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in
the

Reactions

To The Latest
School Shooting

Teens and
community
leaders want
to see change
come from the
latest tragedy in
Florida.

ABOVE: Students from
Florida traveled to
Washington, D.C., Feb. 21
to demand change on gun
laws from legislators.

JOYCE WISWELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

H

untington Woods native
Zach Shanbom was
surprised when the fire
alarm at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in
Parkland, Fla., went off for the
second time on Feb. 14. “We’d
already had a fire drill earlier, so
it was odd,” said the junior.
He grabbed his backpack and
left the building, where teachers
were frantically telling students
to run as fast as they could. “I
could hear loud noises even
though I was far away in a safe
area,” he said. “I didn’t think any-
thing of it at first.”
As teachers on walkie-talkies
became more animated and
frantic students started swap-
ping rumors, Shanbom knew
something was seriously amiss.
But it wasn’t until dozens of
police cars sped onto the campus
that he realized the awful truth:
Someone was shooting up the
school, and he was still at large.
Shanbom, 16, ran into a near-
by Walmart and texted his par-

ents that he was OK. Only later
did he learn that the shooter,
Nikolas Cruz, was briefly in the
store around the same time,
about an hour before he was
apprehended.
“I really don’t want to believe
he was there at the same time as
me,” said Shanbom, who attends
Michigan’s Tamarack Camps
each summer. “It’s crazy.”
Within a few hours, Shanbom
learned the whole story: 17
dead, including a classmate, four

Marion Freedman and her grandson,
Zach Shanbom

Jewish students and three adults,
and at least a dozen injured.
Shanbom recognized Cruz from
riding the school bus.
“We always noticed something
was a little off,” he said of Cruz,
who has reportedly confessed.
“He had anger issues and he
didn’t talk to anyone on the bus.
He was reserved and kept to
himself.”
The news that yet another
school shooting had taken
place brought sorrow and an
eerie sense of déjà vu across the
nation, including here in Metro
Detroit. Here’s a look at some
local reaction to the tragedy.

CLOSE TO HOME

Marion Freedman was confused
by the voice mail left by a cousin.
“She left me a message I
didn’t understand, saying that
she hopes everything is OK,”
Freedman said. While pondering
what that meant, her phone rang
again. It was her daughter, Dr.
Laura Freedman, telling her that
a shooting had taken place at her
son Zach’s school.
Just a few days before, Marion
and Dr. Michael Freedman,
who live in West Bloomfield but
winter in Boynton Beach, had
attended one of Zach’s basketball
games.
“One of the boys who was
there is now gone. My daughter
said to me, ‘Mom, he had walked
right in front of you,’” Freedman
said. “I hope and pray these kids

can walk back onto that campus
and somehow push forward for
themselves and for those who
are no longer there.”

ONCE AGAIN

In Farmington
Hills, Steve
Freedman (no
relation to
Marion), head
of Hillel Day
School, knew
Steve Freedman
he had to reas-
sure parents
worried for
their children’s safety. So, he did
what’s typical in such cases: sent
a letter home. This time, how-
ever, he didn’t have to think of
what to say — he simply used the
exact same note he’d sent home
in December 2012 after the
Sandy Hook school massacre in
Connecticut in which six adults
and 20 children were killed.
“I did it to make the point
that nothing has changed,” said
Freedman. “I did add a p.s. that
we need to do something, to take
action, that writing these letters
is not enough.”
One thing Freedman is cer-
tain about is that the “craziness”
of arming teachers is not the
answer. “If you are in a school,
you can see the illogicalness of
it,” Freedman said. “Our first
responsibility is to the children,
not running out into the hall-
ways being Rambo.”

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March 1 • 2018

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