USA TODAY International Edition
Obstacles endure for students who survive terror
Going back to scene can be traumatic experience
“He’s never going to graduate high school like I get to graduate,” Tyra Hemats said of her friend Joaquin Oliver, 17, killed Wednesday in the Parkland, Fla., shooting.
“I was too scared to go to sleep without (YouTube). I don’t know how I’ll ever go back inside my school again,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Jordan Campbell told The New Yorker.
“On days like these I am not OK. I am far from it,” wrote Hollan T. Holm, a survivor of a 1997 school shooting.
Survivor guilt, nightmares, intrusive thoughts and a lasting impact are just some of the effects of trauma.
Students who survive a mass shooting are considered the lucky ones, and yet “they have a long recovery ahead of them,” said psychologist Romeo Vitelli, author of The Everything Guide to Overcoming PTSD.
Seventeen people were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday. When it reopens, it will be unsurprising if students wish to avoid the scene of the tragedy.
“They expect that school is a safe place, and that safety is violated,” Vitelli said.
The shooting activated students’
“fight, flight, freeze” response, said trauma therapist Susanne Babbel.
“Those children are traumatized . ... Returning to school might trigger their trauma in various ways,” Babbel said.
It is too soon to make a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, but minors who develop PTSD display many of the same symptoms as adults, including:
❚ Difficulty sleeping.
❚ Difficulty concentrating. ❚ Being easily startled.
❚ Flashbacks or replaying the memory on a loop.
❚ Strong emotions like fear, anxiety, anger, sadness.
❚ Hyperarousal, or “feeling as though nothing is safe afterward,” said Alissa Jerud, a clinical psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who has treated adolescents and children dealing with PTSD.
Some reactions can be more pronounced in teens, according to behavioral experts:
❚ Irritability.
❚ Aggression.
❚ Risk-taking behavior.
❚ Suicidal ideation.
❚ Substance abuse.
“There’s also a chance for increased absenteeism in school, changes in academic performance due to difficulty concentrating and withdrawal from activities,” Jerud said.
The school system and the South Florida community have mobilized counselors, psychiatrists, religious leaders and even comfort dogs in an attempt to shore up the kids’ emotional and mental health.