Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has been five days since an incident in a parking lot at McKinley High School left a 14-year-old student stabbed multiple times, as well as a 27-year-old school security officer and another 13-year-old student shot. A 17-year-old has since been taken into custody in connection to the incident, while the shooter remains at large in the community.
Although the investigation remains ongoing, McKinley High School is already looking ahead, as the school is moving forward with its re-opening plans, starting with school having students returning to class on Thursday in phases.
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While the school looks at getting students back in the classroom to continue their education for the year, many students of McKinley and other kids in the Buffalo Public School District may not help but think about what transpired this past Wednesday and how safe they are going back to class.
At the time the incident took place at 3:45 p.m. EST, many students were still in the school or on the premises, resulting in many kids being held on lockdown. Some students that were in the school at the time were uncertain whether or not their lives were in danger, as some called their parents in a state of panic before police and other law enforcement officers entered the building to evacuate everyone inside safely.
Despite the incident at McKinley High School being smaller in nature, compared to some other similar incidents in the past at other schools nationwide, the traumatic events that unfolded have, or will likely take its toll on some of the students of McKinley or other schools in the district. It may take time before some students are able to fully recover from what transpired that may have had an affect on their mental well-being.
When there are traumatic events that do take place in schools, or other major locations as such, there typical is a series of events that will unfold, when it comes to helping kids overcome what took place.
"From a school's perspective, it's one, gathering information, trying to convey that information to families and students in a honest way as possible. Then really the first steps are providing safety, comfort and stabilizing the school environment," said Dr. Michael Cummings, Vice Chair of Psychology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine. "We expect kids and their families to have a fairly typical trauma response. Very often early on, there is a lot of, what we call, 'fight of flight' trauma responses, people who experienced these events or around them - racing hearts, insomnia, jitteriness, flashbacks to the events, worries that things may happen again. There's still questions about who's actively involved and who may be in custody and who may not be in custody. That can result in continuing ongoing fears. And then just being aware of what our students may be experiencing over the next days, weeks, months, and provide an environment where we can support them, identify students who are at risk, and have a referral system, where we can both do some work inside the school building, but also have relationships with external groups to refer our students and their families to."
While a number of kids at McKinley were on-hand at the time the event took place this past Wednesday, whether in the parking lot or not even knowing what had transpired, the important thing to remember is other students in other high schools can be just as affected by witnessing this unfold, especially if they may have similar environmental fears at their school.
"It's also the siblings and family members of the students," Dr. Cummings said. "So when we're thinking about how to respond to, let's say, a high school student, that high school student may have a four-year-old sibling or eight-year-old sibling inside the household. So we have to provide family support for how to respond and support those individuals as well, because there's a lot of vicarious trauma responses."
It is certainly hard to predict when any traumatic event may take place in any setting, especially in schools, and what kind of response a person is going to have. While it was good news that last Wednesday's event was not as bad as it could have been, it still doesn't minimize how anyone experienced the incident first-hand, second-hand or through the media.
"Individual responses to trauma have to do with a lot of, what are innate resiliences, what other traumatic events that we've experienced during our lifetime, what kinds of supports we have. There's really no way to compare one versus the other," Dr. Cummings said.
"Schools are families, and the extension of school happens well after walking outside of the four walls. I know this was on the grounds, so still part of school, but it happened to students that people have connections with, that they're friends with. So I think we have to take it for what it is - it was a major traumatic event that's going to have some significant fallout, maybe not for all students but for some, and you need to have a concerted response. And we need to support our parents to be able to respond to their children within the home and equip them with referrals, if that is what is ultimately required to help their kids cope with this event."
After Wednesday's incident, it was of importance for the Buffalo Public School District to counsel kids from not only McKinley High School, but for every school in the district. Any student, parents or family that needed counseling, Buffalo Public Schools offered what they could to talk with them and offer any sort of assurances.
However, it does bring up the issue of trying to balance support for some, while not adding stress to others who may have been not thinking too much about it. Dr. Cummings says it's a delicate balance to try and make it all work.
"I think we have to assume in today's era, I don't know if anyone doesn't know about these things incidentally. I found out about it by one of the news agencies' app popping up on my phone at, probably, the second it was reported. So most kids will know about in relatively quick time," he said. "Their response may be different, but what it really comes down to is you convey that information, and because there's such a media response - we talked about this during COVID a lot - you don't want to overexpose yourself or your children as much as you can to every media story about this. Because for some people, that will be more traumatizing. All the information isn't always there, and then social media, of course, how much is news and how much is opinion is up for debate."
Dr. Cummings believes what schools have to do in these instances is assume everyone is affected by this in some way or another, and create mechanisms for support to try and get back to the business of school, yet, have an environment strong enough to identify those specific students who may be at risk.
"A lot of kids, particularly teens, will isolate and not want to talk about things if it's really affected them. So we have to have safe mechanisms for communication, where we're not forcing the discussion, but at the same time, we're open to allowing kids to come out and speak with whether it's teachers, counselors, parents, in a safe way so that we can help them cope with the current situation and then move on from it," Dr. Cummings said.
So how can students, parents, and families find extra ways of counseling to cope with what may have transpired last Wednesday, or another traumatic event affecting the household?
"We have a couple great services here," Dr. Cummings said. "We have the Spectrum Cares Emergency Services, which is a mobile team for kids that can be reached at (716)-882-HELP. We have crisis services, likewise, mobile for adults: (716)-834-3131. And then the ECMC Help Center is a seven days-a-week walk-in center that focuses on young adults and adults, and they can be reached at (716)-898-1594. They're all resources that are available seven days-a-week, the first two are 24/7. If you're seeing something that you're concerned about and you feel like it's more emergent and it can't wait until Monday morning to call your primary care doctor, please make use of these resources."
You can listen to our entire conversation with Dr. Cummings below:
