A video showing a teen realizing she had previously been in a photo with a Michigan school shooter has gained viral attention, capturing 7.2 million views on TikTok.
The original video features a text overlay that reads, “When you go through a school shooting in Michigan and now (you’re) realizing you have a picture with the shooter,” as the teen lip-syncs to audio of a woman cursing.
The poster, @tina…ha, states that she is a student at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, in which four students were killed in a shooting on Nov. 30. Six additional students were injured, as well as one teacher; 15-year-old Ethan Crumbly has been accused of the shooting. He’s since been charged with murder and terrorism.
The comments on the original video are not turned on, however, a follow-up video was posted Dec. 4 in which the poster addresses a comment from another user accusing her of using the tragedy to gain attention, saying it’s “just like women,” to do so.
“I would love to address this comment,” they say in the video. “Because honestly the hate comments, some of them are funny, but this one, this one has ticked me off. Not only are you being sexist, but you are also saying that my trauma, in which I was at the school hearing four gunshots and hearing people screaming, begging for their lives. My tragedy is just as bad as everyone else’s tragedy. The 1,800 kids that were there, the four that got shot, and the six injured, AKA , one of my best friends.”
The poster, in her response, defended her decision to share that she had previously associated with the Michigan shooter, as a form of raising awareness.
“I am not doing this for attention,” they go on. “I am simply stating that there are people out there that you don’t know who could be killers. People who are psychopaths and will do anything just for attention. This is not about me. This is about the people that were killed and injured. And this is about him being an awful, I mean absolutely disgusting, human being. And you not only being sexist, but also saying this is about me, you’re saying that I’m making this about myself? You are disgusting. Please do not come on my page again, thank you.”
Commenters on her video calling this person out began debating on what they took away from the videos—some agreed that she was just expressing herself after experiencing an extremely traumatic event. Some were upset that the TikTok just had the desired effect of giving attention to the Michigan shooter.
“You guys are failing to realize that she is trying to probably bring awareness to the situation,” one commenter wrote. “She isn’t (doing) it for attention.”
However, there were others who agreed with the commenter that had provoked the response in the first place.
“Why do people feel the need to tell every detail of (their) trauma online,” another commenter wrote. “If it’s trauma they won’t love speaking about it. It’s nothing to brag (about).”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @tina…ha for comment via TikTok DM.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/michigan-school-shooter-picture-tiktok-teen/