One day after a shooting at Evergreen High School that left three injured and a shooter dead, parents across the Metro region are grappling with a collective trauma over school shootings, leaving them to confront their darkest fears about the safety of their own children.
In interviews and exchanges with dozens of parents of school children, there is a pervasive sense of fear, grief and anger. Parents describe a constant, low-level anxiety that permeates their lives every day and they describe how an ordinary task like sending their child to school feels like a significant risk as they worry it may be the last time they see their child.
Many describe feeling numb—partly because they feel powerless to change a society rife with gun violence—but also as a survival mechanism to get through the day. Many are saddened that their children cannot live a normal childhood like they did, while others experienced gun violence at school as teachers or even as a student during the Columbine shooting.
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