FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OCALA, FL -10/27/25 Today, our hearts are shattered. Our state is draped in a profound and preventable sadness. On a morning that should have been filled with the simple, hopeful routine of a school day, a family was torn apart, a community was broken, and a young life of limitless potential was extinguished.
Shannon Rushing, an 18-year-old senior at Forest High School, was killed this morning while simply walking to her bus stop. She was on the cusp of everything, graduation, college, a future she had only begun to build. It was a journey she had likely made hundreds of times before, a path that should have been safe.
Today, it was not.
As the Florida State Spokesman for the Protect Our Children Project, I stand before you not with policy points or statistics, but with a heart full of hurt and a voice trembling with frustration. We are tired of the press conferences. We are tired of the “thoughts and prayers” that are not followed by action. We are tired of writing these releases.
We feel the family’s grief as our own, because in a very real sense, Shannon was one of our own. She was a child of Florida, and we, as a community and as a state, failed to protect her.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of a systemic failure to prioritize the lives of our most vulnerable road users, our children. We have a responsibility to ensure that every child can walk to their bus stop, to school, to their friend’s house, without fearing for their life. That is a bare minimum. And so, we are forced to ask the question that haunts every parent who kisses their child goodbye in the morning:
Who is responsible for creating a safe route for Shannon?
Who is responsible for ensuring that the crosswalks are visible, the sidewalks are present, the speed limits are enforced, and the drivers are attentive?
We are not pointing fingers at one individual, but at a collective failure. It is a failure of infrastructure that prioritizes speed over safety. It is a failure of awareness that allows drivers to be distracted.
