Who are Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman? Two Brown University students witnessed school shootings as children

For Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman, 2 Brown University students, yesterday's school shooting was not the first. They had both witnessed school shootings as children, and the December 13 incident brought back horrors of the past.

A suspect is in custody after the shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, that had left two dead and eight injured.

Tretta, 21, was studying for her final exam in the university dormitory when she learned of the shooting. She had been planning to study in the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building, where the shooting took place, but changed her mind at the last moment because she was tired, as per New York Times.

Tretta was shot in the abdomen during the 2019 shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. Nathaniel Berhow, a 16-year-old had carried out the attack, killing two, including Tretta's best friend. He injured three before fatally shooting himself.

After yesterday's shooting, Tretta wrote on X, “I was shot at a school shooting at 15. Last night spent locked down at my university while learning of casualties & the many injured. This is not how I imagined life when I was little girl. I miss that carefree child I once was. Thinking of the many affected.”

Tretta's mother added on the social media platform, “Our daughter @mia_tretta was shot and survived a shooting in high school. Right now she’s locked down in her room at @BrownUniversity because of another shooting. This is not ok. If you value guns over children…you are no friend of mine.”

An article on Tretta's efforts to control gun violence is up on the Brown University site. It details how Tretta's efforts even took her to the Congress and White House, where she met Joe Biden, who was president at the time. Tretta has worked for Everytown for Gun Safety, aiming to advocate for survivors as well.

“The trauma of one school shooting does not just impact the people who had a bullet inside of them,” she had said.

Weissman, 20, witnessed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff, killing 17. Weissman was in Westglades Middle School, adjacent to where the shooting occurred, in 2018.

After the shooting at Brown University, Weissman put out a post on X, saying “When I was 11, I told myself I’d never go through a school shooting. When I was 12, I told myself it would never happen again. Now I’m freshly 20, and I’ve once more been proven wrong. First Parkland, now Brown University. My safe haven away from my trauma.”

Weissman is studying Medical Anthropology at Brown and is part of the Program for Liberal Medical Education (PLME), as per the university profile page. Apart from academics, Weissman conducts research in pediatric medicine at local hospitals. Speaking to CNN after the shooting, Weissman noted, “I’m numb but I’m also angry.”

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