In the last couple decades gun violence has become far too common in U.S. schools. Since the attack at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, “more than 187,000 students attending at least 193 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus during school hours,” according to a March article in the Washington Post. “This means that the number of children who have been shaken by gunfire in the places they go to learn exceeds the population of Eugene, Ore., or Fort Lauderdale, Fla.”
As horrifying as that number is, every single school-age child in America knows that he or she might be next, as the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, learned last February when a gunman killed 17 students and staff. Lockdown drills are as common today as duck-and-cover drills were in the 1950s and ’60s in preparation for nuclear attacks. But the fear back then was less tangible and hard for young kids to grasp. Today, the fear of harm is all too real, as the possibility of gun violence seems almost probable. And it is taking its toll on young minds.
[Read: Kids Speak Up About School Shootings.]
There is a long history of scientific evidence, going back to before Columbine, that school shootings are affecting the mental health of children, says Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Columbine was the first secondary school shooting to be studied in-depth. Multiple studies since then have found that children, staff, parents and emergency responders have higher rates of traumatic symptoms with a smaller percentage, usually estimated to be around 30 percent, going on to develop more lasting [post-traumatic stress disorder]. There are also higher rates of anxiety and depression.” These issues are more likely in people with preexisting psychiatric illness, a family history of psychiatric illness or other psychosocial issues at home, he says.
What isn’t known empirically is how the continual exposure to these shootings affects the general student population. The studies that do exist suggest that many kids have lost a sense of safety and security at school, Schlozman says.
Fear Is Worsening
“You don’t have to be where the acute stress occurred to get acute stress reactions or PTSD,” says David J. Miklowitz, director of the Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program at UCLA’s Semel Institute. Think of how we all felt after 9/11. “Nationally, kids are asking more and more if it’s safe to go to school.” Additionally, parents are rightly sharing these feelings, which makes it harder for them to help their kids with these fears, Schlozman says.
These fears appear to be getting worse. “Certainly it has come up more in my practice both among kids and parents,” Schlozman says. There’s also some concern that the lockdown drills themselves are frightening, especially for younger kids, he adds, though that has dissipated as the drills have become more routine — a sad comment in its own right.
[See: 10 of the Biggest Health Threats Facing Your Kids This School Year.]
However, if there is a bright light in all of this tragedy, it is being shined by the students at Parkland. They are showing everyone how best to deal with this fear. Parkland was different than previous shootings, Miklowitz says, because of how those kids responded: “They got active and demanded that the nation take action. One of best things to do after trauma is to give back to the community, which is what these kids have done.”
Indeed, the Parkland students seem to have touched a nerve with many of their peers and have given other students (and parents) a sense of empowerment in the face of their fears. Parents, too, should get involved and talk to their school administrators about any concerns they have, Schlozman says. “A solid bidirectional line of communication is proactive and the most efficient way to head off harm.”
How Parents Can Help
Activism alone certainly isn’t the only way to protect a child’s mental health, especially among younger kids who aren’t ready to take on such a mission. Parents play a significant role in how their kids process these events.
“We learned after 9/11 that kids need to see their parents’ emotional reaction and how they recover normalcy — the process of being upset, then trying to restore order and getting over it,” Miklowitz says. “[Parents] need to model that people do recover.” He advises parents of kids under age 10 or 11 to go beyond just reporting the news of a school shooting. Miklowitz advises that parents should “ask, ‘What did you hear about what happened?’ then sit back and listen, then ask about what they say. At some point, they will want to stop talking about it, and you want to stop as well. They just told you what their dosage is for the day.”
Avoid saying there is nothing to worry about because it won’t match what they are hearing at school — “and also, it’s not true,” Miklowitz says. If your child asks if you are worried, be honest. “Say yes, but there are also ways we are keeping you safe, with school alerts, neighborhood watches, things like that,” he says.
[Read: What Role Does Early Life Stress Play in Depression?]
How can parents know if their child is overly anxious or worried? “The telltale sign is a change or impairment in behavior,” Miklowitz says. They are more withdrawn, they act out, they stay in their room and appear uninterested in things. Schlozman adds that if the child becomes obsessed with the news of school shootings or shows signs of reluctance to attend school due to anxiety, seek professional help — especially for kids who are in close proximity to an actual school shooting. “They are at greater risk, so the threshold for seeking help can be even lower for these children,” he says.
Help may come from a school counselor, local trauma support groups or a pediatric mental health professional. “Therapy can educate kids on what trauma is and emphasize that people recover with support,” he says. “Some therapists use the analogy of a hurt knee. It hurts to stretch it now, but it will feel better in the long run.”
A post on the Clay Center’s blog offers more detailed tips for parents of kids of all ages on “how we can help our children live with confidence and self-assurance in this world, without fear that their everyday life will be filled with imminent danger.” The National Child Traumatic Stress Network also has helpful tip sheets for assessing traumatic stress in kids and helping them deal with it.
One key component of recovery, as the Parkland kids have shown, is giving children the power to fight back. “Build in the idea that they have agency in how quickly they recover,” Miklowitz says. “It is partly up to them.”
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Protecting Kids’ Mental Health With School Shootings on the Rise originally appeared on usnews.com
