By Jooahn Sohn
Flowers at the memorial set up by Brown students and faculty. (Photographed source: Brown University)
What might otherwise feel like distant national news has struck unexpectedly close to home for many students and families at Ridgewood High School.
Following a shooting near Brown University’s campus on December 13, two students were killed and nine others were injured. For some at RHS, the tragedy is not abstract. Several students have siblings or close friends who attend Brown, and one RHS student shared anonymously that their sibling’s friend was among those affected.
“When it happened, everything felt really personal really fast,” the student said. “It wasn’t just news anymore, it was someone we knew.”
The night of the shooting, concern spread quickly throughout the Ridgewood community. Parents called their children studying in Providence, checked social media for updates, and waited anxiously for confirmation that loved ones were safe. What unfolded miles away suddenly felt immediate.
In the days after the incident, Brown University launched a campus wide recovery initiative called Brown Ever True, described by the university as “a whole campus recovery effort launched in the wake of a senseless act of violence.” The program focuses on both short and long term healing and is guided by medical and public health experts who specialize in trauma. In a statement, the university emphasized that “community healing takes time, and looks different for each individual affected,” and pledged to move toward recovery together.
Brown President Christina H. Paxson also addressed the community in a letter mourning the loss of two students: sophomore Ella Cook and first-year student MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Paxson described them as “two young people whose amazing promise was extinguished too soon” and emphasized that both were “brilliant and beloved” members of the campus community.
Her message underscored a reality that resonates with many RHS families: college campuses are not just institutions, but homes to young people at the very beginning of their independence.
For RHS students currently applying to colleges, the tragedy has prompted difficult questions about safety and security. While academics, campus culture, and opportunities are often the main focus of applications, safety has become an even larger part of the conversation as well.
“It makes you think differently,” another student said. “You don’t usually picture something like this happening at a place you’re applying to.” For some students, “thinking differently” means researching campus safety policies more closely, looking into emergency alert systems, and discussing location and surrounding neighborhoods with their families. Others say it has broadened their perspective on the national conversation around gun violence, prompting deeper discussions at home and in classrooms about gun control legislation, state laws, and what responsibility governments and institutions have in preventing future tragedies.
At the same time, students and counselors note that one act of violence does not define an entire university or its community. Brown remains a school many RHS students admire and hope to attend. Instead, the incident has highlighted the importance of support systems, communication, and how campuses respond in moments of crisis.
Ultimately, the Brown shooting shows how closely connected school communities can be and how events at one institution can spark wider conversations about public safety and policy. In the aftermath, local and state officials reiterated calls for reviewing existing gun laws and campus safety measures, though no immediate legislative changes were enacted specifically in response to this incident. Still, tragedies like this often contribute to ongoing national debates about gun control, school safety funding, and preventative measures. Through siblings, friends, and alumni networks, events happening hundreds of miles away can still ripple through Ridgewood homes and hallways.
For RHS, this tragedy serves not only as a reminder of the unpredictability of safety, but also of the strength of community. How, even from afar, people come together to support one another in moments of grief.