POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — The trauma associated with school violence is very real, not only for students but also for their parents.
At the Cobb County School Safety City Office, our mental health support team is ready to provide resources.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michelle Newell It was McEachern High School, which had been the site of a mass shooting since early February, where a shootout was planned at City Hall.
McEachern High School's Mental Health Support Team provided self-help guides and other resources to students and parents visiting City Hall.
This event is a direct result of the wishes of students and parents, as multiple shootings have left parents, students, and school staff on edge.
An emergency call about a school shooting is a call that no parent wants to receive.
Laura Adesanyi, a parent of a student at McEachern High School, said: channel 2 action news Even weeks after the incident, she spoke about her concerns about school safety.
“I texted him and told him I was anxious and scared and would come get him,” Adesanyi said.
Her son has attention deficit disorder and struggles with anxiety, she told Newell. He was on campus when the fight and shooting broke out in the parking lot.
After a few weeks, he became accustomed to virtual learning.
“He doesn't feel safe to go back to school,” Adesanyi said.
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For others in Cobb, acknowledging fear and trauma is part of the process of feeling safer and healing.
“I think it's really important to acknowledge trauma,” said Eileen Burton, executive director of the Cobb Collaborative. She added, “Healing looks different for everyone and we must respect that.”
Barton's team was at McEachern High School's Safety Town Hall Thursday night providing mental health support to students and parents.
“We need to acknowledge their experience and learn the language. We know this is hard. Now this is hard, so let's talk about it,” Barton said.
Burton said her team is ready to give students and parents what they need to begin addressing the trauma they are experiencing.
“If insurance is an issue, we can certainly direct them to community-based resources, such as mental health providers who operate on a sliding scale,” Burton said.
For Adesani, the healing process looks different because of what she said. channel 2 action news She and her son experienced the day of the shooting.
Mr. Adesanyi told Mr. Newell that he withdrew his son from the school due to safety concerns. She said it had a lot to do with the difficulties she experienced in reuniting with him after the shooting at McEachern High School.
She said she was not reunited with her son until nearly 1 a.m. the next day because the Cobb County School District did not know his whereabouts. She also filed a missing person report with the police.
“He wasn't found until almost the next day,” Adesanyi said. “They said they searched the campus and couldn't find him even after looking at everything that was going on. There was nothing they could do.”
Adesanyi said she first realized something was wrong when her son wouldn't get off the school bus. When she was told by the school district to pick up her son at the bus stop instead of at the integration center, she drove to school, she says.
After filing a missing person report with police, Adesani said she posted a photo of her son on social media because it didn't help much. A few hours later, someone on the Next Door app found her son.
“It was very traumatic,” Adesanyi said. “He doesn't feel safe going back to school, but at the same time he misses being around people so it's unfair that he can't go to his own school. I don't think there are enough measures in place. I don't think so. Some gates have been closed because of things like this, but the campus is very open.”
Newell asked Cobb County School District officials what has changed since the shooting. They said, “We cannot discuss specific safety measures in any school to keep our children safe. We can simply say: With police officers across the county and the investments we have made in our schools, , students are kept as safe as possible.”
Meanwhile, the School Safety Town Hall is underway and tonight's main theme will be mental health and helping students and parents navigate this issue.
We'll talk more about this topic tonight on WSB at 11pm after the town hall.
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