OXFORD, Mich. – One of the students barricaded in his room at Michigan State University spent the night texting with his brother, who survived being shot at Oxford High School.
Caleb Watson was so absorbed in a research paper he was working on he had no idea what was transpiring outside of Berkey and the MSU Student Union until his mother called.
“She said, ‘Are you OK,’” said Watson. “And I was like, ‘Why wouldn’t I be?”
His mom Linda told him there was an active shooter on campus. He checked his email to see the alert from the university and ended up barricading himself like so many others for hours.
Watson had something nobody else had, though. A brother on the phone who survived being shot at Oxford High School.
“Aiden asked me if I was OK and then just started texting me advice on how to survive,” Watson said.
Aiden Watson was shot in the leg during the shooting at Oxford High School. His recovery had been long and hard on the entire Watson family.
Now the family has the distinction of having their boys in the middle of two separate school shootings. A club no one wants to join.
“Going to MSU, I didn’t have to think about it, I didn’t have to see it, and I could enjoy just being a normal college student, but now even that’s been ripped away from me.”
Caleb said before he returns to campus, he would like the university to beef up security at all of the halls and at the union and/or make them accessible only to students and faculty.
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