He escaped a killer at Oxford High School, but his fight for survival was only beginning

By Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit Information

Keegan Gregory secures the laces on his wakeboard boots as he prepares for a dock begin on an overcast and windy day at a Florida watersports park.

With a sign from the cable operator and a click on from a cable, Keegan pulls the tow rope into his physique and launches into the air like a spring coil. He lands with a smack on the grey lake floor and is off, gliding throughout the water.

Sliding up ramps and attempting out aerial tips, Keegan strikes with ease on the looped overhead cable system that carries him across the Orlando Watersports Advanced at 19 mph.

Flip by flip, loop after loop, the 18-year-old is carving new pathways within the water and in his mind as he works to heal, restarting his life 1,200 miles away from the phobia that unfolded inside Oxford Excessive Faculty on Nov. 30, 2021.

The curly-haired teen with inexperienced eyes carries no seen scars from the violent gun assault that killed 4 college students and injured seven others. The trauma lives there, deep inside his mind, the photographs and sounds from the 9 minutes he was trapped inside a faculty lavatory the place he watched one classmate’s execution, confronted the teenage killer and begged for his life.

On the open water in Orange County, there isn’t room for these reminiscences as Keegan flips the other way up, teeters throughout cement ramps and grabs the tow rope behind his again in a twist, attempting to not crash into the chilly water.

Wakeboarding, Keegan mentioned throughout an interview this spring, has grow to be a day by day observe, a part-time job and profession aspiration for the facility the game provides the gun violence survivor over his ideas.

“I grew up skating and snowboarding and like doing these board sports activities,” Keegan mentioned from his residence in Clermont, 25 miles west of Orlando. “Wakeboarding has been one other a kind of issues that, like, once I’m doing it, I don’t take into consideration anything apart from that and that adrenaline rush.”

In March, the Detroit Information spent three days in Florida with Keegan and his household as they shared their journey of restoration and Keegan’s plans to return Might 15 to graduate from the very faculty the place he nearly died.

‘How are we going to get out of this?’

Keegan was 15 years outdated when, after a routine lunch interval, a mass capturing unfolded within the hallways of Oxford Excessive. Keegan had stopped within the lavatory and shortly started texting his mother and father, Chad and Meghan, explaining he was trapped there with one other scholar, Justin Shilling, and the coed gunman.

Keegan texted his household that he noticed the gun, then wrote: “I JUST WATCHED HIM KILL SOMONE.” The highschool freshman who had been quietly hiding turned to face the killer and, in a decisive second, ran for his life, escaping the toilet alive. Justin didn’t.

Inside 24 hours of the capturing, Keegan’s mother and father started searching for psychological well being assist for his or her son as they pieced collectively how near dying Keegan had come from conversations with the police and media experiences.

Together with discuss remedy, Keegan started a specialised therapy referred to as eye motion desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR. The tactic entails shifting the eyes a particular manner whereas an individual processes traumatic reminiscences. EMDR treats psychological well being circumstances that occur due to reminiscences from traumatic occasions in a single’s previous.

Each therapies had been serving to, Keegan instructed his mother and father in 2022. The varsity swimmer returned to Oxford Excessive for his sophomore yr. However most days, he was unable to remain in the identical constructing the place the assault occurred, texting his mom for early pickups after nervousness overcame him whereas strolling to lessons down the identical hallways the place the killer fired his weapon at the least 33 instances.

Meghan says that winter Keegan started taking snowboarding and snowboarding in a unique path, a darkish one. He started flipping and attempting out extraordinarily harmful tips. In the future, he face planted after one transfer and needed to go to the emergency room, his face and lips torn. He was so swollen that he was unrecognizable.

“He mentioned he didn’t care if he lived or died at that time,” Meghan mentioned. “That was the factor. And he’s like, ‘I simply don’t care. I don’t care if I survive anymore.’”

Meghan, 48, spent hours documenting particulars of the assault, amassing media experiences on the case, attempting to fill holes in its timeline and in search of solutions to unsolved questions by calling prosecutors and investigators. She attended faculty board conferences with households of slain and injured kids.

As one other new faculty yr approached, the Gregory household was unraveling. Keegan’s siblings — Piper, Peyton, Bentley and Sawyer — had all skilled the capturing by way of their older brother and wanted emotional assist in numerous methods, Chad says. They, too, had bother sleeping at night time.

It grew to become clear that makes an attempt to assist Keegan had been failing. Meghan, whose background is in promoting, was sliding down authorized rabbit holes and the kids had been slipping away into their very own corners. The household dynamic that held the household of seven collectively was now not functioning with Keegan and Meghan inside it.

“Meghan was advocating for Keegan, doing all of these issues, and Keegan was attempting to masks and numb and be out, and he was placing himself in some actually unhealthy conditions,” mentioned Chad, 47.

“I used to be in very deep unhappiness. She was in deep anger. After which we might change,” Chad mentioned of him and his spouse. “I mentioned, ‘How are we going to get out of this?’ I’ve bought to get all people to the place the one distractions are studying the brand new.”

A hospitality firm government, Chad says he did what he thought he wanted to do — even when it meant being the unhealthy man — and instructed the household in April that they had been shifting. He had taken a job in Florida, a chance he had not sought earlier than however pursued after being approached in Michigan.

Chad framed the transfer as a chance for a contemporary begin for the household. Meghan and the children had been offended. They didn’t wish to go away their pals, their groups, their city.

“I used to be like, OK, however I imply, we had been actually mad at him, like all of us resented him,” Meghan mentioned. “We weren’t fantastic. We weren’t therapeutic. We had been in a foul manner.”

Chad needed to offer an expertise that instructed his household: “One thing unhealthy can occur to you, you possibly can all recenter after which develop.” The choice was sinking deeper into Oxford and the shadow of Nov. 30, 2021.

“My worry of staying was that we weren’t going to develop … we had been shedding it,” Chad mentioned.

Palm bushes and teenage drama

The Gregory household left Michigan throughout Labor Day weekend of 2023, almost two years after the Oxford capturing. Chad, 5 kids and the household cat flew south, whereas Meghan packed the household’s SUV with three canine and a bearded dragon and drove down Interstate 75.

Meghan, recognized for her outspoken perspective and quick-witted humor, left final to cope with the movers. A neighbor discovered her alone within the storage earlier than she left the home, the place the household had lived since 2012.

“She got here into the storage and mentioned, ‘It’s gonna be OK.’ And I used to be considering, I’m leaving my dream residence, the place I’ve at all times referred to as residence … ” Meghan mentioned. “I used to be devastated. And all my pals had been there, and all my assist. And we’re shifting to a city. I do know nobody.”

Chad had frolicked discovering a brand new residence earlier than shifting. Figuring out a neighborhood the place the household felt protected was a precedence. The capturing had been upsetting to your complete household, even its youngest members, who waited on the door for his or her brother to return residence that fateful night time, and who at instances nonetheless felt unsafe in their very own residence.

“I knew that there wanted to be this safety blanket, nonetheless I may present it,” Chad mentioned.

Clermont offered that with a six-bedroom home in a gated neighborhood the place safety guards examine customer IDs earlier than getting into and residents should approve guests. Meghan says it appeared like Michigan, with its inexperienced rolling hills, quite a few inland lakes and small-town attraction in its quiet downtown.

That fall, the 2 youngest kids, Sawyer and Bentley, enrolled in native public elementary and center colleges. Peyton began at an area public highschool. Keegan and Piper, who’re one yr aside, enrolled at a Christian faculty that marketed itself as a protected, healthful setting for teenagers from preschool to twelfth grade.

Piper, a proficient gymnast, may reenter gymnastics in Clermont, recognized for its sports activities coaching packages and amenities. Bentley joined the soccer staff, Sawyer began aggressive swimming and Peyton, cheerleading.

As the children began new colleges, Meghan arrange a brand new family and started ferrying the children to practices and faculty occasions. She saved a watchful eye on Oxford from 5 states away through media experiences, texts with pals and social media posts, however started assembly neighbors on walks outdoors.

Keegan, who was 16, made pals with the next-door children in Clermont. However surviving a faculty capturing was not one thing he shared with the brand new folks he met.

“I simply don’t discuss it,” Keegan mentioned of the assault.

Halloween got here for the Gregorys, together with costumes and sweet, but it surely wasn’t the identical as Oxford, the place the children noticed acquainted faces at doorways and neighbors knew their names below make-up and costumes.

However the household was shifting ahead, slowly. Hotter climate meant being outdoors extra. The journeys to lakes and seashores, the palm bushes within the schoolyard, all softened the preliminary blow. Or so it appeared.

However Keegan was not adjusting to his new faculty. As he made new pals, his mother and father may see that the teenager couldn’t join with children his age in Florida when it got here to common adolescent drama.

Chad says Keegan was frank along with his friends over the drama, in a single case telling them it was “silly,” which induced friction in relationships. Keegan started to withdraw and grow to be depressed.

“Then he would really feel caught up, after which he would really feel actually insecure, after which he would get into this spiral. And that spiral simply bought greater and greater,” Chad mentioned. “After which it led to suicidal ideas, and ‘I don’t wish to be right here.’”

In December that yr, Keegan returned to Michigan to talk as a sufferer on the Oxford Excessive killer’s sentencing. He labored along with his Michigan therapist to arrange a press release that may enable him to articulate essential statements — that the killer was not going to break him or his life.

He spoke in an Oakland County courtroom and returned residence. After that journey, he declined rapidly, his mom mentioned.

“He was isolating, and he was numbing utilizing substances; he was largely isolating. He was hating faculty,” Chad mentioned. “From Keegan’s perspective, everybody was very sheltered … what felt large to them was very small to him.”

4 months into the household’s transfer to Florida, Keegan was a wreck. The contemporary begin had failed.

Christmas in Florida

Simply days earlier than Christmas, Chad mentioned he bought Keegan off the sofa and out of the home. He instructed Keegan in a espresso store that he and his mom needed to assist him, however they weren’t outfitted to offer what the teenager wanted. He instructed Keegan that the teenager had selections to make.

“We performed out his selections, the place he may flip this to a extremely darkish path, and he’d have each motive to do it. He’d have each excuse,” Chad mentioned.

Keegan, who had stopped understanding and going to high school, listened. Chad reminded his eldest son that hurting himself meant hurting these left behind.

“It’s not simply you, proper? Suicide is an enormous deal since you’re not leaving your self, you’re leaving all of us, proper, and your siblings,” Chad mentioned.

Keegan was agreeable to going someplace to get assist. Chad and Meghan had spoken to a Florida neighbor whose daughter underwent intensive psychological well being therapy at a facility within the state. A residential middle meant Keegan needed to stay away from residence for at the least three months whereas he acquired psychological well being therapy.

Meghan and Chad had resisted taking Keegan to the emergency room as a result of they knew he wanted remedy, not hospitalization. Chad says he may see his son was determined for assist, determined for an answer that may cease the photographs in his head and the panic that unfold by way of his physique.

Chad says he didn’t need Keegan to really feel he needed to endure the aftermath of the Oxford tragedy by himself.

“Yeah, you bought performed some horrible playing cards, and but, you’re in a significantly better place than lots of people popping out of which might be in,” Chad mentioned he instructed Keegan. “And you’ve got a little bit of duty in what occurs subsequent.”

Keegan dedicated to going to the therapy middle.

With the Christmas tree aglow in white lights and rose gold decorations with ivory and inexperienced accents, Chad gathered all 5 kids collectively and instructed them Keegan was going away to get assist. All of them bought into the automobile to drive Keegan to the middle, roughly two hours and quarter-hour away. Meghan, who had COVID, needed to isolate and couldn’t make the journey.

Collectively, they walked Keegan in, and the staffers started processing him. They left Keegan to say goodbye to his household.

‘That is all I’ve’

Household First, the ability for teenage boys the place Keegan acquired inpatient therapy, resembles a conventional home with two important models. There have been bunk beds and picnic tables for every home, which usually has between seven and 12 residents, with a standard space for schoolwork and group remedy.

Some children had substance abuse points, others had been working by way of trauma. Some had been bouncing from facility to facility, Keegan mentioned. His home was referred to as the Cove. The change was stark at first, he mentioned.

“It was horrible. I despised it. Like, I didn’t wish to be there in any respect,” Keegan mentioned.

Keegan knew residing on the Cove meant he may get the assistance he wanted, the assistance he needed. It additionally meant doing the work, not like earlier than in Oxford, the place he would say what he thought therapists needed to listen to so he may get again to his pals.

“The second I bought into any room, I’d, like, instantly consider a solution to get out if one thing had been to occur,” mentioned Keegan about how he walked by way of life post-attack. “Or consider all the chances that might occur and the way I may keep away from them. And like, my thoughts was continuously working, after which I used to be overly exhausted.”

At night time, when he was in mattress and may have been sleeping, his thoughts raced.

“I bear in mind for the primary few months after the capturing, all I’d hear, any time I’d hear my siblings go all the way down to get meals, I’d suppose there’s somebody in the home, and I’d have these instant panic assaults. And it was simply taking place over and over,” Keegan mentioned.

The EMDR that Keegan practiced in Oxford meant revisiting the worst day of his life, however Keegan says he did strive the steps. He tried to work by way of what his therapist requested him to do there, simply weeks after the assault.

“I technically bought by way of it, however I wasn’t utterly sincere going by way of it. I used to be identical to, ‘no a part of me desires to be right here, like, simply let me go residence and hang around with my pals,’” mentioned Keegan of remedy in Oxford after the assault. “So I simply, like, would sort of lie, sort of cheat my manner by way of it.”

In Florida, Keegan nonetheless carried a worry that one thing unhealthy was going to occur once more, that he could possibly be damage or put again in peril, he says. His thoughts went to the worst doable situation in each state of affairs. Panic assaults began once more in his new setting, and he struggled to seek out his place amongst his new friends, amongst his ideas. However Oxford was actually by no means that distant.

On the Cove, Keegan started intensive particular person remedy and group therapies. In time, he had a daily non-public session each day and as much as three group conferences each day. Each weekend, his household had a remedy session with him through video.

Keegan started EMDR work once more on the Cove a few month and a half into remedy there. It was totally different this time, he mentioned. He knew he had been given a chance to do the work if he needed to.

“If I attempted to faux it, then I must return, or I must be again in remedy once I get residence,” he mentioned. “So that is the very best alternative that I’ve. And so I used to be as sincere as I could possibly be. I really talked about, like, how I used to be feeling, and never simply what the therapist needed to listen to.”

Revisiting trauma

That meant going again to the day of the assault.

Keegan heard gunshots ringing out inside his faculty whereas he was within the boys’ lavatory. Justin, a senior, instructed Keegan to crouch atop a rest room so he may cover, whereas Justin stood close by in the identical stall. Keegan started texting his household for assist. He and Justin agreed they might run as soon as the killer moved away from them.

Keegan then heard the toilet door open, and footsteps. He then heard the shooter reload his gun and “cock it again” because the boys hid in silence. The killer then kicked the stall door open and noticed each boys hiding.

At first, Ethan Crumbley did nothing however stare on the boys after which stroll away from them. That’s when Keegan noticed the gun.

Keegan and Justin started begging for his or her lives because the killer held them at gunpoint. The killer ordered Justin to step outdoors first. Justin complied. A gunshot rang out. As Justin lay on the ground, Keegan mentioned he felt at that second his destiny was sealed.

“I imply, I bear in mind as soon as I noticed that Justin died, I used to be like, ‘OK, I’m not residing it doesn’t matter what I do,’” Keegan recalled at his eating room desk in Florida along with his canine at his ft. “As a result of we had been like, begging. And I used to be like, I’m not making it out alive, like he already took that step. So all I knew was that I may, I may at the least strive.”

Keegan discovered a chance and took it.

“After which the second he, like, took the gun, sort of away from me, I went behind his again and simply pushed the door open and simply ran,” Keegan mentioned.

Keegan’s therapists in Florida instructed Meghan and Chad that their son, regardless of his early remedy in Oxford, had by no means really processed what occurred to him that day. They realized that EMDR remedy too quickly after a traumatic occasion might be dangerous. Keegan had begun EMDR three days after the assault.

Visions of the toilet, greater than two years later, saved reappearing in Keegan’s thoughts and he saved preventing them. Keegan instructed his mom one night time in Florida that he hated these visions.

“‘Mother, if I’ve to maintain seeing these visions … I don’t wish to stay like this,’” Meghan recalled her son saying.

In Florida, Keegan labored with two therapists, one who used EMDR in one-on-one periods and one other who helped him construct coping mechanisms for post-traumatic stress dysfunction, which he had been recognized with earlier.

A lot of Keegan’s struggles have manifested in panic assaults that strike day and night time. They occur at residence and at locations which might be new, the place bigger crowds have gathered. One method he practices is to gradual every little thing down by having a look at his 5 senses and what he’s experiencing.

“It’s nearly like when proper after the capturing, once I did have a panic assault, or like nervousness, I felt like I used to be again within the second, and nothing would, may, calm me down,” Keegan mentioned. “I’d simply be freaking out, like, nonstop shaking and whatnot. After which I’m, I sort of needed to understand the place I used to be and that I used to be utterly OK.”

An open thoughts

The expertise on the Cove was a mixture of day by day work on his psychological well being and loads of downtime when he performed guitar, constructed LEGO fashions and performed playing cards. He had about two hours of schoolwork a day. He additionally made a buddy there.

Each morning, Keegan mentioned the Serenity Prayer. It was one thing his dad taught him at residence earlier than coming to the Cove.

Weekends had been open for the boys on the Cove, for outings like paintball, go-karting and wakeboarding. Keegan’s first strive at wakeboarding was in West Palm Seaside close to the therapy middle with a bunch of sweet sixteen boys from the Cove. He fell flat on his face off the dock throughout his first try. On the third strive, he was capable of stand up, keep up and make his manner across the loop, even hitting the bounce ramp a number of instances.

The boys had no instructor. You needed to attempt to determine it out by yourself, Keegan mentioned.

Meghan and Chad would get time with Keegan on the weekends and will take him off-site for a number of hours. Keegan at all times requested to go wakeboarding. He ended up at Sharkwake Park in West Palm Seaside, owned by Greg Norman Jr., son of the famend professional golfer.

“After which once I went, we had a totally open park as a result of it was in the midst of a faculty day, no one was coming, and I just about bought like a personal lesson,” Keegan mentioned. “The proprietor of the park, Greg Norman Jr., he ended up like giving me these full non-public classes and instructing me the best way to journey and driving doubles with me.”

Balancing the world

In March 2024, Keegan returned to Clermont after 90 days of day therapy. His therapists advisable he go residence and never proceed inpatient remedy, Meghan mentioned.

“He was prepared,” she mentioned.

His first day again, Keegan knew he wanted one thing to do — instantly. He recalled a waterpark outdoors Orlando for wakeboarding and drove there from residence, about 45 minutes. He hopped on a wakeboard and began circling the lake on the cable system.

Over the following few weeks, Keegan started to see pals once more; neighborhood children came visiting. On April 5, 2024, Keegan determined to enterprise out with pals to an occasion referred to as First Fridays in Clermont, with meals vehicles and quite a lot of different youngsters. It was one of many first moments he was again in a big crowd. He mentioned he was prepared.

“There’s only a ton of individuals and plenty of stuff occurring,” mentioned Keegan of the night.

Sadly, violence struck on the occasion. A battle broke out, and a teenage woman stabbed one other woman within the neck whereas he was there. Keegan mentioned the incident rattled him for some time, however he reminded himself that incidents occur wherever. He can not management that. He can management how he reacts.

One other unsettling incident adopted. On Oct. 31, 2024, in downtown Orlando, he was at a nightclub with pals. By midnight, he determined to depart and referred to as his mother on the way in which residence. A capturing occurred outdoors the identical membership about half-hour after he had left, he discovered later.

“It’s identical to a continuing reminder that, like, that stuff can occur wherever, and it’s inside the world, so I sort of must do my finest to keep away from it the very best I can,” Keegan mentioned. “But when I attempt to keep away from it on a regular basis, then I’m simply held captive in my home. So it’s sort of like a pleasant steadiness. I’ve bought to determine.”

On the Orlando Watersports Advanced, the place he practices, Keegan bought a job final summer time. The proprietor requested him to work as a camp counselor instructing children the best way to wakeboard. He ended up loving the job, and shortly his brother, Bentley, joined him for wakeboarding outings.

Final summer time, Keegan had some choices to make about returning to high school. He was 17 years outdated and had credit from two years at Oxford Excessive Faculty, from the non secular faculty and from on-line lessons he took whereas in rehab.

He was approaching his senior yr.

He needed to graduate and end highschool — however didn’t wish to attend in particular person. Attending faculty on-line was the one path he may see. And the one folks he needed to expertise that milestone with had been in Michigan, particularly at Oxford Excessive Faculty.

Keegan instructed his mother and father he needed to stroll the stage and graduate along with his childhood pals in Oxford. That meant reenrolling in Oxford Neighborhood Faculties. The district helped the household reenroll Keegan in August and set him on a path to graduate.

“Being enrolled again at Oxford meant that I used to be capable of stroll the stage with my pals, like I just about grew up with these folks,” Keegan mentioned in March.

Chad and Meghan say they had been stunned however supportive. At residence in Clermont, Keegan took lessons on-line as an Oxford scholar and labored towards an Oxford highschool diploma on an individualized training plan that provides college students flexibility within the programs they take.

Whereas he attending on-line lessons at Oxford Excessive, Keegan began reconnecting with neighborhood children in Florida and making new pals wakeboarding. He started to attend live shows, go to bounce golf equipment and to the seashore.

That included attending a Homecoming dance with a date and a big group of native pals who attend an area highschool. The children, wearing tuxedos and stilettos, got here to the Gregorys’ home, the place they took photographs and left collectively as a bunch.

In lower than an hour, Keegan referred to as Meghan and mentioned he was coming residence — too many individuals, too loud, an excessive amount of.

Going ‘residence’

Keegan visited Oxford in late December 2024 to see pals and ski. He videotaped deer shifting round north Oakland County, the place he skied along with his pals from Oxford Excessive. He remembered how a lot he missed this a part of Michigan: snow and deer.

By January, he had taken sufficient on-line programs to build up the mandatory credit to graduate with a Michigan highschool diploma. By February, he realized he may graduate with Oxford’s class of 2025 on Might 15 at Pine Knob.

Keegan says he appears to be like ahead to strolling the stage along with his classmates, the identical children he has recognized since kindergarten, the identical 10 boys he has texted from Florida and visited in Michigan for winter ski journeys.

“Going residence feels superb as a result of once I see the those who I do know have additionally gone by way of this, and I haven’t been capable of discuss to them or see how they’ve been doing in a very long time, to see what they’re doing … is superb. They’re doing nice,” Keegan mentioned. “They’re my finest pals. I like them.”

In the meantime, in Florida, Keegan wakeboards each day, whether or not it’s for work, observe or instructing Bentley some new tips and filming him with a GoPro.

Chad says wakeboarding has grow to be drugs for his son.

“He’ll inform you … wakeboarding is unbelievable, however he additionally identifies it as nearly an dependancy,” Chad mentioned. “Like he is aware of when he has not completed it sufficient, or when he’s having a foul day, and he’s like ‘I simply wish to go wakeboard,’ like he is aware of it’s a crutch.”

When he’s not on the wakeboard park, he’s residence in Clermont speaking along with his mom and siblings within the kitchen, asking to borrow a sweatshirt from his sister, enjoying with the smallest household canine, who likes to lie in Keegan’s arms like a child. Keegan and Chad play pickleball collectively some nights, horse across the pool within the clubhouse or go to the films.

After 18 months in Florida, Meghan says the household now not has the fixed reminders of the assault, from the “Oxford Sturdy” indicators to the unhappy appears to be like within the grocery retailer. They don’t must drive by the highschool and take into consideration what occurred inside.

Chad and Meghan have been married for 19 years. Every mother or father has dealt with the assault and life after in numerous methods. Chad dives into work, is on the street each week and takes care of household wants when he’s residence — however has declined in search of discuss remedy for himself. He suffered a coronary heart assault in August at age of 46.

Meghan took up a therapeutic doodling methodology referred to as Zentangle in Michigan because the prison circumstances unfolded in Oakland County courtrooms and framed her work within the hallway of the household’s Florida residence at Chad’s suggestion. She nonetheless talks to her Oxford pals each week and typically listens to Oxford faculty board conferences on-line, the place her pals in Oxford are nonetheless advocating for a protected setting for college kids.

Many Oxford households, just like the Gregorys, are nonetheless looking for the reality and transparency about who’s chargeable for the capturing and what unfolded that horrific day within the faculty.

“I have to be completed asking, as a result of clearly nobody desires to inform me. I have to let the attorneys do their job and simply cease taking place that gap as a result of it hurts each time,” Meghan mentioned of pending litigation.

Future therapist

This fall, Keegan desires to attend the College of Central Florida east of Orlando and examine psychology to grow to be a therapist and assist others going by way of trauma and PTSD. He desires to assist others perceive what has occurred to them after which transfer previous it, like he has.

“I believe it actually got here once I was within the therapy middle, as a result of that was, like, life-changing to me, like the way in which that these therapists had been with all these folks and attempting to assist each single one among us by way of right here,” Keegan mentioned.

“And so they had been so calm-minded concerning the conditions and so mature about it, and with the ability to like assess every little thing, no downside,” he mentioned. “Even once we had been in group settings and like, someone would act out or one thing would occur, they had been capable of like assess the state of affairs and calm it down and … I like that.”

Keegan is aware of his psychological well being work just isn’t over. He may have a set off once more, and he’s more likely to proceed remedy. In April, he returned to therapy. That very same month, a capturing at Florida State College killed two folks and injured 5. That campus is 236 miles away, however nonetheless near Clermont. Chad usually visits Florida State for enterprise.

“There’s at all times going to be one thing that might occur. So I don’t suppose it’ll ever be completed,” Keegan mentioned.

The Gregorys say Keegan will want emotional assist going ahead, with commencement and grownup life on the horizon. Life needs to be one step at a time for him. His sisters have plans for school.

This summer time, Keegan will work once more on the waterpark, however he desires to concentrate on changing into an expert, discovering a sponsor and competing in wakeboarding occasions around the globe, together with one in London. He says he feels peaceable once more in his life, largely whereas wakeboarding. He can keep away from most drama. He can’t recall the final time he had a panic assault.

Whereas Keegan struggles with survivor’s guilt, he makes use of the Serenity Prayer with its message of grace, resilience and self-awareness to information him by way of the challenges of navigating life after a faculty assault.

“I imply it nonetheless sucks each time it comes up, as a result of I’m alive and he isn’t,” mentioned Keegan, referring to Justin Shilling. “Really, the Serenity Prayer, it has a bit on (being) capable of settle for the issues I can not change, or God grant me the serenity to have the ability to settle for the issues I can not change. And I’ve sort of lived by that.”

Initially Revealed: Might 8, 2025 at 11:50 AM EDT