Feb. 13, 2026 marks the third anniversary of the Michigan State University (MSU) campus shooting. In the incident, there were eight victims: five injured and three killed, two of whom were Grosse Pointe Public School System graduates. In the three years since this shooting, both the MSU and Grosse Pointe communities have reflected on the incident and how it has changed the way schools and safety are viewed.
At MSU, the department of police and public safety (DPPS) has invested $5 million to improve their resources for campus safety, including remote locks on doors, safety videos and an app called Safe MSU, which gives students access to additional alerts and an outlet to report anything suspicious. DPPS Communications Manager Nadia Vituela highlights the impact of MSU’s addition of 24/7 campus surveillance cameras.
“We call [the cameras] a force multiplier,” Vizueta said. “It allows us to get eyes on certain parts of campus to help assist our police officers with quicker response time and be able to resolve issues a lot quicker.”
Despite new measures taken, the event will continue to affect the students who had to live through the shooting. For South alumna and MSU student Emma Palazzolo ’22, gun violence has been a lifelong concern. Having this fear come to life, living on campus has never been the same.
“I don’t like going to the library,” Palazzolo said. “I don’t like going to very many things on campus. I prefer not to go to large lecture halls and stuff like that, because since it happened once, it’s just a thought that is hard to shake.”
The shooting did not only affect MSU—it struck deeply in the Grosse Pointe community. Social studies teacher Kendra Caralis was a teacher to one of the Grosse Pointe victims and the class advisor of alumni attending MSU, making the event especially personal to her.
“We got a message as staff that said that one of the victims was a Grosse Pointe graduate, and they hadn’t told us who yet, and so that’s why I also started checking in with some of my old class officers that were there to find out what they knew and if they were okay,” Caralis said.
While our community in Grosse Pointe will never forget the shooting at MSU, as a society, school shootings are becoming a normal event. Palazzolo emphasized the importance of remembering these days as more than just dates in history books.
“Unfortunately, I think school shootings are one of the things where it happens and then people move on, which personally I don’t agree with at all,” Palazzolo said. “But I think that since then, people, especially since we’re the seniors now, after we graduate, no student here unless there’s a different circumstance that has really gone through the shooting like we did.”
As coping with emotions is a priority for the health of survivors, MSU has resources available to support students as they heal, such as their Counseling and Psychiatric Services providing a multitude of mental health care options for students. Policies can never be perfect, so MSU DPPS will continue to make adjustments to promote a safer future on campus.
“We always continue to look at what our policies are and find ways of enhancing anything, and of course, if anybody has any suggestions, we do take those into consideration,” Vizueta said.
