Trauma from a school shooting like Mount Horeb's can hurt for a long time, here's how to cope

MOUNT HOREB – Mount Horeb residents never thought a school shooting could happen in their community. Now that it has, mental health providers say it's important to keep talking about it.

No one, apart from the active shooter, was physically harmed, but the psychological toll may have lasting effects on the tight-knit community. The scene at Life Church, which was the designated reunification center for the intermediate school, grades 3 to 5, may lodge itself as a hard memory in the minds of many.

Police walked with two golden retriever therapy dogs to comfort anxious parents; others distributed bottles of water. The times varied, but the five Mount Horeb Area School District schools were on full lockdown for hours, affecting 2,500 children, some well into the evening.

Mitigating the impact of trauma is top of mind for Mount Horeb Area School District Superintendent Steve Salerno, who offered support services via Facebook on Thursday. These included age-appropriate guidance for talking with children, in-person social supports and resources for families.

"Our community has experienced a collective crisis and together we will provide support and work toward recovery. As a parent or caregiver, you have a powerful opportunity to support your child," Salerno wrote.

The rupture of safety is common in a school shooting's aftermath, according to the National Traumatic Stress Network, one that parents and caregivers are now tasked with mending.

Salerno's mention of the collective impact, however, also points to the parents and caregivers themselves, who must forge ahead and lead by example, even as they feel their home is "no longer safe," as one Mount Horeb parent, Melissa Alvarado, told a Journal Sentinel reporter Wednesday.

The incident came less than a month after the Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health released a fact sheet on the traumatic effects of school shootings on youth mental health, which, among other tips, emphasized the need for more safe gun storage laws in the state.

Linda Hall, director of the Office of Children's Mental Health director, acknowledged the universality of the community's pain and worry.

"We know that when there's a school shooting, everybody is affected," Hall said. "It's the children, it's the teachers, it's the whole community. And there will be healing that needs to happen for everybody."

Holding space for conversations is vital, children's mental health experts say

Children and Mount Horeb staff heard gunshots Wednesday morning and quickly barricaded themselves in classrooms, where they would remain for many long, fraught hours. It's a memory that will likely stay with them for a long time, Hall said.

"That's going to part of the trauma these kids are really going to have to work through," Hall said. "We know these kinds of traumas get held in our bodies. They have a physical manifestation."

Research shows that traumatic experiences can shift the physical makeup of our brains, said Shanda Wells, behavioral health manager for Behavioral Health in Primary Care at UW Health. When we encounter life-threatening events, it can change how we react to other things, which makes processing those experiences all the more vital.

Processing the event, Wells clarified, is about finding someone you trust to talk through what you went through, how you felt in that period and how you feel talking about it now.

"It seems kind of simple, but it's actually really important when something traumatic happens, to be able to tell the story again, and again, and again," Wells said. "And that's universal: kids, adults, we all need to process it."

Hall recommends parents, caregivers and educators be patient with Mount Horeb students, who may be more prone to distraction for a period of time in a way that affects their ability to perform household chores, school work, and other tasks.

It's also vital that parents, caregivers and educators give themselves time and space to process. For parents, that means ensuring that everyone in the family is eating healthy food, sleeping well, and getting outside for play and exercise.

Going outside can also help limit media exposure, especially when it comes to watching and re-watching footage of the incident.

Stages of a traumatic incident and how to help children cope

Wells described three distinct stages in the aftermath of a traumatic event. There's the initial reaction and shock, the small period of traumatic growth, in which the community comes together, and then there's what comes after. This final period, which Wells called the "emotional fallout" period, can be the most difficult period.

"That will be the time when the community needs the most support. When this has fallen out of the news cycle, and people have forgotten and moved on to the next school shooting," Wells said. "That's when folks will need the most help."

People are drawn to come together. Organizations donate funds, food, community services, but eventually, those emotional reserves are tapped, Wells said, and life has to move on. To resume normal times is when the struggle really begins.

Rituals can help, Wells said. Even small things like eating breakfast together as a family can give people a sense of direction and, potentially, open up conversation. It's also important to not forget about what happened and to create rituals to remember and pay tribute to the event.

"This is why things like the Holocaust Museum exist, because they're not just there to educate people. They are, but they're also there to help the people who experienced it, remember it and hold that memory as a community in a helpful way," Wells said.

What is a normal way to cope in the wake of school shootings?

In children, regression is normal following a traumatic event. For older children, they may behave as though they were five years younger. For young children, they may experience more bathroom accidents. In general, sleeping may be fitful. Children and adults alike may find themselves crying out of the blue.

"That's normal and it's OK," said Wells.

It's normal for those behaviors to continue for days and weeks, but prolonged symptoms months afterward may indicate the person has post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. If that's the case, Wells suggests seeing a pediatrician or school-based counselor.

Wells also suggests adults who have persistent issues seek out help. It's also important to find a trusted friend, family member or neighbor who can hold these stories when it feels too much.

"What's important for parents to do for kids, that's also important for parents to have for themselves. And so it's important for them to have someone in their lives who they know will be able to validate them," Wells said.

Sense of belonging is even more important in the aftermath of a school shooting

In times of crisis, it's important to turn back to basics in our schools, Hall said. Creating a sense of belonging also means creating a culture of help-seeking. That gives students the ability and permission to ask for help. Giving students access, for example, to the Speak Up, Speak Out line, can give young people agency to respond to themselves and others in a confidential space.

"If there's something that's concerning them, they can feel free to call the 'Speak Up, Speak Out' line," Hall said. "That can help divert or avoid this kind of situation in the future."

Reckoning with 'ambiguous grief'

The active shooter was killed before he could enter the school, which adds another dimension of violence to the incident. Another aspect that complicates matters is that the perpetrator was also a child.

Wells said it's easy to ignore that fact, because it offers a cleaner narrative, one with clear divisions of good and bad. But that doesn't erase the loss of a life. That conflict is part of a larger phenomenon called ambiguous grief. There's something to grieve, but we really don't know how to grieve the situation.

"That's not something, as a society, we talk about or we deal with openly," Wells said. "There was a definite, realized fear of people's safety and the only one who died was the perpetrator, who was a kid."

Hall echoed the sense that, somewhere along the way, a child was failed.

"I just wonder, what was going on with him? Or what was happening? What are his parents going through?" Hall said. "It leads back so often to that issue of belonging, with somebody being bullied at school, something that was triggering his dissatisfaction and his decision to pick up a gun and do something."

Resources

For people struggling with their mental health in the wake of these incidents, 988 is a 24/7, confidential line that people can call, text or chat.

Additionally, Wells and Hall both recommend the National Traumatic Stress Network's section on school shootings, which offers age-related resource guidelines, assisting caregivers and parents in navigating grief, and more.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Speak Up, Speak Out can also serve as a resource for both students experiencing crisis and reporting suspicious incidents in and around campus. Call  1-800-MY-SUSO-1 or by texting “SUSO” to 738477to speak a trained analyst.

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert. If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Mount Horeb's school shooting will have lasting traumatic effects