By Crystal Donaldson
BLOOMINGTON – The effects of the Parkland, Florida school shooting have reached Bloomington-Normal.
Sarah Cooper and her teammates from DePauw University are visiting Illinois Wesleyan for the NCAA women’s regional basketball tournament. Cooper is an alum of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
In her fourth year of college, Cooper says receiving news of the shooting made her heart sink. Stoneman students returned to school Wednesday and Cooper says she is proud to be an Eagle.
“The fact that these kids can walk back into that place and face their fears and overcome all this is inspiring and it keeps me doing what I’m doing here,” Cooper said.
Cooper called on lawmakers to prevent tragedies like these from happening again.
“I stand with my school what they believe,” Cooper said. “We don’t believe in completely banning guns we just want stricter regulations. The shooter should not have been able to do what he did. There were a lot of red flags that were unfortunately not looked into.”
She encouraged Parkland residents to make their voices heard.
“If anybody from my hometown is listening, I am with you. I stand with you. I fight with you. I am there. Don’t give up. Don’t listen to what other people say. Keep doing what you’re doing because you’re being heard all around the world.”
Cooper graduated from Stoneman Douglas in 2014. Her younger brother and close friends were not injured in the shooting.
Crystal Donaldson can be reached at [email protected].
