GREENSBORO, Ga. — Not many people know what it's like to sit in a classroom while a gunman opens fire. One North Carolina A&T student does.
Zoe Touray, a sophomore at NC A&T, survived a high school shooting several years ago.
November 3, 2021 is a day that will forever be etched into Touray's mind.
That was the day a school shooter took the lives of several Oxford High Students in Michigan.
"It felt like 5 minutes and 5 hours all at once but I was able to text my mom that I love her, thinking that those were going to be my last words. No child, no matter how old, no person, should have to do that," Touray said.
Touray graduated from Oxford High back in 2022. She said at the time of the shooting she was simply going to her fifth period class.
Four people lost their lives that day at the hands of a school shooter.
Very similar to the school shooting that recently took place in Winder, Georgia at Apalachee High School, where another four people lost their lives to gun violence.
Touray said hearing about news like this... is traumatic.
"It just takes me back to the moment or the moments that led up to our shooting and just the day itself," Touray said.
She said before the shooting, she lived a normal life.
"At first, I wanted to be a chef, I wanted to be a fashion designer and a million things that kids want to be," Touray said.
But being one of the survivors of the Oxford High shooting has caused her to turn that pain into purpose.
"Once that happened, it really got me into the political space and trying to figure out why the United States… why do we have school shootings? And so, that's become a big part of my life," Touray said.
She first started doing work with March For Our Lives, a nation-wide nonprofit against gun violence.
Then she started her own nonprofit called S.E.E. or Survivors Embracing Each Other.
"The whole goal is to eradicate the public health crisis that is gun violence, because it is a public health crisis," Touray said.
Another goal of hers, is to meet survivors where they're at, to support them through her own experiences.
The focus of her organization is keeping gun violence specifically out of schools.
"Children deserve to be safe in schools and we need to make that happen, there is no reason that we should be having this issue in the first place," Touray said.
Touray said there has to be more conversations surrounding mental health and gun reform in order to see any kind of change.