Talking to Children and Teens After a School Shooting

Sheila Rauch, PhD, ABPP

Sheila A.M. Rauch, Ph.D., ABPP, led design and now serves as Deputy Director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program and Director of Mental Health Research and Program Evaluation at the VA Atlanta Healthcare System. Dr. Rauch has been developing programs, conducting research and providing PTSD and Anxiety Disorders treatment for over 20 years. Her research focuses on examination of mechanisms involved in the development and treatment of PTSD and improving access to effective interventions. She has led several PTSD treatment outcome and mechanisms trials funded through VA/DOD and other sources and has been training providers in PTSD treatment since 2000 including working with a team to establish a PTSD training network in Japan following the triple disaster in 2011. She has published scholarly articles, chapters, and books on anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) focusing on neurobiology and factors involved in the development, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety disorders, psychosocial factors in medical settings, and the relation between physical health and anxiety. She is an author of the second edition of the Prolonged Exposure manual and patient workbook as well as the PE for Intensive outpatient programs manuals. Dr. Rauch has been involved in the modification and adaptation of proven psychotherapeutic interventions for anxiety disorders for various populations and settings, including primary care. She is a fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy (ABCT), was granted membership in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and served as a member of the ADAA Board of Directors.

Learn more about Dr. Rauch

June 22, 2022

Talking to Children and Teens After a School Shooting

Talking to kids about violent events Sheila Rauch

I cannot put into words how disappointed I am that I am updating my 2018 blog written in the aftermath of a mass shooting. I hope that our communities can unite to bring about effective change to stop these senseless and avoidable incidents. With the deluge of information on these events, it is highly likely that your children, preteens, and teens have heard a lot about these shootings and may have even seen some of the highly graphic video coverage of them and the aftermath. The key message for parents to convey after exposure to any type of trauma or violence is to ensure that your child feels safe and loved.

Give them an open invitation to talk with you about these incidents. If your child has seen coverage of such an event, make sure you talk with them about what they think about it and how they think it impacts their life and the world around them. Such discussion should fit the developmental level of the child using the child’s words and understanding as much as possible.

Make sure the child has a chance to feel the strong emotions that may come up in response this shooting. Let them know that most people are upset by this type of event and feeling angry and scare and sad is normal when a shooting occurs.

Normalize the reactions the child may be having. Provide direction that in this case, viewing video coverage of what happened may not be helpful and that they should talk with you if they see something disturbing online.

Let them know that the feelings they may have will most likely reduce over time but if they are not getting better with time there are good resources for people who can help. Effective treatment is available.

As much as parents can provide a clear sense of safety for their children this will help to reduce the impact of the event. Consider talking about what they think happened, how they feel about what happened, and what they think needs to happen now to prevent this from happening again including whether they may want to be involved in social and political action.