Douglas students absent during shooting feel guilt

They were not at school on the day that everything changed.

Students who were absent on Feb. 14, the day Nikolas Cruz killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, face a different set of challenges from their peers who were at school that day.

They may not have to relive the terror of watching bullets pierce classroom windows or hearing SWAT teams banging on locked classroom doors. But they can struggle with feelings of survivor’s guilt and alienation from friends who went through it. And they wonder: What if they had been there? Would they be alive now? Could they have saved someone?

And the ultimate What to do now? question:

About 94 percent of Broward high school students attend classes on a typical day, according to a memo from the school district’s chief academic officer. That means about 200 of the school’s 3,300 students may have been absent on Feb. 14.

But Valentine’s Day this year became an atypical day to be absent.

Stoneman Douglas students who missed school that day “may feel disconnected from their peers, even though they are still part of the school,” said Amanda Weiss, clinical supervisor at the Faulk Center for Counseling in Boca Raton. “They may not feel they are able to get the same support as those who were there. They could experience an internal struggle because they are like outsiders who have to live in both worlds.”