A shooting occurred at Antioch High School — located just under 20 miles southeast of Vanderbilt’s campus — on Jan. 22, in which a 17-year-old gunman opened fire in the school’s cafeteria, killing himself and a 16-year-old girl while wounding another student. Members of both the Nashville and Vanderbilt communities expressed their grief for the students, teachers and families affected by the tragedy.
The shooting at Antioch High School marks the first school shooting of 2025 in the U.S. Additionally, this is the second school shooting in Nashville in the past two years — six people were killed in March 2023 when a shooter opened fire at The Covenant School in Green Hills.
Vanderbilt community reactions
Drew Spiegel, a spokesperson for Vanderbilt’s chapter of Students Demand Action, called for lawmakers to pass common-sense gun safety measures.
“Last week’s shooting at Antioch High School is yet another devastating reminder that thoughts and prayers are not enough to prevent children from getting shot at school,” Spiegel said. “We should not have to live like this.”
Senior Amar Camara expressed sympathy for the victims of the shooting at Antioch High School, and he said the incident was “frightening and disheartening.”
“Being from Nashville and knowing that this can happen in the city that you grew up in makes me feel sad,” Camara said. “I’m especially scared for my sister who still attends a Nashville high school — knowing that this could happen at her school or any school in the area just makes me fearful. Something needs to change before this happens again.”
Vanderbilt Athletics posted a statement of solidarity with Antioch High School on Instagram on Jan. 26 at 8:12 p.m. CST. The post asked followers to wear the school’s colors — blue and white — on Jan. 27.
In an interview with The Hustler on Jan. 24, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said the university is working to evaluate safety on campus.
“[Campus safety] is a top priority for us, and it already [was] after the Covenant School shooting, which, of course, was very tragic, just like the Antioch shooting — a terrible tragedy,” Diermeier said.
Professor Jonathan Metzl, whose scholarship focuses on gun culture and gun violence, said he believes the Antioch High School shooting represents the “unconscionable reality” that people in Tennessee are not safe in many public places. He also referenced statements made by the Metro Nashville Police Department that discuss the shooter’s online activity.
“I wish more than anything that tragedies like this would lead us to come together across political divides to come up with common solutions. Unfortunately, our political system is so deeply polarized and that’s not where we are right now,” Metzl said in a message to The Hustler. “I also think that this particular shooting highlights issues beyond guns, such as online radicalization. We still need to know what happened here in order to try to prevent future shootings, but in the meantime, I’m mourning once again for Antioch and the people in the community that deserve better.”
Abdoulaye Charles, a sophomore who has lived in Antioch his whole life and attended Antioch High School, said it “felt weird and unreal” to hear of the shooting. He still knows people at the school, including his brother, friends and past teachers, and he expressed concern for the damage the shooting left in the Antioch community.
“My frustration is due to the system, which allows [nearly] anyone to have a firearm,” Charles said in an email to The Hustler. “That person should not have been able to gain access to that weapon, let alone walk into the school and commit those actions. From this point forward, something has to change immediately.”
Charles also extended sympathy to Josselin Corea Escalante’s family and called attention to the legislators that he believes have promoted firearms within the state, including Governor Bill Lee.
“This is more than politics; there are empty chairs at the dinner table, only allowing families to reminisce about the presence of their loved ones, teachers forced to skip their names during roll calls, and a phone call forced to go to voicemail after calling their number,” Charles said. “The ‘thoughts and prayers’ will never erase the fact that parents say ‘goodnight’ to an empty bed. Teachers should not be forced to create ‘emergency evacuation plans’ instead of lesson plans. We no longer want condolences; we want people to return home alive.”
Nashville community reactions
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released a statement expressing his “deepest sympathies” to the families of the students.
“We grieve together,” O’Connell said. “We heal together, and I hope we can respond together.”
At 1:04 p.m. CST on Jan. 22, Lee posted his reaction to the shooting on X. He then announced the next day that the flags at the capitol building would be lowered in remembrance of Escalante.
“I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement and first responders who responded quickly and continue to investigate,” Lee said. “As we await more information, I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families and the school community.”
Justin Jones — representative for District 52 and a member of the “Tennessee Three” — posted a statement to Instagram on Jan. 23 in which he expressed disapproval with the “inaction” of Republican state legislators.
“My prayers are with the families and students whose lives are forever altered by the horrific events today, and beyond that, I renew my call to Speaker Sexton and Governor Lee to allow swift and immediate action to prevent another tragedy like this from happening again, by passing comprehensive policies to protect kids, not guns,” the statement reads.
A petition on Change.org calling for the mandatory installation of metal detectors in Nashville schools has reached 2,497 signatures, as of publication. The petition was created by a group of parents in the area as a potential security measure to prevent firearms from entering schools.
“It’s not about creating fortress-like schools; it’s about molding an environment where students can learn without fear,” the petition reads. “Let’s advocate for a safer learning space for our children.”
Kortney Owens, godmother of a student at Antioch High School and organizer of the petition, credited the popularity of the metal detector mandate to her son, godson and other students.
“I was not expecting [the support], and what was sad about the whole thing is that the Covenant shooting happened and there was nothing in place,” Owens said. “It’s very disheartening and it’s sad because it [feels] like another child had to pass in order for us as parents to wake up and do something.”
Owens attended Antioch High School when she was younger, and she said metal detectors are already in other Nashville schools, including J.T. Moore Middle School. She said the team that organized the petition used artificial intelligence to create blueprints for the infrastructure that would be required to install metal detectors in other schools.
“Bill Lee or whoever these people are in the political world — we need them to step up, to come from behind the desk [and] come shake these kids hands,” Owens said. “We need him to look in their faces, because he needs to hear their lives and the experiences that they’re dealing with.”