Woman Was 'Shot' and 'Survived' a Mass Shooting in High School Years Ago. Now, She's Reeling from the Brown University Massacre By Nicholas Rice

A young woman was shot and survived a shooting in high school years ago. Now, she is reeling from the aftermath of the massacre that took place at Brown University, where she currently studies.

Tiffany Shepis-Tretta said in a Threads post on Saturday, Dec. 13, that her daughter, Mia Page-Tretta, is a student at the Rhode Island-based college, where a gunman opened fire on Saturday, Dec. 13, leaving at least two people dead and nine others injured. (A person of interest is currently in custody.)

“[Mia] was shot and survived a shooting in high school, now she attends Brown University,” Tiffany wrote in her post. “No one prepares you for this as a parent and I’m certain nobody prepares you for this as a student or faculty.”

“Please send your love to the Brown University community. They will need a lot of love and healing,” the mother continued.

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Mia was shot by a student at her high school in Santa Clarita, Calif., in November 2019, according to a Brown University blog post from October 2024.

She was shot in the stomach by the gunman, who she did not know, the blog post said. It added that two of Mia’s classmates, including her best friend, were killed, and two others were injured before the gunman killed himself.

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Mia, who now advocates for gun safety across the United States, said, “The trauma of one school shooting does not just impact the people who had a bullet inside of them. It wasn’t only the survivors, or the parents of the deceased children, or the first responders, or even the woman who lived across the street and had 15 students run into her house with no idea what was going on. Every single person who was there has their own story.” 

When it came to her studies at Brown, an Ivy League, Mia said last year that the school “is really the place where I felt like it could be a home,” adding: “I really want to take this time to become the smartest, most well-rounded version of myself, and Brown is the place I can do that.” 

Of the nine people injured in the Brown shooting incident, one was in critical condition, six were in critical but stable condition and two were stabilized, a Brown University Health spokesperson said, per NBC News. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley later said in a news conference on Dec. 14 that one person had been discharged, according to the outlet.

The identities of the deceased and injured have yet to be made public as of Dec. 14.

Zoe Weissman, another Brown University student, recounted surviving the Dec. 13 shooting tragedy, years after she was a student during the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, to MS NOW.

“I’m really angry. I’m really angry that this is happening to me all over again. And I’m just in shock,” said Weissman, 20, who was a Parkland middle school student when gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and injured 18 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “This isn’t a new phenomenon, and we’re going to get to a point where there’s [more] people like myself who survived two of these.”