With a lot protection of final week’s grisly faculty taking pictures in Parkland, Fla., college students, dad and mom and others are struggling to manage.
Christine Sylvest, a toddler psychologist in Rockville, Md., has a singular perspective. She grew up in Coral Springs, Fla., and attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the positioning of the taking pictures that left 17 individuals useless. She moved along with her household to Ashburn, Va., earlier than her senior 12 months in 1995.
“For me, this was my high school,” she mentioned in an interview with Kaiser Health News on Wednesday. “I can image being in that hallway, and I can only imagine the horror.”
Sylvest talked about how the youngsters at Stoneman Douglas and elsewhere can work by their emotions and the way dad and mom and educators ought to reply. Her feedback have been edited for size and readability.
Q: We’ve seen college students at Stoneman Douglas and others across the nation march in protests. Is this therapeutic for them?
Yes, completely. It is mostly a wholesome approach for these teenagers who’ve been traumatized to do one thing with the preliminary response of anger and disbelief and shock. And this can be a approach for different teenagers to additionally take care of their emotions of anger and hopelessness.
Maryland youngster psychologist Christine Sylvest, who spent three years as a scholar at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., says, “For me this was my high school. I can image being in that hallway and I can imagine the horror.” (Aiste Ray/Bee Me Photo)
Q: How can dad and mom assist their teenage kids take care of their emotions following the taking pictures?
Parents want to not be afraid to broach the topic with their children and to ask them what they’ve seen about it. Kids have seen plenty of info in conventional and social media in regards to the taking pictures. Parents want to only hear after which validate their youngster’s feeling by telling them that it’s comprehensible to really feel anger, concern and anxiousness.
Q: What ought to dad and mom inform children who’re fearful about going to high school?
Parents want to emphasise that faculties are literally fairly secure locations. The faculty taking pictures is getting plenty of protection as a result of it occurs so hardly ever. Emphasize the precise issues that their youngster’s faculty does to maintain them secure, reminiscent of fireplace or intruder drills. And inform them that in the event that they see one thing [suspicious], they’ll inform a instructor, administrator or steerage counselor. You can inform children that something is feasible, however few issues like this assault are possible. Give your youngster concrete details about what their faculty is doing to maintain them secure.
Q: What are the long-term implications for the psychological well being and well-being for the children at Stoneman Douglas?
There are issues about them growing post-traumatic stress dysfunction signs. Not everybody who went by it would, however some could have signs. This consists of nightmares and flashbacks and intrusively reliving parts of the trauma. Such issues as fireplace alarms or loud noises can set off reminders of gunshots. Processing this expertise is extra of a marathon for some individuals, and it completely may take neighborhood and household help and remedy.
Q: Are the youngsters in Parkland, a comparatively upscale neighborhood, affected otherwise from the taking pictures than teenagers rising up in Chicago or different locations the place they could be nearer to gun violence?
Other areas of the nation the place gun violence is extra widespread and the place kids have extra expertise with it in some methods could make this occasion much more traumatizing for them to witness. Kids who haven’t been by a trauma earlier than and usually don’t concern for his or her security — these are protecting components. So in that neighborhood sense, children in Parkland are extra shielded from growing signs of trauma than children who aren’t in secure areas.
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Q: How can dad and mom and faculties assist teenagers in Parkland attempt to get better?
Routines are essential to assist children really feel regular, nevertheless it’s vital to honor how children need to take care of their emotions, and something inside purpose must be supported. It is vital that children get again to high school, however it might be a person factor when children are prepared. At Stoneman Douglas, academics and directors are actually going to have to concentrate to the emotional standing of children and ease them again in. No child can study when their emotions are in the best way.
Q: Having gone to high school at Stoneman, you’ve got an in depth connection to the taking pictures. Can you speak about that?
I don’t have household down there anymore. So, for me personally, my recollections start in that top faculty. I simply understand it’s affected the entire neighborhood.
Any connection now we have to one thing that’s taking place places us within the footwear of the victims. Anytime you’ve got a path to empathy — whether or not it’s being a guardian or a highschool child or a band guardian or a child within the junior ROTC — has a strong perspective that may make this stuff extra upsetting, extra traumatic and trigger extra grief and disappointment. That is totally regular to really feel, and human. And it may be used as a option to not solely deepen your understanding and caring for different individuals, however you need to use that nearer connection to higher discuss to your children or spur you to motion reminiscent of contributing to a victims’ fund or make sure that your children’ faculty has an intruder drill.
KHN’s protection of kids’s well being care points is supported partially by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Phil Galewitz: pgalewitz@kff.org”>pgalewitz@kff.org, @philgalewitz
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