How Isabelle Robinson survived 9/11 with her mum, and now the Florida school shooting

HER mother escaped the 9/11 terror attacks and helped solve a 15-year-old mystery. Now a teenager, Isabelle Robinson reveals how she survived the Florida school shooting and knew the gunman.

EXCLUSIVE

ISABELLE Robinson has always known that evil can come from nowhere and change everything.

Her mother’s lucky escape from the World Trade Centre terror attacks was deeply woven into their family’s story, even before a visit from the past that made world headlines and solved a 15-year-old mystery.

And so, as she huddled in a catering closet with dozens of other teenagers in her Florida high school on Wednesday, waiting more than an hour to be rescued by a SWAT team from a senseless shooting spree, Isabelle found herself to be strangely at ease.

“My mind did go to what had happened with my mum, and I guess I just knew I had to be calm and have faith that we would get through this,” Isabelle, 17, told News Corp Australia.

“Obviously that experience (of 9/11) is not something I really remember because I was so young, but knowing that, I knew I had to have faith that we were going to be OK. There was no point really in not having faith that we were going to get out. I do know my family has been through a lot, so, I guess it seemed like I felt prepared in some way.”

SPECIAL REPORT: Incredible 9/11 reunion after photo was found in the ashes

Jennifer Robinson with her daughter Isabelle at Deerfield Beach near their home in Parkland, Florida. Picture: Nathan Edwards

Former student Nikolas Cruz killed 14 children, a teacher and two coaches on Wednesday afternoon. Police say he confessed to the massacre — one of America’s worst — when they arrested him two hours later, and Florida’s Attorney-General is seeking the death penalty.

Cruz, 19, was clearly troubled and had a long history of disciplinary problems as he moved through the Parkland school system before being expelled, threatening some students and physically attacking others. Five years ago, he threw an apple hard at Isabelle’s back when they were in middle school.

Hector Romero Assistant Public Defender (L) and Melisa McNeill, Public Defender (R) are seen on screen at the first appearance in court for high school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz (C). Picture: AFP

“I didn’t know him as a friend or anything, but I had experiences with him,” Isabelle said, adding that like many students, she “was not surprised” to learn the identity of the shooter.

“He was a violent kid.”

As a baby, Isabelle was photographed in her mother’s arms in a snapshot that her lawyer mother Jennifer kept in her desk, which somehow survived intact in the rubble after the twin towers fell.

Jennifer Robinson with her daughter Isabelle at their home in Parkland, Florida, and the photo of them recovered from the September 11 attacks. Picture: Nathan Edwards

Late on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, News Corp Australia photographer Nathan Edwards, who was on secondment with the New York Post, captured an image of the dusty snapshot — a photo which was featured in the next day’s paper.

The Robinsons tore the page out of the Post, and the photo would go on to serve as a talisman for them to reflect each year on their good fortune, that, but for a last minute decision to take a long weekend away, they would have joined the ranks of those grieving for the 2,977 victims of 9/11.

They tried over the years to find the photographer to thank them, but in the chaos following the attacks, few images were catalogued properly.

For Edwards, the image took on increasing meaning as the years passed and he wondered more and more about the identity of the woman pictured in the rubble, and whether she’d survived. The story of how Edwards eventually tracked the Robinsons down was featured prominently in our newspapers and followed up by outlets including the Times of London and the BBC.

WATCH THEIR REUNION BELOW

Yesterday, Jennifer Robinson said she felt blessed her family had again escaped a close brush with the worst of humanity.

“But we feel very much for the families that weren’t as fortunate as us, our hearts break for those who were killed,” she said.

Isabelle said that “like any teenager at a public school in America” she had considered the possibility of how she would handle a situation like that which happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last week.

“I have thought about it before,” she said.

“I have looked around my classrooms and thought, like, where would I hide. And when I go to temple, because I teach at my temple, I always think about that, like, where would I hide the kids?”

Jennifer Robinson, her husband Paul and daughters Emma (left) and Isabelle (right). Picture: Facebook

Jennifer was shopping at a nearby mall when she received a text from Isabelle that “made my heart drop into my stomach”. Her younger daughter, Emma, is twelve and attends the middle school next to Isabelle’s.

“It said: ‘Shooter on campus. Possibly a drill? I’m fine. Pull Emma out. Don’t call,” Jennifer said.

“I just started running through the mall. Even though you’re completely helpless, there is nothing you can do because you have no control over anything that is going on.”

Hours later, when the family reunited, they took stock of the damage. Isabelle was relieved when the last of her friends was found safe.

“All of my close friends are OK,” she said.

Nikolas Cruz who killed 17 people at his former high school. Picture: Supplied

“I do know some of the victims who didn’t make it, but I also know people who were really brave, and there is one boy from my class who was shot but he’s doing OK.”

This weekend, she has travelled to Washington for a college tour with her father, Paul. Like many American kids in their final year of high school, she’s trying to decide where to apply to go to school when she graduates — something that until last week seemed like the most important thing in her life.

“A lot of my friends, we have definitely been talking about how this puts it all into perspective, that maybe that decision isn’t the biggest deal in the world,” she said.

Originally published as How Isabelle Robinson survived 9/11 with her mum, and now the Florida school shooting