couldn't lock their classroom doors, forcing chairs, desks, and brave Floridians to be used as barricades.

While advocating for stronger gun reform laws, Driskell said she has been in talks with FSU to gather information on the school's door-locking policy.

"My office has been in touch with FSU about this, and trying to get additional information and seeing how we can partner with them to get them some reform and perhaps some resources if they need that," she said.

Dozens of FSU students have come forward with harrowing tales of school supplies thrown haphazardly against doors that wouldn't lock, describing the pure terror of discovering their classrooms couldn't keep out a gunman during a campus-wide lockdown.

Two Seniors, Meghan Bannister and Sarah Walker, told The Floridian how their professor selflessly held their classroom door shut for hours, calmly promising to stand guard "as long as I need to." The women, in the last class of their undergraduate careers, started an online petition hours later, demanding that FSU install internal locks on all of its doors.

As of Tuesday, it's gathered nearly 31,000 signatures.

Freshman Simon Monteleone and Senior Natanel Mizrahi told reporters on Tuesday that their classrooms in the Bellamy building—a football field away from the gunman and next door to Bannister and Walker—had no locks.

"There was no mechanism within the classroom that would allow the professor to lock the door in a situation as harrowing as this," Monteleone said. He pointed out that while these doors are supposed to automatically lock from the outside during emergencies, they can take anywhere between 20 minutes to after 8 p.m.—the time the doors are normally set to shut—to lock.

"When the alarm went off, none of the doors within Bellamy automatically locked, and the professors could not lock them from the inside, which was a gross policy oversight," he said.

When asked via email if FSU plans to install internal locks, spokesperson Amy Farnum Patronis said the university is "continually reviewing and assessing our security protocols, including evaluating our door locks." She pointed out that "several layers" of security are in place, lauding the police's quick response on Thursday.

She did not respond to a follow-up email questioning when that evaluation would be complete or if FSU would be open to putting in those locks.

The stepson of a local sheriff's deputy, FSU student Phoenix Ikner used his stepmother's handgun to fire multiple rounds outside of the Student Union, a popular hub for students looking to eat, go bowling, shop, or study, days before Easter and two weeks before final exams.

57-year-old Robert Morales, the university's dining coordinator, and 45-year-old Tiru Chabba were killed on the scene, while five others were wounded. Law enforcement responded within minutes, neutralizing Ikner less than five minutes after he fired his first shot.

All of the wounded, including Ikner, are expected to make a full recovery.

This was FSU's second school shooting. The first occurred in 2014 around midnight outside the university's library, though the only person killed was the shooter. One other was paralyzed from the waist down.