'Not in Our School'

As the media “move on” from the tragedy in Chardon, the students and residents are left to metabolize the trauma of the school shooting.

This may take some people the rest of their lives.

Recovery from psychological trauma varies greatly depending on the resources and support available to victims and others involved in (or responding to) the crisis. In the case of the Chardon community, mental health services are being provided by agencies like Beech Brook and other crisis responders. Such services are critical to slowing the damage done by the trauma.

Those of us more peripheral to the tragedy may feel shocked or simply numb to the events. Some of us mourn because we see in the faces of those who have died, our own face, or the face of a loved one. When horrors like this unfold in suburban or rural areas, the media seem to play up statements made by stunned witnesses that “things like that don’t happen here – not in our school; not in our community.” We shudder at the realization that things like this can happen anywhere: in our schools, in our community.

Working in Cleveland I know that media attention and mental health services are not always available to victims of trauma. In the past year 13 Cleveland Metropolitan School students have been victims of homicides, but there is no sustained media coverage of the stories. Last year, there were 30 homicides involving people under age 25 in Cleveland. So far in 2012 a 10-year-old was accidently shot and killed by his 13-year-old brother; a 15-year-old was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting; an 11-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet while watching TV with her mother; a 16-year-old was shot and killed at a party and an 18-year-old was shot and killed in front of an elementary school. In addition John Marshall High School was closed January 17th because a dead body was discovered outside its doors.

Mental health professionals work to bring services to the families and friends of these victims, but it is a financial and existential challenge. Sustained media coverage could provoke outrage at the senseless loss of life and the outrage might help marshal resources.

Perhaps the key challenge is a psychological one. It is to see our own face in the stolen lives and the mourning families, regardless of what neighborhood the tragedy occurs in. If, as fellow travelers on life’s journey, our identity transcends demography, the issue won’t be that these things shouldn’t happen in our school; in our community. The issue will be that they shouldn’t happen in any school; in any community.