OCEAN COUNTY – Nashville, TN. Denver, CO. East Lansing, MI. Chicago, IL. St. Louis, MI. Uvalde, Texas. What do all of those places have in common? There has been a school shooting in each.
From the start of the year, 19 school shooting-related incidents have occurred. The tragic reality is not just that school shootings happen, but it also impacts the mental health of every student, teacher, and staff member – even if they are indirectly affected.
While thankfully none of the schools here in Ocean County have found themselves on that list, students attending our schools also can feel as if they were directly in the crossfire.
“We are seeing that our students in New Jersey are having reactions as if they are experiencing the shootings,” said Maureen Brogan, Traumatic Loss Coalition Program Manager at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care.
Brogan used the tragically life-changing event of the attacks on September 11, 2001 as an example of how a person does not have to be immediately involved in order to have a mental reaction.
But what negative effects are directly derived from those mental reactions?
Terri Dawe, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) Assistant Clinical Director at Calm and Sense Therapy, considers the most disturbing effects of school shootings are feelings of ongoing danger that spread through schools. She states that the climate and sense of community in schools have been profoundly damaged.
“Where children once found schools to be a safe haven, they are now ‘unsafe’ often leading to hypervigilance, anxiety, depression, and vicarious trauma responses,” she said.
The power of media also plays an important role here as well. The constant exposure to media and detailed coverage of the shootings can be a trigger to the mental health-harming symptoms mentioned by Dawe.
For students like Brianna, a senior from Toms River High School South, while unsurprising to her, the news of another school shooting leave her angry and overwhelmed.
That media exposure, according to Brogan, is also adding a sense of hopelessness to the anxiety of students that further contributes to them losing their sense of control.
In order to combat that, Dawe shares the idea of parents and teachers encouraging “news breaks” to their kids and students.
“It is important to limit the time spent watching TV or staying connected online because constant exposure may heighten their anxiety and fears,” she said.
In addition to the constant media exposure, here in Ocean County, multiple schools have been subject to a number of fake active shooter treats. High School South was one of them. Those threats have led to lockdowns, evacuations, and missing school days, all negatively impacting Brianna and her fellow classmates.
“I always feel an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety,” said Brianna, commenting on the recent active shooter threats on social media.
Brianna, who had grown angry and exhausted over the topic of school shootings, found that educating others on the severity of the topic of active shooters has helped her cope, even though she finds it hard to stay strong when there is not much done about the number of school shootings.
When it is too late, and the exposure has done damage to the mental health of the student, it is time to start asking the question: What should that person do in order to receive help?
According to Brogan, once a student reaches that point they should start asking themselves who are the people that they can go to and ask for some support? For her, asking for help when a person is in need is a sign of bravery.
“Asking for help is actually a strength and not a weakness,” said Brogan. “By sending the message that even the strongest people, the smartest people also need help at some point of their lives… we want to send this message of help-seeking behavior.”
She also states that adults should also be reaching out and willing to offer support to children and adolescents that need help.
Often their parents are the closest adults in their lives, but unfortunately , some parents don’t find the value in mental health. In that case, Dawe suggests that students should turn to their school counselors to ask for help, or even a trusted coach or mentor for support.
Parents should be mindful when addressing concerns about their children’s safety, she said. Parents should not downplay the fears of their kids because that might lead to a shutdown of communication.
“It is not appropriate to tell the child that they will never experience a school shooting because we do not know that,” she said. “At the same time, we want to help them to feel safe enough so that they do not become fearful of going to school.”
Schools can and should be able to offer support for students, she said.
“Schools need to provide psychoeducation on the vicarious impact school shootings have on the mental health of its student body,” said Dawe. “De-stigmatize mental health by validating (that) having fear/anxiety are natural responses to traumatic events even if (they are) not directly involved.”
For Brianna, ready access to mental health resources in schools for students and their families and the financial support needed to obtain those resources would be the best course of action that schools can take.
Constant exposure to school shootings can potentially lead to dangerous tendencies. According to Brogan, instead of developing depression and anxiety, some students will just become numb.
She said that with some of the school shooters, the theme of disconnectedness is present. Whenever people might not have a sense of belonging and they feel like they have been marginalized, that’s when they might have a desire for revenge or notoriety.
They might think: “If no one is paying attention to me then I will make sure that everyone is paying attention to me,” Brogan said.
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